Robert Reich, at the age of 79 and just after retiring from university teaching, is one of the most outspoken critics of Trump in the USA right now.
His newsletter sent yesterday was very important. In it (and I am not apologising for the length of the quotes since I am using them to suggest you subscribe for free to what he has to say):
Sorry to intrude on your Friday for a second time, but I wanted to alert you to an important action taking place tomorrow, Saturday, August 23.
It's a protest against one of the worst corporations in America, called Palantir — a private corporation that's using billions of our tax dollars for surveillance and deportation software.
Tomorrow, we're going to demand that Palantir be defunded. Information about your local action can be found here.
Assuming that you are not in the USA, you might wonder what this has to do with you. The answer is that in the UK, Palantir provides big data analytics software and services to government and defence sectors, including the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office for functions like defence strategy and border surveillance, whilst also having a significant presence in the NHS, which is deeply controversial, and in the Cabinet Office. Palantir has its tentacles throughout the UK government, in other words. And as Robert Reich notes:
As I have written, Palantir is at the nexus of several worrisome realities: artificial intelligence, Trump's use of the U.S. military on American civilians, his attack on immigrants, his collection of personal information on millions of Americans, and the parts of Silicon Valley dedicated to turning the U.S. from a democracy into a dictatorship led by tech bros.
Palantir sells an AI-based platform that allows its users — among them, military and law enforcement agencies — to analyze personal data, including social media profiles, personal information, and physical characteristics. These are used to identify and surveil individuals.
Musk is associated.
So too is JD Vance, who worked for Peter Thiel at one of his venture funds.
Peter Thiel, formerly of PayPal and now the major influence in Palantir, introduced Vance to Trump and later helped Vance become his vice-presidential pick.
And Thiel is not the sort of person anyone should wish to associate with. As Robert Reich notes, Thiel has written:
The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy' into an oxymoron.
Hello?
As Reich then adds:
If “capitalist democracy” is becoming an oxymoron, it's not because of public assistance or because women got the right to vote. It's because billionaire capitalists like Musk and Thiel are intent on killing democracy.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Palantir is Alex Karp, who said on an earnings call earlier this year that the company wants:
to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it's necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them.
The company is reported to have assisted Israel in identifying targets in Gaza. And for this approach, Reich notes:
Palantir recently disclosed that Karp received $6.8 billion in “compensation actually paid” in 2024 (you read that right) — making him the highest-paid chief executive of a publicly traded company in the United States.
And as he adds:
This group — including Thiel, Musk, Karp, and Vance — doesn't seem to want to conserve much of anything, at least not anything that occurred after the 1920s, including Social Security, civil rights, and even women's right to vote.
Tyranny is being promoted. Democracy is creaking. Human rights are under threat, and the UK government is welcoming the agents managing that process into managing large parts of the UK. We, too, should be worried about Palantir.
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All true.
Also true: Reich & his ilk were, in the 1990s, facilitators whilst in gov of what is now in plain sight. Reich was/is part of the problem – e.g. the relaxation of controls on finance, we love tech etc etc. And now? hand wringing. He & his collection of morons, failed to think through what they were doing & the consequences. It was all rosy under the Clinton hillbillies financial deregulation & the rise & rise of the Internet.
In the case of the UK, in the same way that Israel via the zionists has an unhealthy/anti-democratic influence, ditto the US tech companies (and US insultants e.g. McKinsey).
Time to take back control – time to kick out both Israeli and US orgs that want to manipulate the UK – FFS why is the UK always like a poodle?
Karp realised something important; technology dominates the world. First time round (the so-called ‘industrial revolution’) people didn’t understand how it worked, of believed it reached into – everything, and silently commanded our politics. Now, the digital revolution allows technology not just to dominate the world, but comprehensively manage it; and control it. The digital world is a gift for monopolists, and Karp is an evangelical monopolist. His politics can be summed as: the train (i.e., the technological/AI revolution, led and financed by monopolists like Karp) is now leaving; if you are not on this one train you will be left behind, and will suffer the consequences (and deserve to suffer); and there is no way back.
To understand Karp, I think one way in may be to read James Hogg, ‘The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner’ (1824).
Every word true and all well documented by various OSINTs for a long while now. Not that Starmer and co are worried. They’re part of this authoritarian move.
But well worth watching – as it’s strongly connected to your blog – is this segment from Chris Hayes, earlier in the week, in which he features libertarians who are themselves getting worried about this stuff.
The segment title is ‘Everything Alex Jones warned us about…’
https://www.msnbc.com/all
Thanks
Robert Reich is a sound human being in my mind.
Palantir – isn’t the name appropriated from Tolkien? I mean, there it is isn’t it – ‘appropriation’ – Palantir seem to be appropriating a lot of data and other stuff too. I always thought of ‘appropriation’ as being a posh word for ‘taking’ – authorised or not. The non-authorised version is called ‘theft’ but it could be argued that the way capitalism works is state authorised theft.
Yes, appropriated from Lord of the Rings, PSR. They are the large glass/crystal globes that allow one to looks into the future. But interestingly, like a lot of things in Tolkien’s work, they are a device manufactured for good that is then deeply compromised by evil – specifically in this case Sauron, the Dark Lord. Consequently, I’ve always found it amusing that Thiel should have stolen that particular name from Tolkien’s work. Then again, I have a strong suspicion that he was well aware of the turn from good to bad, as I think quite a few people on the far right actually revel in their badness. It’s a badge of honour – just as it is with Trump and his cronies – not least because they know that their evil and meanness winds up the dreaded liberals and woke.
🙂
The icing on the cake is that Louis Mosely (yes, that Mosely) is Palantir UK’s head. He’s also a part of this charming, far-right lobbying organisation https://www.arcforum.com/
It’s a truly vile company with deeply fascist roots. Tom Watson works for it, Peter Mandelson’s PR company represents it in the States. Got its hooks well into the Labour Party.
Lots of ads for Anduril at Westminster Station at the mo. Another Thiel funded company.
And Palantir is coming to a town near you:
“Bedfordshire Police is piloting a controversial AI-powered data system that can access highly sensitive information about individuals, including their race, political views, sex life and health, according to an investigation by Liberty Investigates and The i paper.
The system, named Nectar, has been developed in collaboration with Palantir Technologies, a US tech giant co-founded by Peter Thiel, a donor to Donald Trump and close advisor during his first term as US president.”
https://neuburger.substack.com/p/project-nectar-another-palantir-special
Cory Doctorow’s article on Palantir and its very real threat to the NHS and us all is a must-read:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/08/the-fire-of-orodruin/#are-we-the-baddies
Thanks
Thank you for this.
Westminster governments well in with Palantir but the reach seems to be NHS England, another reason why Scotland needs to restore its sovereignty and independence
AI
In 2023, NHS England awarded Palantir a £330 million contract to build a Federated Data Platform (FDP) to integrate patient data and support planning and care. This contract has faced strong criticism from groups like the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Good Law Project due to concerns about Palantir’s history in surveillance, its ties to the US government, and the potential for misuse of sensitive patient data.
It also does not work as well as existing systems.
Strange that the Ten Year Plan does not mention Palantir.
https://goodlawproject.org/palantir-poised-to-cash-in-on-wes-streetings-nhs-plan/
However, it’s not just Palantir that we need to be wary of. Even Ed Davey wants us to beware of Musk getting in on the energy act for security reasons.
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/08/22/musk-uk-energy/
Peter Thiel has been working to a plan for many years.
His impact cannot be overstated.
As far as the UK is concerned he played a blinder at the start of Covid when he offered to write the first NHS Covid app for just £1 in 2020. And our stupid/gullible/compromised government took the bait.
Palantir quickly emerged as the then Tory government’s preferred provider for NHS data systems. Quelle surprise….
Prof,
Cambridgeshire police are using AI Palantir “Cambridgeshire Police Nectar use of spyware AI”—the Nectar AI system, a controversial Palantir‑developed platform piloted by British police forces, particularly Bedfordshire, to centralise and analyze sensitive personal data. Here’s a clear breakdown:
What Is Nectar?
Nectar is an AI-powered data integration platform created in partnership with Palantir Technologies. It compiles data from roughly 80 different sources, including traffic cameras and intelligence files, into one unified system
UK Reloaded
Prophecy Recon
Liberty Investigates
.
It processes at least 11 categories of “special category” data, such as race, health records, political beliefs, religious views, sexuality, and trade union membership
UK Reloaded
Liberty Investigates
Prophecy Recon
.
The system is described internally as a “real-time data-sharing network” offering a “single source of truth” for law enforcement
daviddavismp.com
Liberty Investigates
.
Current Deployment and Scope
The initiative began as a pilot with Bedfordshire Police, working in conjunction with the Eastern Region Serious Organised Crime Unit
UK Reloaded
Liberty Investigates
.
The leaked internal memo indicates plans to extend Nectar nationally, depending on pilot feedback and Home Office guidance
UK Reloaded
Prophecy Recon
.
According to statements from the police and Palantir, no new data sources are added—Nectar reorganises data already within law enforcement systems
UK Reloaded
Liberty Investigates
.
Why “Spyware AI”?
While not traditional spyware, the concerns are real:
Surveillance Scope
Nectar’s ability to compile sensitive, personal data into “360‑degree profiles” has drawn alarm. Critics argue this resembles mass surveillance and could flag individuals unrelated to criminality
Liberty Investigates
daviddavismp.com
UK Reloaded
.
Legal Oversight and Transparency
Former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis called for parliamentary scrutiny, citing “zero oversight” and potential for data misuse
daviddavismp.com
UK Reloaded
.
Liberty Investigates and others warn of the risk of “dystopian predictive policing” and erosion of civil liberties
Liberty Investigates
UK Reloaded
.
Data Protection and Civil Rights
Amnesty International criticised Nectar as violating individuals’ right to privacy by amalgamating sensitive personal data across law‑enforcement bodies
daviddavismp.com
.
The Trades Union Congress also warned about trade union membership being misused to target activist groups—echoing historical blacklisting concerns
I didn’t know this, it’s right under our noses.
Much to be interned about, I agree. Politics and trade union membership are not police concerns, except in a police state.
“Concerned”?
Hope you are not interned.
Me too.
I’d not be surprised if research into Starmer’s Labour Party would reveal a great deal of Peter Thiel money flowing directly and indirectly into party funding and individual MP funding. The Starmer Labour Party is after all a soft-facism party as we’ve seen in regard to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and Peter Thiel is a supporter of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces):-
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/peter-thiel-israel-palantir/
The other company involved in our NHS records using AI is tpp-uk.com
It was founded in 1997 by Frank Hester, who was the man who said that every time he looked at Diane Abbott he felt as though he hated all black women, and hoped someone would shoot her. He’s also the largest donor to the tory party, over £20 million in the last two years.
The NHS system is SystmOne, just in case your medical centre uses it, like mine does. It runs 2600 GP practices and has 50m patient records.
My medical centre has just been put into special measures, and been taken over by South Durham Health CIC. At the moment we have been told just to continue as normal and they will let us know what is happening in the next few weeks.
We are in North Durham and the nearest South Durham centre is 14 miles away, taking an hour on public transport.
Nasty, on all counts…
I would recommend Alt Reich to anybody who wants to understand the network behind Thiel and other extreme groups.
https://subscribe.bylinetimes.com/product/alt-reich/
Why the obsession with the 1920’s although I can see similarities, just after a pandemic, brief period of social hiatus, religious fever in the mid west, growing isolationism, a levelling up in military status with the Washington Naval treaty, a booming stock market, but then followed by the market crash of all crashes ending in the Great Depression, but then that may be written out of history if Trump gets his way.
Are you answering your own question?
There is no need to use Palantir. There is a much safer system developed in the UK during the pandemic called OpenSafely.
What is OpenSAFELY?
OpenSAFELY is a secure analytics platform for electronic health records in the NHS, created to deliver urgent results during the global COVID-19 emergency. It is now successfully delivering analyses across more than 57 million patients’ full pseudonymised primary care NHS records, with more to follow shortly.
All our analytic software is open for security review, scientific review, and re-use. OpenSAFELY uses a new model for enhanced security and timely access to data: we don’t transport large volumes of potentially disclosive pseudonymised patient data outside of the secure environments managed by the electronic health record software company; instead, trusted analysts can run large scale computation across near real-time pseudonymised patient records inside the data centre of the electronic health records software company.
As such, the platform maintains extremely high standards for data privacy whilst ensuring complete computational and analytical transparency.
I was referring to the use of Palantir in the NHS
The fact that Palantir has significant influence across multiple governments, including the NHS, shows just how intertwined tech companies are in public policy. There’s definitely a need for more transparency and oversight in how these systems are used.
Forget Robert Reich. You’ll learn so much more about the PayPal mafia, the Dark Enlightenment and Sovereign Cities by following Gil Duran of the Nerd Reich https://www.thenerdreich.com/ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxg9MkelMrkBtFZJjGLPgLQ?ybp=ggIQdGhlbmVyZHJlaWNoLmNvbQ%253D%253D. For so long ignored or shunned by the mainstream of the podcast darlings, Duran is now getting the further exposure his investigations deserves.
All is happening in plain sight but most cannot see.
I don’t want to ignore Robert Reich. And I remain unconvinced by sovereign cities.
Your piece on Palantir rightly highlights the dangers of allowing a private tech company to become embedded in public infrastructure without proper scrutiny. A parallel issue is now emerging with Acusensus, the Australian firm supplying AI cameras to monitor mobile phone use and seatbelt compliance on UK roads.
Acusensus has quickly become the default provider, with systems in use across many police forces and in trials backed by National Highways. This dominance has not been matched by public discussion of alternatives, such as physical road changes or speed restrictions, nor by visible transparency over procurement. The risk is that one company becomes the de facto standard in AI road enforcement, much as Palantir has in data analytics.
To be fair, Acusensus presents itself as legitimate and careful. The company says data never leaves the UK, that AI models are frozen after training, that all AI flags undergo human review, and that images of non-offenders are discarded. These are reassuring claims. But legitimacy cannot rest on company assurances alone. The public interest requires independent oversight, audits, and full transparency of contracts and safeguards.
Several shortcomings stand out. First, the decision-making process has not been fully explained: were other approaches properly considered? Second, the handling and retention of data is still opaque, with no published audit mechanisms. Third, the technology is already being expanded to detect other behaviours, raising concerns about scope creep. And finally, there is the danger of “vendor lock-in”, where reliance on a single supplier discourages alternative approaches and narrows the policy debate.
The parallels with Palantir are striking: both cases involve private companies embedding themselves into state functions under the banner of efficiency and safety, while the frameworks for accountability and democratic control lag behind.
The point is not that Acusensus is acting improperly—it may well be an honest and professional supplier—but that the governance of these technologies is inadequate. Public safety should not come at the expense of public accountability. Without competitive procurement, independent oversight and clear rules on data use, the public will have little assurance that these systems serve them rather than the interests of the companies behind them.
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