By Charlotte Ambrose
Copyright standard
Tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk made a speech condemning the UK government at the Unite the Kingdom rally organised by the right-wing activist known as Tommy Robinson in London on Saturday.
Musk’s speech was broadcast via video link to an estimated 150,000 attendees at the rally where 25 people were arrested.
The nationalist demonstration promoted right wing-views such as anti-immigration rhetoric and called for “free-speech” in England.
Musk called for a “massive government reform” and “a dissolution of Parliament”, urging for a new vote to be called before the next general election which is not due to take place until 2029.
The American billionaire and Tesla founder also said: “Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.”
His speech has since been condemned by the UK government for using “dangerous and inflammatory language”.
ELON MUSK: Congratulations to Tommy on putting together an amazing event and really rallying for the people of Britain.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, none of this could have happened without you giving the British public access to the truth and giving us free speech and fighting for our free speech. So on behalf of Great Britain and the British public, we’re incredibly grateful, Elon.
ELON MUSK: You’re most welcome. And you may notice this T-shirt that I’m wearing is great British author George Orwell. What would Orwell think? I think that’s generally a good way to look at these things.
He would want freedom of speech. He would want the people to know what’s real. He would want the people to fight against government oppression and fight for the truth and fight for the future of Britain.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, we are incredibly grateful for your time. We know what a busy man you are. Why is it important for you to be here today speaking at this United Kingdom event?
ELON MUSK: Well, I am of primarily British heritage, British ancestry. I want Britain to be greater than it ever has been. I want Britain to remain Britain. I think there’s something beautiful about being British.
And what I see happening is a destruction of Britain. Initially a slow erosion, but a rapidly increasing erosion of Britain with massive uncontrolled migration. A failure by the government to protect innocent people, including children who are getting gang raped. It’s unreal.
The government has failed in its duty to protect its citizens, which is a fundamental duty of government. This has got to stop. There needs to be massive government reform for Britain, and the people need to be in charge, not some bureaucracy that doesn’t care.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, I believe that’s what we’ve started today. Power by the people, sending a message worldwide. Elon, you spend an incredible amount of money on X. Why is free speech so important to you?
ELON MUSK: I believe you can’t get to the truth of things without freedom of speech, without active debate. And there’s so many on the left that want to just crush debate and put people in prison just for talking, as you were, just for speaking their mind.
The essence of democracy is it should be a government for the people, by the people. And in fact, this is a government against the people and not for the people. This is why everyone is gathered here today – something’s got to be done. This is unacceptable.
The government needs to be responsible to the people of Britain. It needs to protect Britain. It needs to protect the weak, those who cannot protect themselves, especially the children. And when I read about some of the horrific stories and how the government did nothing and tried to hide it – they tried to hide these horrific crimes.
And then you see how much violence there is on the left with our friend Charlie Cook getting murdered in cold blood this week and people on the left celebrating it openly. The left is the party of murder and celebrating murder. I mean, let that sink in for a minute. That’s who we’re dealing with here. That is who we’re dealing with.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, to so many of the British public who are scared to exercise their free speech, they’re worried about being imprisoned, they’re worried about being attacked, even to share their speech on your platform of X, what message would you give to them?
ELON MUSK: The message is really, my message is to the reasonable centre, the common sense. My appeal is to British common sense, which is to look carefully around you and say, if this continues, what world will you be living in?
This is a message to a reasonable centre. The people who ordinarily wouldn’t get involved in politics who just want to live their lives, they don’t want – they’re quiet. They just go about their business.
My message is to them: if this continues, that violence is going to come to you. You will have no choice. You’re in a fundamental situation here where whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die. You either fight back or you die. And that’s the truth today.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, I think the British public are telling the world that they’re ready to fight back.
ELON MUSK: Yes.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, you’ve spoken a lot about woke culture, the woke mind virus, and how it damages innovation and freedom of thought. We know that DEI often sees people getting jobs when they definitely don’t deserve them. Do you think this culture is holding back progress in the west and what do you think needs to happen to reverse it?
ELON MUSK: Yeah, again, I’m appealing to sort of common sense and fairness. I want to emphasize just common sense and fairness, which is that we should make our decisions based on merit, on how – if somebody is talented and hardworking, then that should be the only means of advancement.
There should not be discrimination on the basis of sex or religion or any race or anything else. And a lot of the woke stuff is – it’s actually super racist, it’s super sexist, and it’s often anti-religion, but only anti-Christian. Like, why only anti-Christian? That’s unfair.
So this is why, again, my message is to the reasonable middle. You want a world where there is fairness and common sense. And you advance as a function of how hard you work and your talents, your integrity. That should be all that matters. And the woke mind virus that I call it is against all of that.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, we hear so much about censorship being pushed by governments and global corporations and organisations. A lot of people don’t understand why we’re allowing mass uncontrollable immigration into all western nations. Do you believe that there are powerful forces outside of elected officials, someone controlling governments that are trying to control the flow of information? And how do we resist that pressure?
ELON MUSK: Yeah, I think when you look at the behaviour of organisations or people, you have to say, what is the incentive for these organisations? And frankly, there’s a massive incentive on the left to import voters.
So if they can’t convince their nation to vote for them, they’re going to import people from other nations to vote for them. This is a massive factor and frankly, it’s a strategy that will succeed if it is not stopped. And thus far, it is succeeding.
And you see strong movements to allow people who are not from Britain to vote in Britain, to allow people who are not from France or elsewhere to vote in those countries and thus depriving the citizens of their democratic power. It’s really a voter importation thing.
And if they are allowed to succeed, if this is allowed to continue, they will succeed in importing voters, swaying the elections and taking your vote away from you. That is 100 per cent what is happening.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Do you know what’s great? The BBC and the mass media cannot control this, can they?
ELON MUSK: I mean, the BBC is complicit in the destruction of Britain.
TOMMY ROBINSON: And we pay for it, Elon. We pay for it. We’re forced to pay for it. If we don’t pay for it, we’re imprisoned.
ELON MUSK: You’re forced to pay for your own destruction. It’s insane. It’s unfair. It is wrong.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, a lot of ordinary people that are here today, they feel ignored, they feel censored, or they’re labelled just for speaking up about their legitimate fears and concerns in their communities. Do you believe technology like X or even AI can finally give power back to those people? Or do you think it will make censorship worse or even automated?
ELON MUSK: I mean, that’s a complicated question. It really depends on what government is in charge. The government can obviously use whatever powers are available to suppress the people.
And so I really think there’s got to be a change of government in Britain and you can’t – we don’t have another four years or whatever the next election is, it’s too long. Something’s got to be done. There’s got to be a dissolution of Parliament and a new vote held.
And really what matters is rallying the people of Britain, really getting the people of Britain to get the message out there. Talk to your friends and family and build a massive power base among the people.
And like I said, you really got to appeal to the sort of average, just the normal people that just want to go about their business, that are sort of in a village somewhere, they’re working, they just want to mind their own business.
But you’ve got to point out to them that if we don’t take action, they won’t be able to mind their own business because other people are going to come and maraud them. There’s genuine risk of rape and murder and the destruction of the country and dissolution of the entire way of life.
And so, yes, in the normal course of business, if you weren’t under a massive attack, then people should go about their business and just live their lives. But unfortunately, if the fight comes to you, you don’t have a choice. You have to fight. So you have to rally all of the people of Britain to fight for the future.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Are you ready to fight for your future, Britain?
ELON MUSK: And if this doesn’t happen, there won’t be a future. But you know what I mean, Tommy? I talk to my friends in Britain and they’re like, “Yes, you know, they live in a village here or there or a town or city here or there. And they’re like, well, it doesn’t seem like it’s really that much of a problem.”
I’m like, “Well, if you want to know what’s going to happen to your town or village, just visit London and you’ll see that it’s filled with crime. It often doesn’t feel like Britain at all. And it’s only a matter of time before that is what happens to your town or village. It starts in London, but it will spread to every town and village in the country and no one will have any peace.”
TOMMY ROBINSON: We’re running out of time, people. We’re running out of time. Elon, you built rockets, you built cars, you built satellites, you’ve built AI – things most of us couldn’t dream of. It’s fair to say you’re a visionary. When you look at leaders in Europe and the UK today, do you think they share the same talent for future vision, or do you feel like they’ll be left behind and out of touch?
ELON MUSK: Well, I think we’ve got to have a freer country, a freer – you know, Europe in general has to be freer. It’s stifled by bureaucracy. I think it’s good that Britain left the EU because there’s just too much bureaucracy in the EU.
But frankly, instead of really going down a path of personal freedom and deregulation and getting rid of these stifling regulations, unfortunately, the British government has pretty much stayed on par with the EU, if not in some ways made the stifling regulation worse.
So if you have excess government regulation and oppression, you stifle the freedom of people to try new and great ideas. And Britain used to be a country that did amazing things, some of the boldest things on the entire planet.
And that is possible in the future, but it can’t be done if you’ve got this massive oppressive bureaucracy and a government that doesn’t care about its people. And that has to change. There has to be profound change and there’s not much time left.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, you’ve said before that civilization is fragile. We agree, it’s precious. When you look at the west right now, every country in the west, with its wars, its divisions, its censorship and its declining trust in institutions – none of us trust them at all. None of the public trust them. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about where we are heading?
ELON MUSK: I think if the people of Britain take charge and actually ensure that there is a government that represents their interests and not a government that represents foreign interests, then I think Britain has a great future and I think we can be optimistic. I think there’s amazing things that are possible.
If the technology that’s coming is used in the right way, we can have an incredibly exciting future, one which is sort of Star Trek made real. It’s sort of like the exciting utopian sci-fi where we have spaceships and we’ve got robots and we’ve got incredible technologies that are really exciting.
But we need to preserve civilization long enough for that to happen. And we need to fight for such a future. Such a future is not inevitable. We have to fight for such a future.
TOMMY ROBINSON: I think that many British people had lost hope. But after today, have you got hope again? Britain is awake. Thanks to you, Elon. Thanks to your input.
ELON MUSK: Thanks to you, Tommy.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Thank you, brother. Can we ask, what do you see as the future of the UK and Europe in your vision? Where are we heading? What does the future hold for us?
ELON MUSK: Well, I think there needs to be a future where the people take charge, where there’s deregulation, a massive reduction in bureaucracy, and generally a new hope where people look forward, wake up in the morning, look forward to the future. They’re excited about what’s going to happen next.
But we must have revolutionary government change for that to occur. And this is not ordinary course of business sort of stuff. This really requires everyone to marshal the people to take charge, reform the government and make sure that you actually have a government that is for the people, by the people, and that’s essential.
We’re really at a fork in the road here. We’re at a fork in the road to darkness or greatness. And that will be decided only in a matter of years. And we must take the path to greatness. And that’s the path that’s exciting and inspiring and will make life worth living.
TOMMY ROBINSON: Elon, you’ve done more than anyone to shine the torch on the crimes committed against the generation of our daughters. On behalf of everyone and on behalf of all of us in Great Britain, thank you. We wouldn’t even be in the fight. Not only are we in the fight right now, but we’re on the advance thanks to free speech being fought for us by Elon Musk. We’re very grateful, sir.
ELON MUSK: You’re most welcome. Thank you.
The UK government has condemned Musk for using “dangerous and inflammatory language” during his speech on Saturday.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “The UK is a fair, tolerant and decent country.
“The last thing the British people want is this sort of dangerous and inflammatory language.”
Business Secretary, Peter Kyle, said Musk’s comments were “slightly incomprehensible” and “totally inappropriate”.
“I thought that they were slightly incomprehensible comments that were totally inappropriate,” he said on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
He added: “But what we saw yesterday was over 100,000 people who were expressing freedom of association, freedom of speech, and proving that both of those things are alive and well in this country.
