Elon Musk puzzles why the UK media just parrots the government, Brexit leader Farage points to groupthink, and the stubborn refusal to accept when they’ve got things wrong.
Reform UK and Brexit leader Nigel Farage admonishes the British Political-Media class for their cosy club mentality as the “war of words” between world’s richest man Elon Musk and the UK government heats up over ever tougher attempts by new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to crack down on the internet.
Musk having rhetorically asked “Why does the UK media, with a few exceptions, just parrot the government?” this week, Mr Farage responded and observed: “it’s dead simple… When everyone gets together with groupthink”.
The prevailing view is open borders at all costs, even if arrivals don’t speak the language or share the culture, and in spite of the clearly detrimental impact on the younger generations who can’t get housing as the population booms, he said.
Mr Farage continued: “You see for them to ever admit — all of them, the Conservative, Labour Parties and mainstream media — to admit they got it wrong would be to go against the world view they have held for decades. They believe they are ‘be kind’, lovely people. And anyone that believes in borders, culture, community, country, are somehow the bad dudes… It is groupthink, it is refusal to accept they’ve got it horribly, horrible wrong as we’ve seen on the streets of our country this week.”
While these words were put directly to Elon Musk, Mr Farage also gave a view on why exactly the owner of X, formerly Twitter, had decided to speak out against the British government now in an interview with London’s TalkTV on Thursday. He said then: “What I think is really interesting is the war of words that Elon Musk has launched against Starmer. You can almost tell that’s a pre-emptive strike.
“He senses that the Labour government, regulators… that things are going to get more difficult. But you know what? Governments that try and ban things, government that try and suppress things, all they do is create new avenues for people to go. And I honestly think that to control the internet, to control that debate, it’s almost impossible.”
Civil unrest manifesting at protests, riots, and clashes between ethnic groups characterised the days following the mass stabbing attack against young children in north-east England last week, allegedly by a migrant-heritage teenager. The police and government left an information void in the early days and hours after the horrendous attack, creating an environment where speculation was allowed to thrive.
Rather than accepting any responsibility for the situation, the new left-wing government of Sir Keir Starmer moved instantly to blame social media platforms, making repeated statements the past ten days warning them to ‘act now’ to take down content the government doesn’t want.
Indeed, this morning the Prime Minister said he would be reviewing UK law to crack down on social media companies this morning. He said, The Guardian reports: “we’re going to have to look more broadly at social media after this disorder… this is not a law-free zone”. As it is, the UK has already arrested people for social media posts these past weeks and the public prosecutor has warned retweeting can be a crime.