Elon Musk’s dad says Starmer is ‘finished’ over race riots

and then he had to reassure me that this that he is probably uh quite different from the people I've had to deal with during my reporting career and I probably haven't come across this sort of level of understanding and intelligence before and I need to just understand who I'm in the room with and what I'm hearing is true so actually it was the first time we'd met face to face but I did feel like I knew him pretty well because I have written about him over the years and obviously I'm familiar with the uh his

son and I've also um reflected a bit and written about it in the times about as much as Elon Musk never wants to talk about being South African for me he is quite a quintessential South African character uh and and why that and why that is so uh yeah they're a fascinating family and um you know I think I did get a much better impression of both Elon Musk uh through his father and really I think they're very very similar characters yeah that's really interesting because often people who are very similar flash a bit and

what is the current state of their relationship I think things are I think things have softened they did have a a reunion uh at the end of last year uh Errol went to the launch of of one of the projects uh I think the space project and met a lot of the grandchildren he hadn't met before I mean he sort of struggled to remember you know what the combinations are and who the mothers are you know who the twins are and so on but El musk has has a lot of children I think it's 10

um so I understand that so there they're obviously in touch a lot I think it's possibly a bit of a one-way Street I think Elon I think Errol uh communicates a lot with his son about um giving him feedback on on what he's doing and and how it's going down and and suggestions perhaps for another way of doing it or Improvement I'm not quite sure how well that's received but nevertheless Errol does follow elon's uh business his views the way he's conducting himself very very closely is it fair to say that Elon has come around

to his father's world viiew because you tell a great anecdote in the piece about a a dinner they had or a lunch they had back in South Africa with a load of elon's Hollywood mates uh back in 2016 and they all made a comment about Donald Trump that went down very badly but given that now Elon is one of Donald Trump's doners it appears that that Elon has come around to his father's way of seeing things absolutely and I think uh I think Errol feels very Vindicated by that and the and what he said to

me he he said he feels that you know if you're white South Africans leaving South Africa going to other countries and trying to integrate with quite liberal sections of Society Hollywood uh you know the tech world as he as Elon and his brother and sisters have then you know there I think South Africans white South Africans do feel a bit on the back foot you know this uh very heavy history they've got to bring with them about apartheid and where they stood on that what did they do what your parents I mean you get a

lot of that how can you live in South Africa you know what did your parents do during aarth so I think they had to have a story ready and there was all this expectation that they were going to be um racist intolerant Prejudiced and as far as errol's concerned you know they all had to put on a Big Show and all those children he's got five who've gone to America they've all gone through the same experience so as far as he's concerned it's sort of just what you have to do to sort of reinvent yourself

in another country you know if you listen to Elon Musk he doesn't sound like he's from Petoria I mean I've lived in I've lived out of the UK for for a most of my adult like life I I sound like I left yesterday Elon Musk doesn't you know we see that with Charlie's Thon as well she's also she's an Africana uh she spent all um you know her childhood she didn't go to Hollywood till she was in his 20s and her 20s you know there's no there's no hint that she's from South Africa it's one

of those accents and one of those histories if you're white South African that you have to that wears you wear very heavily and I I think that uh need to reinvent yourself or distance yourself from this very fraud history uh seems very important yeah and yet it was interesting you said earlier Jane that you still think Elon Musk is a very South African figure what do you mean by that um well when I say South African figure I'm sort of talking about white male South Africans who uh you know he's a product of his upbringing

this is you know this is not this is a sort of a very feisty Society where you know things aren't done with you people have to make a plan the government's not going to sort it out for you um you know especially a boy School growing up in in the 90s as he did you know bullying wasn't a thing that's just what boys do fighting calling each other's names survival of the fittest that was and and still is actually in many schools uh boys schools in in South Africa that's just that's just how it is

and he has come he's come through that system he uh had to um be very confident himself uh his father was very um tough with him tough with all those children they've got to you know make it on their own not be spoiled uh and and as a result you know he's gone to America and he's sort of made it he's made it quite big and he does have these quite sort of arrogant attitudes uh around around women uh around you know very archetypal uh ideas about being a man in the house and and what

everyone's role is I mean I think that's that's very much speaks to a a childhood he had in 90 South Africa there's a great quote in your piece where I think Errol musk says something you describe your eyes widening and then he responds with Jane when you're talking to us you're talking to people at a deeper level than the average person you'll be speaking to believe me we are more intelligent my family we are not stupid I mean you can hear Elon coming through in Errol there can't you absolutely I mean I don't you know

I've been reporting from Africa for a long time so I'm not really exposed to the sort of rightwing conspiracy theories that probably you know people up there in the in the in the northern hemisphere are people who cover American politics you know that's not my world so when he was TR you know going on about sort of you know fixed elections and the dark State I mean I've sort of heard about this on podcast I've never actually been in a room with somebody who who is telling me me that is fact and the queer World

lead ERS who are married to men and and obviously I'm looking like are you actually are you serious I mean is this really a thing um I'd never actually heard anyone saying it to me in real life so I was quite surprised and I obviously my face sort of looked a bit shocked and and then he had to reassure me that this that he is probably uh quite different from the people I've had to deal with during my reporting career and I probably haven't come across this sort of level of understanding and intelligence before and

I need to just understand who I'm in the room with and what I'm hearing is true I mean I I you know it was alarming and quite funny at the same time so uh yeah I think it it does it just reflects that these sort of extreme ideas are accepted as facts in that family and it's a reflection of their deeper intelligence that the rest of us haven't heard it or aren't going along with it and obviously Elon Musk himself has been in the news a lot this week week with his comments about K starma

calling him two-tier K accusing the UK of having two-tier policing he says the UK is on the verge of a Civil War what did Errol make of those comments I mean he he he's he sent me a note he said this is what I've fed back to Elon on this he's absolutely on point as she sent it he sent me the note again last night just so I was up to speed on exactly what his feedback had been to to El he's absolutely up to speed and and um you know as far as uh uh

Errol is concerned K sta just exudes weakness you know that you know they couldn't even be in the same Arena if it wasn't for him uh running you know leading Britain in in a faked election uh he and and Elon would just never meet because they're not the same caliber of people and and what now elon's you know got his card marked then you know K's finished because once Elon calls you out then really game over and and that's the impression that's the impressional again I mean Elon Errol sorry Errol musk's mother is from Britain

they have been to the UK quite a lot he did show me some family pictures of them looking at quite you know English looking towns and they'd gone there quite a lot he talked a lot about our the dimwitted populace in the UK who how we're all standing for the roal family and not waiting for the government to sort things out for us and you know a poor work ethic a really crappy food had a lot to say about that and you know just a just a rather bited country that um you know has punched

above its weight for a very very long time but now weakness being revealed in in these riots and he did say you know it's not correct to describe them as far right for these people as um or any sort of racist element there is a two-tier policing system and people are just trying to rise up quite rightly against a system in which they're being discriminated against I think what found sort of surprising in a way about your peace with with Errol mus Jane is that you know you could say on the face of it he

appears to be a an older slightly tetchier slightly less successful version of his famous son Elon And yet when he comes on to talking about his grandchild and we should explain Elon Musk has one child who is transgender errol's attitude towards that seems far more Progressive than elon's because Elon has said that this child is is essentially dead to him and and is the victim of of the woke mind virus whereas errol's taking a very different stance yeah I found that very I find that surprising and really touching actually um because he talked about his

recent travel to America where you know he'd been left with this impression that lgbtq issues dominated that trans was a real thing and it was just everywhere he said and gender neutral lose and he went there he said it's nowhere it's absolutely nowhere I mean this is just an idea being forced upon people and I said well hang on it's in your own family is it not has not one of your grandchildren now um transitioned to um to female you know tell me about your own experience with that thinking perhaps that he would Echo his

son's attitude which is that the son Xavier had just been uh killed by the the woke mind virus and and and forced into this and and Errol had a much more reflective gentler attitude to it and you know he really paused he recalled that grandchild how they'd been as uh growing up what was different about them and he and immediately slipped into these gender neural pronouns calling them them didn't struggle with that didn't hesitate for that a minute and said i' I'd said to Elon you know in history this has existed in history this has

existed I think you've got to accept and appreciate you know who they are and not talk about who they were and and really telling his son to get over it go get over that and I thought that was quite a sensitive issue on which to tackle his revered son who could do no wrong and and try and put him straight I I was very strucked by that and and it seemed very genuine and from a place of of of soul searching and want looking within to see actually is this real can we go with this

and accept it