Shocking story by @PaulLewis & team. @guardian has seen documents showing govt using Peter Thiel’s Palantir’s & NHS patient data to model ‘herd immunity’ week after policy supposedly dropped
There’s another company at heart of this story too. Meet @faculty_ai. Formerly known as ASI, the ‘secret’ data firm Dominic Cummings hired to do Vote Leave’s data modelling. There’s so much about this work that has never come out. A small fraction here:
This is data nirvana. Now in hands of one company owned by a Trumpian ideologue & another Cummings used in his law-breaking Vote Leave campaign. If you don’t think there is an issue with how this data is being used or where it could end up, you are very very much mistaken
It’s no exaggeration to say that this is Cambridge Analytica’s on steroids. Yes, NHS data is vital for us as a nation to fight this terrible virus but to use these 2 companies with such troubled histories with zero transparency is deeply disquieting
What tender process?? Where was it advertised? Who else bid? Ben Warner didn’t just work on Vote Leave, he worked on general election & then was recruited by Cummings to work at No. 10.
Note also all those references to Faculty’s lawyers. When I researched article on Ben Warner’s involvement in general election, Faculty refused to answer all queries then sent letter from Schillings. Week later, after election, @ShippersUnbound ‘revealed’ his role in @sundaytimes
And as Arron Banks & his brother are so delighting in pointing out, GMG Ventures, a commercial spin-off of Scott Trust, invested in Faculty. It’s a huge testament to the independence of our editorial coverage that it played zero role in how this story was covered
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NEW: I'm seeking permission to appeal in the Supreme Court. There's no meaningful free expression in this country if after proving your speech is lawful, you're hit with £££ costs: a devastating ruling that will chill public interest journalism
by @_EmmaGH theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/m…
This was filed today in the Court of Appeal. If the Supreme Court rejects it, we believe there’s a strong case to take it to the European Court of Human Rights.
Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights puts an obligation on states to ensure freedom of expression. According to the ruling in this case, it's very far from free: even if you can prove your speech is lawful, it'll still cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds...
It's been a long time but v happy to be back in @ObserverUK today with 2 pieces, both close to my heart. And to launch a new project with @allthecitizens.
1/ An astonishing new claim that MI5 refused to investigate Russian spy's infiltration of Tory party theguardian.com/politics/2023/…
2/ Delighted to profile the fierce & brilliant @pevchikh for @ObsNewReview. If you've seen the Navalny doc, she's the woman sitting by Navalny's side as he calls one of his FSB poisoners & gets him to confess to Novichoking his underpants. theguardian.com/world/2023/jan…
3/ Finally, the story of how the Kremlin captured Britain. And how the UK government covered it up. If you've wondered why no British broadcaster has told the real story behind the Russia Report, please watch this & consider contributing.
My jaw hit the floor when I discovered Boris Johnson left an emergency NATO meeting after the Kremlin’s chemical warfare attack on Britain & flew to an off-the-books meeting with an ex-KGB spy.
In July 2019, Johnson had just been made PM. And @nickhopkinsnews published 2 extraordinary stories about Foreign Secretary Johnson flying from a NATO meeting to a party in Italy at the height of the Skripal crisis.
The party was at Evgeny Lebedev’s villa. The owner of Independent & Evening Standard.
Hopkins’s first story suggested he’d given his security detail the slip to fly to Italy. Then a Guardian reader supplied photos of him leaving: hungover & dishevelled 3/
Thank you to the judge, my stellar legal team & the 29,000 people who contributed to my legal defence fund. I literally couldn’t have done it without you 🙏🙏🙏
I haven't read the judgment yet but what I can say that the last 3 years have been extraordinarily difficult. Fighting this has been a crushing, debilitating, all-consuming experience that I sincerely hope no other journalist ever has to go through. 2/ judiciary.uk/judgments/bank…
The fact that his case was brought clearly shows how our libel laws favour the rich & powerful. I was only able to defend myself because of the incredibly generous support of the public. But this judgment is a huge victory for public interest journalism.
3/