We need to talk about Palantir
You would be forgiven if you haven't heard of Palantir. But you seriously need to. They are the owners of some very lucrative contracts that you're paying for through your taxes. They are also embedded in some of the darkes events of modern times and are deeply in bed with the far-right. Ther are many ways to describe Palantir: a surveillance behemoth, a corporate parasite, a data-hoarding menace, a threat to society, a bunch of cunts.
And yet, thanks to the relentless march of privatisation, this intrusive American spy-tech giant has embedded itself deep within our public healthcare system. Now, under the so-called 'changed' Labour government, it seems that nothing has actually changed at all. One thing that needs to change is that Palantir and has no fucking place in our NHS.
Palantir, founded by Silicon Valley billionaire and all round industrial grade twat Peter Thiel, has a long and murky history. A favourite of the US military-industrial complex, it made its name in mass surveillance, border enforcement, and predictive policing. In short, it profits from the kind of dystopian nightmare that Orwell himself would have found excessive. Thiel, an ultra-libertarian tech bro who once argued that democracy and capitalism are incompatible, is the last person you want anywhere near any British public services. While the Tories unsurprisingly rolled out the red carpet for him, Labour’s new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, with a breath-taking level of why are we not fucking surprised, has seemingly fluffed up the pillows.
Thiel’s political affiliations make his involvement in the NHS even more disturbing. He has poured millions into far-right causes, backing Donald Trump and funding hard-right candidates in the US. He bankrolls a network of anti-democratic think tanks and dark money groups pushing nationalist, anti-immigrant, and free-market extremism across the Western world. His influence stretches across the Atlantic, where his brand of hyper-capitalist authoritarianism finds a natural home in the Tufton Street cabal, the breeding ground of Tory hardliners and nest of Brexit disaster architects and he has links to such outfits like the Institute of Economic Affairs and Policy Exchange. Thiel is not just a player in British politics, he's a paymaster of its most insidious ideologues, funnelling cash into the same right-wing ghouls who spend their days plotting to dismantle what’s left of the welfare state.
Thiel has also been dogged by allegations of opaque ties to Russia. Thiel himself has been known to court far-right figures who have more than a passing sympathy for Putin’s brand of authoritarianism. The tech oligarch operates in a world where borders blur between Western ultra-capitalists and Eastern autocrats, bound by their shared hatred of democratic oversight. If a surveillance company built by a man like this is being handed the keys to NHS patient data, we should all be alarmed. The red flags here aren't only Russian.
Palantir first got its claws into the NHS during the pandemic, providing data analysis for the Covid-19 response. That, of course, was just the foot in the door. Fast forward to today, and Palantir has won a contract worth at least £330 million to build the NHS’s Federated Data Platform (FDP). This is a system that will centralise patient data across England. This, we are told, will revolutionise healthcare efficiency. What it will also do is hand swathes of our most sensitive medical data to a company that has repeatedly been embroiled in scandal and secrecy and has very close links with Big Pharma in the US. The Guardian
The concerns are obvious. Palantir has a track record of working with ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to hunt down and deport undocumented migrants. It has been implicated in racial profiling by US police forces. It also has a history of winning contracts through opaque backroom deals, bypassing proper scrutiny. Now, we are seriously meant to believe that this same company can be trusted with the medical records of millions of British citizens. Forgive the scepticism but seriously, fuck you Palantir and fuck whichever horse of the apocalypse you rode in on.
Karp and Thiel. Ultra neocons ensuring that we are all under surveillance and they can monetise it.
And then there's Alex Karp, Palantir’s CEO - a proper special case. This POS has cultivated a surreal image that some believe was was the blueprint and inspiration for Peter Isherwell, the billionaire CEO of BASH Cellular in Adam McKay's 2012 dark comedy, 'Don't look Up'. Half eccentric philosopher, half corporate overlord. He rails against Silicon Valley’s left-leaning culture, styles himself as an outsider, and yet has no problem raking in billions from government surveillance contracts. In interviews, he oscillates between vague pseudo-intellectual ramblings and aggressive defences of his company's ethically dubious work. His entire schtick is that he doesn’t care what people think, so long as the money keeps flowing. But now of course, the money is flowing in the direction of Labour politicians as well. Wes Streeting, the man supposedly in charge of 'saving' the NHS, has been particularly cosy with Palantir. The Register of Members interests shows that he has received significant financial support from private healthcare interests, including firms linked to Palantir’s work. His sudden alleged enthusiasm for NHS reform looks less like an effort to fix a broken system and more like an attempt to grease the wheels for corporate vultures. A for Private healthcare? well they aren't giving him that money for his boyish charm and outgoing personality. They clearly want a return - and Palantir is embedded firmly in this. https://goodlawproject.org/how-private-health-has-invested-in-wes-streeting/
The NHS founding principle is that it should be free at the point of use, not a feeding trough for a secretive US tech firm run by a couple of authoritarian-sympathising weirdos. But that’s exactly what’s happening. The FDP deal was rammed through despite vocal opposition from patient groups, privacy advocates, and even NHS insiders. The consultation process was a joke, the contracts awarded in circumstances that reek of cronyism, and the government's reassurances about data security are about as trustworthy as a Boris Johnson promise. BMJ
This is the neoliberal playbook: strip the NHS down, sell chunks off to private interests, and let profiteers like Palantir turn our public health service into their latest cash cow. We epected the Tories to do this but we are now waking up to the smell of cold coffee that it's more likely Labour will kill the NHS.
Palantir, in addition hasn't just had it's eyes focused on the NHS. It’s been quietly worming its way into every corner of the British state, monetising public data and turning it into a corporate cash cow. From its shady dealings with police forces to its dodgy contracts with intelligence agencies, this Silicon Valley surveillance outfit has been hoovering up data under the guise of 'efficiency' and 'security.' In reality, it’s nothing more than a privatised arm of state control, flogging Orwellian predictive policing tools to law enforcement and embedding itself into government infrastructure with all the grace of a parasite.
Take its work with the Ministry of Defence, for example. Palantir has been lining its pockets by providing data analysis for military operations, reinforcing the UK’s role as Washington’s eager lapdog in foreign interventions. And let’s not forget its ties to immigration enforcement, helping the Home Office ramp up its already sadistic deportation machine with advanced tracking and profiling. Palantir doesn’t 'solve' problems, it monetises state overreach, feeding off the worst instincts of an increasingly authoritarian government. And as long as British institutions keep handing them the keys to the kingdom, they’ll continue selling our data and civil liberties to the highest bidder, grinning all the way to the bank. And you can bet there'll be people in Whitehall panicking about the new reality with the US and gaming out where exactly that data is going.
As a bsuiness model, Palantir, in mired military-industrial grime, but its entanglement with the Israeli military is particularly grotesque. This is a company founded on the premise of mass surveillance and predictive policing, eagerly embedding itself within the apparatus of state violence wherever there's blood to be wrung from a contract. Its work with the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) is just another extension of this, providing the tech infrastructure for a regime hell-bent on entrenching occupation, surveilling Palestinians into submission, and turning Gaza into a laboratory for ever more sophisticated repression. Palantir's so-called "AI-driven solutions" aren't neutral data tools, they're weapons of war, facilitating targeted assassinations, population control, and the kind of predictive policing that turns every Palestinian into a pre-criminal. It’s no surprise that Peter Thiel, its billionaire ghoul of a co-founder, is ideologically aligned with the most reactionary, ethno-nationalist elements in global politics. Under his watch, Palantir has seamlessly integrated itself into Israel’s war machine, no doubt seeing the brutalisation of Palestinians as yet another business opportunity. These cunts aren’t just complicit in oppression: they’re actively engineering the tools that make it more efficient, more automated, and more relentless.
If Labour is serious about protecting the NHS, reversing this deal should be a top priority. Because once Palantir is in, getting rid of it will be like pulling teeth, only without NHS dentists, you’ll have to go private. Of course there's no evidence whatsoever, tht Labour has any intention of this.
Palantir is not a healthcare company. It is a surveillance firm masquerading as a tech solution. It exists to hoover up data, monetise it, and wield it as a tool of state and corporate control. The fact that it has been welcomed into our NHS by Labour as well as the Tories is not just alarming, it’s a fucking scandal. And if we don’t fight back now, the consequences for our health service, our privacy, and our democracy will be catastrophic.
The world has gone mad. If you enjoyed reading this, please feel free to look at the rest of the blogs on www.TetleysTLDR.com. They're free to view, there's no paywall, they aren't monetised and I won't ask you to buy me a coffee. Also please free to share. Just a leftie, standing in front of another leftie, asking to be read. All the best, Tetley
