First Minister John Swinney has taken aim at US tech tycoon Elon Musk

Politicians across the democratic world are ‘losing their minds’ over Mr Musk, writes Euan McColm

 If a personal connection between a First Minister and a tycoon leads, for example, to investment and jobs then who would complain?

It was this hope that a rich man would invest in Scotland that saw Mr Salmond, Ms Sturgeon and current First Minister John Swinney cosy up to Donald Trump in the early days of the SNP’s time in power at Holyrood.

So keen were senior nationalists to keep Mr Trump sweet that the government intervened to overrule local planners and permit him to build a golf course on the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire.

The closeness between the SNP and Mr Trump was soon to become an embarrassment, with senior figures keen to distance themselves from him as he moved into politics.

These days, First Minister John Swinney would very much like voters to forget his party’s past willingness to cosy up to controversial figures.

Now, the nationalists are very much on the side of “the little guy” and those rich business folk can get lost.

On Monday, Mr Swinney flexed his muscles and took on the richest man on the planet.

In a frankly bizarre speech, the First Minister called on opposition parties to support the SNP’s budget in a Holyrood vote next month in order to defeat the Tesla tycoon.

Voting against the Scottish Government’s spending plans would be to “play right into the hands of Elon Musk and other populists”.

I admit that I have no personal knowledge of the situation but I struggle to believe that Mr Musk is concerned about the spending priorities set out by SNP finance secretary Shona Robison.

Perhaps Mr Swinney knows better. I doubt it.

Right now, politicians across the democratic world are losing their minds over Mr Musk. Desperate to curry favour with a man of such extraordinary wealth and – therefore – power, some who should know much, much better are willing to humiliate themselves before him.

And for those who don’t wish to be friends with Mr Musk, the need to be seen as his opponent is overwhelming.

This is an understandable personal instinct. Mr Musk is an exhausting rabble rouser and recent proclamations – such as the entirely false allegation that, while Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Keir Starmer was complicit in covering up the crimes of grooming gangs, responsible for the rapes of dozens of girls – show him to be utterly reckless with the truth.

The First Minister evoked Mr Musk during his speech on Monday not because he genuinely believes that the billionaire is even slightly interested in Scotland’s budget negotiations but in order to define himself.

If Elon Musk is a bad guy and John Swinney doesn’t like him, then John Swinney must be a good guy.

What’s more, by making his speech about character and identity, Mr Swinney didn’t have to worry about things like workable policy ideas.

If Elon Musk enjoys taunting politicians with liberal instincts, they get just as much out of hitting back.

Those political leaders who reject the businessman’s worldview seem to be locked in weird codependent relationships with him.

Without his deranged commentary on global politics, what would Mr Musk do to fill his day? And, without Mr Musk as bogeyman, who would would be on the receiving end of politicians’ virtue-signalling attacks?

Undoubtedly, the South Africa-born tycoon – recently nominated by incoming US president Donald Trump to head up a new government department tackling government waste – has his admirers.

He is, without question, a bold and innovative business leader and his track record of success is hugely impressive.

But John Swinney, Sir Keir Starmer and others are kidding themselves if they believe voters care about their relationship with Elon Musk as much as they do.

Sure, his social media outbursts may raise eyebrows but with each successive intervention in the political debate, his words lose power.

If you’re the world’s richest man and you make a carefully considered intervention on a major issue, people may well take notice.

If you’re the world’s richest man and you spend all day making wild and defamatory accusations against world leaders, people may well start to think you’re a crank with too much time on his hands and not enough real friends.

We’ve heard criticism from some leaders that Mr Musk is guilty of deploying “dogwhistles”. His remarks about grooming gangs are not, say his critics, born of concern about victims and how they were denied justice for years but of a wish to foment racial unrest.

I hear what those critics say but I believe the vast majority of people are too smart to be taken in by Mr Musk. We know a racist dogwhistle when we hear one and most of us reject it.

Over recent days, a number of politicians have told me they consider Elon Musk dangerous.

I can understand their inclination to think that way but, as is the case with any bully, Mr Musk’s power exists only with the agreement of others. They could try simply ignoring him.

Last week, the leader of the Alba Party at Holyrood, Ash Regan, wrote to Mr Musk urging him to invest in Scotland. This week, John Swinney delivered a keynote speech attacking him.

Next, I’d very much like to hear from a political leader who doesn’t give a hoot about what Elon Musk thinks.