Steerpike

Well, that didn't last long. Just 19 days after Nigel Farage and Elon Musk were snapped beaming together at Mar-a-Lago, the bromance is already over. Sad! It seems that the Tesla billionaire didn't take too kindly to Farage's (mild) rebuke of his call to release Tommy Robinson from prison. Just hours after Farage praised Musk on the BBC, the latter took to – where else? – X to declare the end of their short-lived friendship. 'The Reform Party needs a new leader', Musk declared. 'Farage doesn’t have what it takes'. So much for loyalty eh?At present, it looks like Musk is out on his own on this one. None of the four other Reform MPs in parliament have echoed the call for Farage to quit, with supportive voices in the media quick to back his decision to distance the party from Robinson.

It's been quite the 24 hours in British politics. Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has spent much of it lambasting Labour on Twitter/X over its decision not to hold a government inquiry into child abuse in Oldham. But has he now gone too far? The Tesla founder has posted numerous claims calling for the release of far-right protester Tommy Robinson, jailed last year for contempt of court. It begged the obvious question: would Reform UK – Musk's preferred party of choice in Britain – take up Robinson's cause too? When Mr S put the question to Reform spinners, the answer that came back was unequivocal: no, given his onetime membership of the English Defence League. But it was left to leader Nigel Farage to field questions about Musk's backing of Robinson last night.

There have been better weeks for community relations in Britain. So what better time for Mr S to report the news that ministers are still planning to press on with a definition of Islamophobia? Back in opposition, Labour supported the adoption of a definition of Islamophobia, drawn up by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, while Wes Streeting – now the Health Secretary – was its chairman. It states: ‘Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.’ The Telegraph noted back in August that such a term would not be legally binding but organisations would be urged to adopt in a similar way to the anti-Semitism definition was accepted under Theresa May in 2016.

Happy new year Nick Clegg. The onetime Deputy Prime Minister has spent much of the past decade collecting oodles of cash from the social media giant formerly known as Facebook. Clegg has served as one of Mark Zuckerberg’s senior executives at Meta since October 2018, living out of a £7 million mansion in Silicon Valley. Talk about a good European eh? But all good things must come to an end. And today, just months after trumpeting the UK’s Brexit freedoms on AI policy, he has now announced his departure from Meta. Writing, ironically, on rival platform X, Sir Nick wrote a four tweet statement that had all the spontaneity and joy of a hostage video.

It's been an eventful year in British politics, with a snap general election and multiple leadership contests keeping political journalists across the country busy. And how have political party leaders fared? With the help of the Spectator's data hub, Mr S has examined which party leaders, both north and south of the border, have had the best (and worst) 2024. At the start of the year, hapless Humza Yousaf was forced to step down as First Minister after he rather abruptly ended his government's coalition agreement with Patrick Harvie's barmy army. The SNP establishment became rather concerned about the prospect of yet another leadership race – given just how unedifying the previous year's had been – and negative briefings about possible contenders began in earnest.

Farewell to 2024, the year in which no incumbent was safe. Whether it was the Democrats in the White House or the Tories in Downing Street, the tide of change carried all before it, from the LDP in Japan to the BDP in Botswana. But one man successfully bucked the trend: Sadiq Khan was re-elected for an historic third term as mayor of London. Who says democracy doesn’t work, eh? And now Khan has added reason to celebrate: he has been given a knighthood in the New Year Honours List. Yes, that’s right, Sir Sadiq has been handed a ‘K’ by King Charles for ‘Political and Public Service.’ One wonders what failure looks like. Other ex-MPs to be given a gong include Ranil Jayawardena, Marcus Jones and Nick Gibb. Former West Midlands mayor Andy Street gets one too.

It's certainly been an eventful year for Britain, what with the snap election, a change in government and yet another new Tory leader. But 2024's drama hasn't only been political. The UK media landscape has also faced a number of challenges this year – with our public service broadcaster very often making the news rather than, um, breaking it. This year, the Beeb has come under fire over dodgy presenters, the accuracy of its own verification service and what it does and does not choose to report.