UK Riots: Elon Musk claims 'civil war' in the UK is inevitable

the Prime Minister has announced what he referred to as a standing army of specialist police officers to tackle violent protests in UK towns and cities he's been talking this lunchtime I had a cobra meeting this morning which was an opportunity that I took to thank the police for their work over the last few days to express my support for the police officers who have been injured and the communities impacted by this mindless thuggery there a number of actions that came out of the meeting the first is we will have a standing army of specialist officers public uh Duty Officers uh so that we'll have enough officers to deal with this where we need them we'll ramp up criminal justice they've already been hundreds of arrests some have appeared in court this morning I asked for early consideration of the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process who will feel the full force of the law and thirdly I've been absolutely clear that the criminal law applies online as well as offline and I'm assured that that's the approach that is being taken whatever the apparent motivation this is not protest it is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities so the full force of the law will be visited on all those who are identified as having taken part in these activities well those are the words of the Prime Minister and several MPS are calling for Parliament to be recalled including Nigel farage who claimed the UK has two tier policing when it comes to so-called protests the former Home Secretary pretty Patel spoke to times radio this morning and she said she didn't agree with those claims well that was pretty Patel uh she's running for the Tory leadership of course uh let's get the latest then with the times radio political correspondent Alysa Fitzgerald hello Alysa hi Jan uh the two-tier policing thing then that Bry Patel was just discussing there what does the Prime Minister say about it if anything so pretty soon after the Cobra meeting the Prime Minister gave a short briefing to political journalists where he said that he absolutely does not accept the claim that there is two-tier policing he says that the police will always carry out their job without fear or favor and he totally rejects that characterization so he has made it very clear that that is something that is not on his radar it is though on lots of people towards the rights radar including Nigel farage who is said that that should be the main issue that K starma addresses but we can see there that also pretty Patel distancing him himself herself from those comments as well okay um and this is basically I mean just in case anybody isn't clear what we mean by two-tier policing it's the suggestion that effectively white workingclass people get a tougher deal than people who might turn up for a black lives matter protest or indeed a pro Palestinian March absolutely and that's something that lots of people who believe this have been citing they've been cting fting the pro Palestine marches and black lives matter and they have said that those on those marches when when on occasion they have turned violent they have not suffered the full force of the law they've said that the police have been very gentle and avoidant uh in that type of violence but that in the this situation and these riots in particular that's not what's happening with the police so that's a claim there alluding to the fact that the police potentially have some kind of favoritism over over the two let let's talk about the hundreds of people actually arrested over weekend and if people go to the times website now there are names already being made public aren't there of people who've appeared in magistrate magistrates courts up and down the land frankly but where are they all going if they've all been reminded in custody I I thought the whole system was absolutely jammed well this is it and this was a big concern both for government and for the public when these riots broke out with all of these arrests happening it's such a quick succession as well what what is going to happen we know that prison places are really sparse at the moment so that was a big question and actually the prime minister's spokesperson said that during the Cobra meeting this morning this was part of the discussion and the Justice secretary was actually confident that there were enough prison spaces for all of the people who have been arrested or who will be charged to actually go to prison if necessary however we're not exactly certain on that because as of the 12th of July there were 1,451 prison places left in the whole of the UK obviously we're now what couple of weeks after that chances are that might mean a few less spaces and the Justice secretary has said this is because of Labour's policy on prisons you know uh releasing some criminals a little bit earlier than their original release date however that policy doesn't begin until the 1st of September so we've got to do a little bit of digging there to work out realistically exactly how many police um prison spaces there will be over the next few months and whether that will actually align with the amount of arrests that are happening because if all of these arrests are happening just from these riots we've got to remember other crimes are still happening in the UK as well will require prison spaces so it's definitely a tight squeeze if I can put it like that uh more than a tight squeeze I think okay a slightly mysterious um issue that one and I'm sure there will be more to come on exactly what is happening and where these people are going uh so Elon Musk you can normally rely on him to say something uh idiotic and uh he has done yeah well Elon Musk has actually said on his social media platform X that Civil War is inevitable in the UK and he's also said that the reason for these riots is because of a lack of integration between different communities uh from different countries in the across the UK and he said that that meant that these rights are inevitable uh K has condemned Elon Musk over this claim and he has said there is no justification of comments like that we're talking about a minority of thugs that do not speak for Britain so obviously K St are very keen to distance himself from these claims from Elon Musk but we have to remember that Elon Musk now does own a huge social media platform that's partially been cited for some of the blame for actually inciting some of this violence lots of people are able to kind of share locations about the protests on there and it seems slightly as if it's grown and grown on this social media platform okay um yeah it's such a gloomy picture actually we there are some cheerful things going on in the world not least the people who have turned up in their droves to help clear up the morning after these events we should always make note of them but take note rather so the idea that Parliament will be recalled it doesn't seem very likely no it seems very clear that this has been rejected by the government and they will not recall Parliament obviously we've had calls from various MPS across the house from different parties um to recall Parliament quickly but I think the government line on this at the moment is very much that they are more efficient just getting things done without the hassle of having to draw all the MPS and lots of them new MPS as well back from their constituencies into Parliament to have a protracted debate about something Kama wants to show that he's very clear on what his plan is and he has taken decisive action today with that Cobra meeting and he thinks that that is all that needs to happen at the moment now we did have a kind of honeymoon period when labor first got into office from memory it lasted was it about two weeks two and a half weeks I mean this is they've really come up against reality now haven't they I absolutely it's just incredible how much has happened on their watch already what are the opposition saying is there basically still still at least on the issue of the rioting something of a United front I mean I think generally yes I think the the general feeling in Parliament is that MPS are trying not to make this too party political just because of how serious it is everyone is aware of just how severe the situation is and that you kind of need some level of unity in Parliament for in order for Action to actually go ahead of course we're hearing calls from lots of the conservatives to reconvene Parliament we're hearing criticism from people like James cleverly saying that starma took too long to react saying that the Cobra meeting wasn't called soon enough but at the end of the day I think the general consensus is that this is a huge problem and it's something that needs to be dealt with very quickly and Party politics should be put aside for now