Thought the transatlantic drama was dying down? Witness Musk v Clarkson

Witness Musk v Clarkson

- Emma Brockes

Monday With all the other conflicts going on in the world, Elon Musk v Jeremy Clarkson is one we could probably safely afford to sit out. I am weak-willed, however, and click through to the story on Monday to test the principle of: my enemy's enemy is my friend. Musk is a real villain and Clarkson is just a motormouth, but I suspect the latter - for reasons of basic functionality and the sort of flippant humour with which Musk seems ill-equipped to cope - is capable of getting the better of the world's richest man, should these latest remarks of Clarkson's come to his attention.

Certainly, Clarkson has upset Musk before, exciting a libel action out of him in 2011 for comments Clarkson made about Tesla on Top Gear. A judge ruled against Musk then, a fact Clarkson is only too happy to remind him about now. In his column in the Sunday Times this week, Clarkson referred to the "pan-global decision to uncrowdfund Tesla" and took a victory lap around news of Teslas being set fire to and vandalised the world over. "I'd love to remind all you Tesla drivers that I warned you 17 years ago that no good would come of your buying choice," he wrote in his customary low-key style. "But you didn't listen."

Musk, as we know, is apoplectic about hatred being directed towards Tesla right now, as is Donald Trump. Defending his buddy last week, he threatened to send any "sick terrorist thugs" caught vandalising Teslas to "the prisons of El Salvador".