British politics are not Elon Musk’s to toy with | Letters
Your article (Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage and calls for new leader of Reform, 5 January) raises fascinating insights as to how international interests play an ever more direct role in the British political system.Discretion is not assured.What is becoming clear is that the likes of Nigel Farage seem to have dispensed with the illusion that Brexit was about political independence.Instead, the need to comply with far-right US agendas, the infantile inconsistencies of rogue James-Bond-type billionaires, and to accept millions of pounds in overseas income are openly accepted.The positioning of Reform UK’s development in relation to overseas interests is at odds with the earlier rhetoric of national sovereignty.
If ever there were a moment of amnesia in British politics, it is now.Given this focusing on the idiosyncratic turns of overseas business people, perhaps the government can seize the moment and complete an aspect of Brexit’s failed project that did have one moral feature: ensuring that it was the British people who should finance British politics.While Brexit is thought to have failed – thankfully – what would help is confronting the issue of political funding to help sustain British sovereignty.Miguel Martinez Lucio Leeds Elon Musk’s recent interventions into UK politics have been staggering.It was striking to me that he should be calling for a UK public inquiry.
As a media lawyer, I am reminded of the Leveson inquiry, formed in 2011 after the phone-hacking scandal, which investigated the connection between press and politicians.Leveson found “the evidence clearly demonstrates that over the last 30-35 years and probably much longer, the political parties of UK national government and of the UK official opposition, have had or developed too close a relationship with the press in a way that has not been in the public interest”.He found that the connection created a perception of a conflict of interest (in both directions: the responsibility of the press to hold politicians to account, and politicians’ responsibility to hold the press to account on issues such as regulation and media policy).He recommended steps to impose transparency on these relationships.Musk’s role in Donald Trump’s team and his intervention into UK politics makes the discreet kitchen-supper relationships of UK editors and politicians of the early 2000s seem beyond innocent.
But painful lessons were learned when those relationships were exposed,The media landscape has changed dramatically since then and is under new control,We are now witnessing what it looks like when political leadership and media ownership combine on a dramatic scale,In the UK, we must use our experience to oppose Musk’s interventions, irrespective of the political, financial and diplomatic risks that brings,Dominic CrossleyPartner, Payne Hicks Beach Does anyone else share my feeling that we’re all being gaslit? Musk’s criticism of Farage is having the effect of making Farage look like a moderate.
Surely this is their intention.Musk has nothing to lose with this good cop/bad cop ploy, and Farage everything to gain.Or am I giving the self-obsessed billionaire and the sycophantic “politician” too much credit?Matthew Campbell Sheffield Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it.A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
‘Phenomenal’ Zoe Aldcroft named England women’s rugby union captain
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The teenage sprint prodigy Gout Gout has taken the headlines but Australia had an equally promising and even younger prospect at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima last year. A Sydney schoolboy was the youngest medallist at the event, just 15 when he leaped a personal best of 7.80m to win the bronze medal in the long jump, beating boys up to three years older than him.But there is no guarantee Mason McGroder will still be competing in athletics when Brisbane 2032 rolls around. The talented youngster is also in the Sydney Swans Academy and could pursue a career in the AFL
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Wallace and Gromit is a festive TV staple in many a household – but it wasn’t their wrong trousers that scooped the post-Christmas headlines. That honour belonged to Magnus Carlsen, disqualified from a chess tournament in New York for wearing jeans.The world No 1 – who also happens to be the only current chess player most people can name – had balked when he was told to change his attire before his ninth-round match at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. Walking out of the event, Carlsen shrugged that he would “probably head off to somewhere where the weather is a bit nicer”. Instead, he returned three days later after the governing body, Fide, had agreed a more “flexible approach” to its dress code
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The postseason kicks off on Saturday. Our writers pick the dark horses, players to watch and make their tips for the NFL’s championship gameCincinnati Bengals. This is the obvious answer, as it’s a bummer when the team with one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks (Joe Burrow), the receiving triple crown winner (Ja’Marr Chase) and the NFL’s sack leader (Trey Hendrickson) are on the outside looking in. Plus, it would be fun to watch opposing offenses torch the Bengals’ iffy defense. As it is, we’ll have to wait until next season to know whether a defensive overhaul (including the firing of defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo) will bear any dividends
Australian Open draw: Emma Raducanu on early collision course with Swiatek
Emma Raducanu will hope to start the new tennis season strongly as she faces Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 26th seed, in a challenging but winnable first-round match at the Australian Open after being unable to compete in the opening week of the season due to a back injury.Since travelling to Melbourne, Raducanu has trained normally on the tournament grounds and has looked in good shape during her public training sessions. On Tuesday, Raducanu competed against the 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in a practice set on Rod Laver Arena, which she won.Raducanu has been drawn into Iga Swiatek’s section of the singles draw and the pair could face each other in the third round. Swiatek, the No 2 seed, will begin her tournament against the doubles No 1, Katerina Siniakova
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