Keir Starmer dodges questions about Elon Musk's bizarre comments on UK riots

the uh owner of of X forly Twitter of course has a huge following on the platform over a 100 million people so many questions around uh well the responsibility or irresponsibility perhaps of his uh commentary here but first U Michael keing to hear your thoughts on on the Prime Minister k d clearly um being a little bit evasive in responding to a reporter who asked twice in fact about his response to what Elon Musk has had to say and we heard that clip where he didn't really answer the question well I think he's right I mean it's such an absurd thing to say and so utterly contemptuous to talk about possible Civil War in Britain that's never going to happen but if you start replying uh you know verbally to every single insult or thing that comes up that way you'll get into a tit fortat slanging match and of course Elon Musk is the sort of person who will never let something die he'll come straight back with another kind of provocative comment and I think the Prime Minister was absolutely right just to sort of lay it to one side not respond not give it the Dignity of a response and focus on what he's trying to do which is to calm things down get the people off the street get the police safe and able to do their job and show that the country is disgusted with the sort of behavior we've seen in so many towns recently Hannah your thoughts on this is is the prime minister right in kind of almost dodging some of the comments we've heard from Elon Musk well I think Michael's right I think it's a kind of responsible Dodge I don't think he sounds evasive but I think there is something utterly ludicrous not only in the musk comment but in the idea that you know it's a summer it's a silly season we've got this hugely serious thing going on but the Silly Season aspect is that with the Tes otherwise engaged the richest man in the world this Tech zillionaire has decided that he will be the unofficial opposition and speaking from a position of absolute ignorance I mean there is no racist myth he will leave unmind you know he's by bringing up Ro rotheram on on X as well you know something that happened um a long time ago now and and feeds in again to this farri pedophile establishment conspiracy theory I mean it's it's it's just ridiculous attention seeking and actually um you know a couple of hours ago he um musk launched this antitrust suit um and it does seem that this sort of taking on of of governments pretending to Champion free speech he's done it in with spats with the EU and Brazil and Australia he does this as a publicity campaign um and this is probably about this Texas Federal Court Global Alliance for responsible media case that he's launched but it's a publicity campaign at at the expense of our you know very precious democracy and our national security so in that sense I think as a as a former um head of prosecutions starma might actually be being quite responsible yeah in in not responding to that question in ignoring him for the The Loon he is yeah um that said uh Elon Musk has a huge following as I mentioned on on the platform that he owns Michael over a 100 million followers and just to give you a flavor of the range of opinions that we're having on the program tonight uh one listener has been in touch sending a WhatsApp message to 033 2353 uh Michael says the people who are really responsible for the rise of the far right are the governments since the 60s they've all consistently ignored the wishes of indigenous British people on immigration you take the majority for granted at your peril Elon Musk clearly speaks to someone yes I think he does unfortunately but he speaks in a very inflammatory way and I think part of this is because he's himself very worried that there is a determination now to clamp down on the kind of stuff that's being put out on social media this is the real problem it's being instigated by a lot of uh very dedicated Fanatics mostly on the far right but not all but mostly who are using social media Without Really any effect any attempt to monitor or to block what they're saying and of course uh X being one of the big platforms it would be quite harmful if musk was ordered to take much much closer control of what's being said and in fact to kick people off much more easily he would see that as a threat to his commercial interests so I think uh he goes on and on about free speech and starts comparing Britain to the Soviet Union which is utterly ludicrous but I think everybody realizes there must be some kind of responsible monitoring to stop this uh what I mean social media platforms are basically what everybody under a certain age where they get their news and we know you don't need it to be a platform for disinformation the clamp down on social media though that many are are calling for here Hannah I can't help but Wonder actually will it make any difference if you were able to wave a magic wand and um close down social media sites I can't can't see that really putting an end to some of the really horrific scenes we've seen in recent days there is clearly rage there is clearly anger and social media is just the platform by which people are talking about it it will happen anyway won't it well I mean we we talk about a kind of long hot summer uh Paradigm and you know I before I was a journalist um I was involved in looking at at different historical cultures and and often in London there would be Apprentice riots or in different parts of the country there would be riots and you're right they would use whatever technology they had at their disposal to to allow themselves to engage in this kind of yber and very often as well it would be um a reaction against minorities and a sort of with a kind of jealous economic aspect as the supposed key but actually it's just about chaos boredom jealousy yber being um young and dumb I mean you know although actually we've seen in this case that that that the yber is across age groups um so yeah it is something that always happens I do think that that the I mean we've we talked before on on the program with Kate about this telegram um uh platform I mean that sounds worrying I think they've finally started removing some people who are inciting violence but telegram has become a platform for the far right and that's a worry as well that it's not even I mean in a way X is almost mainstream something like telegram is is where they're all going now um but but Michael's right there is a lot of cynicism about who you know who's grabbing these audiences and and how these things will be achieved yeah but um but yeah it it's very disturbing it's very disturbing um you know now on a Tuesday night being told that Wednesday is the next big night I mean Yury appears to have a couple of nights off and then regroups and then there's this flying picket aspect of of where is it going to pop up next in the country Elon Musk decided to pick this fight with K starma jumping on accusations the prime ministers adopted a two-tier policing system this is in response to the riots we've seen of recent days but he implies that police has have responded more harshly uh than they did to Pro Palestine protests in in recent times earlier in the program we had the anti-racism campaigner Assad Rahman on the show he shared his thoughts on this accusation of two to policing here he is it's the most ridiculous comment ever and of course it's not born out with any data you only need to look at the reality of stop and searches for uh young black people young agent people you only need to look at the experiences of deaths in custody you only need to also look at the experiences for example of of policing in those instances that you mentioned you know the that that the r uh the courts were open 24 hours a day people were giving long long sentences so the idea that there is somehow some softer policing when it comes to the black community than than other communities I think it's just absolute nonsense Michael what do you make of his comments well I think it's absolute nonsense I agree I don't think there is two-tier policing it may be that in certain instances I mean some of the demonstrations in London it's been quite difficult to allow peaceful demonstrations while keeping away troublemakers and there have been instances where a large say of prop Palestinian demonstr ation has been perfectly peaceful with a few people stirring it up and then it looks as though the police are indulging them or else they're picking on those who are stirring it up I mean the police are in an almost impossible position whichever way they try to make sure that they keep a balance obviously each demonstration there's a preponderance either of say far-right racists or of Asian people say trying to defend Asian property and and you know mosques and things of that kind so whichever way they go it looks as though they're favoring one side or the other other well the police regulations and the police ethos is absolutely clear they police for all the nation and for all people and whatever the law is you're not allowed to do this you're not allowed to do that doesn't matter what color you are then you they clamp down now there are things uh particular areas for example knife crime where certain communities are more effective than others say the black community in central London well out of London actually and the police have been working with the black community with their consent to say we will particular Target this area because this is where the people are being hurt and this is where the crime is that doesn't mean that it's a two-tier system they're just trying to make sure that everybody is protected um why has this idea of of two-tier policing really taken hold in in your opinion Hanah I think it plays into racism I mean I was very interested in the message you read earlier from one of the listeners by the use of the term indigenous and that that sort of immediately makes me think well hold on who are the indigenous people I mean are we you know the beaker people came over here in the Bronze Age did did they become indigenous are the Romans you know the Normans I mean we don't I don't know that we have indigenous that that is a worrying term to me similarly I'm from Birmingham originally I spent the first 18 years of my life there and I I go back fairly often and um I one of the things I love about Birmingham is it is so beautifully Multicultural and I I will be talking about whatever festivals going on with whoever I meet and it's it is a a proper friendly Melting Pot and yet you know I'm always being told that uh you know we hear from America that Birmingham is a place of no go zones and all this nonsense and I think simply this two-tier thing it is another way of racist creating a country Buzz phrase um whereas actually it's you know it's very much the other way there is still a lot of of of we a lot of people still have worries about racism in policing