Musk and the new political playbook
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 January 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elon Musk’s hostility towards the UK government, and Sir Keir Starmer in particular, continues to escalate – prompting concerns he’s been radicalised by his own algorithm. What’s driving the technology billionaire’s fixation with the UK? And are his interventions reframing political discourse – not just in Britain but in other European nations too? Political Fix delves into the X owner’s motivations and examines the impact his actions are having offline as well as online. Host Lucy Fisher is joined by regular panellists Miranda Green and Jim Pickard, plus Westminster correspondent Anna Gross and Washington correspondent Joe Miller who have broken scoops this week on Musk’s intent to meddle in British democracy and his social media influences.
Follow Lucy on Bluesky or X, @lucyfisher.bsky.social, @LOS_Fisher, Jim @pickardje.bsky.social @PickardJE, Miranda @greenmirandahere.bsky.social, @greenmiranda, Anna @annasophiegross, @annasophiegross.bsky.social, Joe @JoeMillerJr, @joemillerjr.bskyb.social
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Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Lulu Smyth. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Original music by Breen Turner and mixed by Simon Panayi. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to political fix from the Financial Times with me, Lucy Fisher. |
| 0:09.2 | There's a new player in UK politics, the tech billionaire Elon Musk. But what's behind his |
| 0:15.3 | sudden fixation on the UK and are his interventions reframing political discourse, not just in Britain, but everywhere. |
| 0:23.0 | With me in the studio to discuss it all are my FT colleagues and political fix regulars. |
| 0:27.6 | Miranda, hi Miranda. |
| 0:29.3 | Hello, Lucy. |
| 0:30.3 | And Jim Picard. |
| 0:31.5 | Hi, Jim. |
| 0:32.6 | Hi, Lucy. |
| 0:33.6 | We also have down the line, the FT's Westminster correspondent Anna Gros, hi Anna. |
| 0:38.6 | Hi, Lucy. |
| 0:39.5 | And the FTs Washington correspondent, Joe Miller. Hello, Joe. |
| 0:42.7 | Hi, Lucy. |
| 0:45.1 | So, obviously, unless you've been living under a rock, you know who Elon Musk is. |
| 0:49.3 | He's the world's richest man. He is heading into Donald Trump's administration in under a fortnight now. But Joe, |
| 0:55.4 | you've covered him a lot. Just give us a tiny bit of background and remind us just how powerful |
| 1:00.7 | he is regarding his corporate interests and his political power. Yeah, you'd have to try really hard |
| 1:06.7 | to avoid him these days, or indeed over the past few years, but just to refresh people on |
| 1:13.9 | who Elon Musk is, he made his money in the early tech boom with PayPal and then ventured |
| 1:20.9 | into electric cars with Tesla, essentially popularizing the electric car around the world |
| 1:26.8 | before moving into space exploration |
| 1:30.3 | with SpaceX, has a business called Starlink, which provides internet via satellite. |
... |
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