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The pro-women and children right wingers who back X and ICE

A number of figures on the right are claiming to support women and children while throwing their weight behind Elon Musk’s X and ICE agents

Former Reform, now independent MP Rupert Lowe. Photo: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Reform-turned-independent MP Rupert Lowe has been a firm backer of protecting the nation’s children, particularly over the issue of grooming gangs. In fact, next month hearings begin in his own, crowdfunded inquiry into the issue, after he said Britain had “sacrificed thousands of vulnerable girls on the altar of multiculturalism” , which was “a rotting stain on our country’s history”.

And what did he have to say when the government said it was looking into blocking X over AI-generated sexualised images of children via its Grok AI? “I will fight it in Parliament,” he solemnly informed followers on his favourite social media platform.

The first of his followers to respond was Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the football thug known as Tommy Robinson, who wrote: “We will fight it on the streets”. Yaxley-Lennon, of course, is the man who has led countless protests and marches against immigration on the basis that it is a threat to the nation’s youth, his supporters waving “Save Our Children” banners across the country from Scotland to Epping.

Oddly enough, many of those defending X have a pecuniary interest in doing so. Lowe’s most recent declaration to the House of Commons’s register of members’ interests, filed last month, shows that last year alone he received almost £45,000 from the platform. Nigel Farage registered almost £13,000 and Lee Anderson around £3,500.

Meanwhile, Grok itself suggests that Tommy Robinson earns “between £5,000-£15,000 monthly” just for posting on the platform. Last year, its owner Elon Musk funded Robinson’s defence against terror charges, to the tune of almost £100,000.

The right’s willingness to shift in the wind on the safety of women and girls extends beyond X and children and to women more generally, with those posing as defenders of females over the trans debate bending over to defend ICE officers in the States when one shoots an apparently defenceless woman in the head.

Father Ted creator turned trans bore Graham Linehan sees himself as a defender of women and women’s rights. So what did he have to say when JD Vance hit out at the media’s coverage of the killing, saying “I’ve seen a lot of dishonest coverage from the media during my time in politics but the last 24 hours may have set a new low”? “Bullseye,” wrote Linehan, rather tastelessly.

Former Sun political editor Harry Cole, now hosting a little-watched YouTube channel, meanwhile popped up in the print pages of his old organ to voice his views. Also a vocal ‘defender of women’ in the trans argument, routinely reposting the views of JK Rowling on his X page, surely he would defend the rights of female protestors not to be shot dead?

Not quite. After initially bemoaning that “almost minutes after the incident happened, the debate polarized [sic] down political lines” he quickly, er, polarised down political lines.

Hitting out at Tim Waltz, the Democrat governor of Minnesota, for saying that he was going to put the state’s National Guard on duty to protect citizens against ICE agents, Cole wrote that “the progressive left, they’re activists, they’re already on the streets, campaigning against the government, and this is only going to pour fuel on the fire”. “Those who are saying this is an execution in cold blood – well, the evidence doesn’t quite stack up on that,” he added.

The right is very keen to protect children and women – unless, of course, it doesn’t fit their political argument.

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