HE’S got a name that sounds like a cheap after-shave, but his aroma is starting to seep into the atmosphere of our shores.
Which begs the question: should we be worried about Elon Musk?
It appears to be hard to ignore the richest man in the world.
Someone with a net worth of $400 billion, a place in USA President Donald Trump’s Cabinet and control of one of the world’s busiest social media platforms will probably also have the biggest megaphone in the room.
I can’t quite understand how someone who runs SpaceX, Tesla, The Boring Company and other hi-tech businesses can find the time to express his views on the X platform (Twitter, to old fogeys like me).
If you tune in to X, then there’s barely a minute that goes by without Mr Musk chipping in his views on a wide variety of topics.
Plainly, there is not enough going on his side of the pond, as Mr Musk has now decided to interfere in UK matters – younger members of the family inform me this is a ‘classic disruption technique beloved of the new generation of tech entrepreneurs’.
Mr Musk has managed (among other things) to weaponise the grooming gangs debate in the UK; pleaded with King Charles III to dissolve Parliament and call another General Election; launch personal attacks against various respected MPs, and call for Nigel Farage to be replaced as the leader of the Reform political party.
This column rarely strays into the murky world of politics, but Mr Musk’s social media rants have annoyed me so much that I feel obliged to chip in (even though I’ve resisted the temptation to ‘direct message’ Mr Musk and tell him to keep his nose out of UK matters).
The big fear for many of us here in the UK is that Mr Musk’s activities represent the development of a new right-wing social media alliance between the UK and the US.
A key pillar of such an alliance is to be controversial – often just for the sake of firing up controversy rather than the promotion of rational political arguments.
After all, controversy drives up reaction and the clicks, likes and followers so treasured by people like Mr Musk. (By the way, did I mention that he runs the X social media platform and has a stake in driving up traffic on his site?)
The new right-wing social media alliance between the UK and the US is obviously a complex and evolving phenomenon.
It highlights the power of social media to transcend geographical boundaries and may herald the arrival of new transnational political movements.
We may not like it, but I guess these new social media trends are here to stay.
Some friends of mine have voted with their feet and decided to close their social media accounts on X as they have become alarmed at ‘Toxic Twitter’.
Meta supremo Mark Zuckerberg has said this week that the company will ‘dramatically reduce censorship’ across his Facebook, Instagram and Threads brands, so what are the odds on these platforms following X in becoming toxic?
We’ll have to wait and see . . .
For now, I’ll stay on X – if only to spend some time countering some of the radical and dangerous posts on the platform.
Wish me luck: I think I’ll need it.
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YOUR mission, should you choose to accept it, is to form an argument and debate one of the following topics –
- Reimagining the working week: is the four-day week the answer?
- Should the death penalty be brought back?
- Is the world becoming too much of a dangerous place for children?
- Is it time to reintroduce National Service in the UK?
For someone who struggles between deciding between cereal and toast for breakfast, any one of those topics would be something of a test.
But, it appears, they hold no fears for young teenagers in Llanelli.
They were the topics on the table for contestants in the annual Llanelli Rotary Club Youth Speak public speaking competition.
The competition was the first stage in a national event, the winners going through to an area final in west Wales on January 30 and, potentially, district, regional and UK finals.
For those who don’t know, Rotary is an international service organisation with more than 1.2million members in 34,000 clubs in 200 countries. In the UK and Ireland, there are 53,000 members in 1,850 clubs.
The Youth Speaks idea is a simple one designed to build confidence and teamwork in teenage school pupils.
The Youth Speaks platform recognises that it is becoming increasingly important for young people to present their balanced thoughts and views in a professional and articulate way.
In an age when everything seems to revolve around taps and swipes on mobile phones, it makes a refreshing change to see youngsters stand up and express their views before an audience.
Pupils taking part in the Llanelli final this week represented Bryngwyn, Coedcae and St John Lloyd schools. And they were a credit to their teachers, mums, dads and guardians.
Teams from St John Lloyd Roman Catholic School won both the intermediate and senior categories – and all the individual awards for chair, proposer and opposer of the different motions.
The chair of judges, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Dyfed Lt Col David Mathias, praised all the competitors for the research into their respective topics and the professional way they presented the balanced arguments for and against the different motions.
I’m just glad Lt Col Mathias didn’t call on me to debate any of the topics. I wouldn’t have been able to compete with the talented teenagers of Llanelli!
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