The unedifying spectacle of would-be strongmen bickering over how to protect women and girls is just the beginning Can it really be three weeks ago that Nigel Farage and Elon Musk were posing adoringly at Mar-a-Lago, in front of that hilariously naff painting of Donald Trump in the tennis sweater? I am as surprised as Nigel that his holiday romance has been built on sand. Or, to put it another way, that the African billionaire who promised to deposit ££££££££££ in his account has turned out to be not what he seemed. The Farage dumping seems to have occurred after the Reform UK leader failed to agree with Musk that he should ally with the imprisoned career criminal Tommy Robinson over the latter’s stance on grooming gangs.And so to grooming gangs – or rape gangs, as they are rightly and more accurately being called now. Maybe the first week of January has become the time when anger about things that have been going on for a long time reaches significant mass. Last year it was the Post Office, this year it is the rape gangs scandal. As for what it will be next year, the likeliest current forecast is: something that Elon decides. We all live in the Muskoverse now. It’s a quirk of the age that the genius leading the race to the stars is also the idiot leading the race to the bottom.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...