In spite of Elon Musk’s personal attacks on the prime minister, and his endorsement of vicious criticism, I understand that Keir Starmer is still unwilling to engage in a direct argument with the world’s richest person and his social media platform. Tomorrow however I do expect Starmer to defend his record prosecuting child abusers as DPP and the determination of his government to clamp down hard on it. He’ll also talk about the importance of grounding political debate in verifiable fact. Most of this, I assume, will be heard by Musk as water off his back, as it were. I am not sure Starmer’s appeal to Musk’s presumed respect for empirical argument will resonate much with a plutocrat whose X followers number three times the entire UK population