Why Are Governments Racing to Implement AI Without Protecting Citizens?
A thread on four essential books that explain what's really happening, and why you should read them all.
Want to understand why governments worldwide are falling over themselves to implement AI at Silicon Valley's pace rather than building citizen protections?
These four books together reveal the disturbing answer: We've already lost the plot.
🧵


The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff (2019)
Zuboff showed us HOW this happened: Tech companies learned to claim human experience as free raw material, turning our behavior into prediction products sold in futures markets.
Governments didn't regulate this because they didn't understand it until it was too late.
Zuboff's warning: Surveillance capitalism creates "extreme concentrations of knowledge and power free from democratic oversight."
By the time regulators noticed, these companies had become more powerful than most governments. They now SET the terms, not follow them.
This book explains the foundation of tech's unchecked power.

URGENT WARNING: Forest City 1 and the Charter City Agenda
This is not a housing development. This is a pilot project for privatised governance.

Forest City 1 is the first of a planned network of privately controlled charter cities on British soil - 45,000 acres of Suffolk farmland to be transformed into a governance experiment by a consortium of right-wing libertarian ideologues. More developments are in the pipeline. The supporters behind this scheme are not confused property developers. They are the architects of Britain's post-Brexit zone archipelago and charter-city governance model.
Forest City co-founder Shiv Malik contacted me directly, offering to "answer my questions." I did what any responsible citizen should: I asked him for clarity about land ownership, democratic control, SEZ plans, governance, displacement, investor benefits, and transparency.
He answered.
And what he admitted — 'in his own words' — is more damning than any critic of charter cities could invent.
forestcity.uk
Thread THE PLAN IN PLAIN TERMS
Forest City's backers have already confirmed in writing they will pursue:

Canary Wharf-style tax exemptions – removing taxation from vast tracts of British land
Building-tax exemptions – no council tax, no business rates, no democratic accountability
Government Development Corporation – unelected bureaucrats, not residents, will control all land distribution
Permanently appointed land-trust board – no elections, ever (justified because "democratic choice often runs counter to long-term interests")
80 acres gifted to the private consortium as profit – public land transferred to private hands as payment

This is not speculation. These are their stated objectives.

⚠️WARNING⚠️
Britain's Biggest Heist Since the Enclosures: Oracle, BlackRock, and Labour Are Stealing Your Future
Imagine this: Tech billionaire Larry Ellison pumps £300M into Tony Blair's think tank to ghostwrite UK AI policy, then Oracle scoops £54M in secret Home Office extensions and billions in digital ID contracts.
It's not a conspiracy. It's proven corruption, exposed by Guardian docs: backroom access, fake "independent" endorsements, and a revolving door spinning faster than a Ponzi scheme.
But that's just the appetiser.
BlackRock, your pension's shadowy overlord, snags 80% of UK's key ports in a £22.8B fire sale, controlling 60% of container traffic while loading £14B Thames Water debt onto your bills.
Freeports? Promised 80,000 jobs, delivered 5,600, at a blistering £896K per head.
Teesside's "deregulated paradise"? Run by a cocaine-trafficking "security firm" evading £1.5M in taxes.
Labour's betrayal seals it: Starmer's "progressive" zones are Tory tax havens rebranded, overriding local votes, tokenizing your parks on BlackRock's blockchain, and betting £14B on an AI bubble set to pop next quarter.
Water guzzled like a city's thirst, air poisoned with 2,000 tons of smog yearly, communities crushed, all subsidised by your energy levy hikes.
This is a corporate coup enclosing the commons: water, ports, data, nature itself.
FOIs blocked, minutes redacted, 25-year locks unbreakable.
I've joined the dots.
Demand accountability before reversal is impossible. Dive into the full investigation, sources, scandals, and a blueprint for resistance.
Read Now: The Corporate Coup Over the Commons. Please share and subscribe to my Substack.
I am a volunteer exposing the massive Ponzi Scheme that is the duopoly's nationwide stealth rollout of deregulated free zones.
Ask your neighbours and friends if they've heard of free zones, they will look at you like you have two heads.
Keep in mind, this is exactly what our corporate captured government want.
I call it Zone Fever
#CorporateCapture #UKPolitics #Enclosure2Point0
open.substack.com/pub/europeanpo…

https://x.com/EuropeanPowell/status/1987428910519222470?s=20

Starmer’s government totally, and without any shadow of a doubt are complicit with Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Over the years, Blair, May, Cameron, Sunak, Truss, Johnson, Braverman, Badenoch, Farage, Starmer, Lammy, all of them, guilty of not standing up to Netanyahu over Gaza, and with that destroying Britain’s reputation on the world stage. It beggars belief they did this.
What they have done is nothing less than total betrayal, the subsequent attacks on the ICC were compounded by Trump’s sanctions against this bastion of International Law, all of it remains beyond sickening.
Sir Keir Starmer supporting a disgusting fascist Israeli government, which saw him confirming, and giving license to Israel their “right” to deny water, food, and electricity, as well as laying siege on Gaza.
Totally illegal under the Geneva Convention.
I’ve started reading Peter Obourne’s book COMPLICIT: Britains role in the destruction of Gaza, going on the YouTube talk between Owen Jones and Obourne, it is absolutely clear that the coordinated, and manufactured consensus to promote Zionism above all ethical adherence to International Humanitarian Law was and continues to be obscene.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Asj4EW… Trump will ensure that the ICC will be dismantled and killed off.

Scenario - After the UK state becomes privatised by US Blackrock, Blackstone, Vanguard, PEEL Group, Pronomos Capital, via the plethora of deregulated free zones in England, Scotland, and Wales, authoritarianism will expand with surveillance capitalism as its primary digital linchpin. The ideological architecture behind what might otherwise look like technocratic policy are very real ‘exit strategies’ taking place immediately after Brexit.
What’s happening is a 25-year 'reconfiguration-of-the-UK' phase, where collective sovereignty is replaced in incremental steps with corporate sovereignty via free zones, port by port, zone by zone, region by region, patchworks of feudal enclaves and tax havens, all competing with one another in an unlevel market distorted playing field.
A private equity firm you should know of is Pronomos Capital, they are waiting in the wings. pronomos.vc/people

What You Can Do About UK Enterprise Zones

🧵 The UK’s enterprise zone network is expanding under Labour’s Industrial Strategy Zones. Here are concrete actions you can take to resist the corporate carve-up of Britain:

1/ **DEMAND TRANSPARENCY**
Ask your MP and local council: Which companies benefit from zone subsidies? What taxes do they avoid? What environmental damage do they cause? What IP are they acquiring? They’re using public money—you have a right to know.
1/12 2/ **CHALLENGE DEMOCRATIC DEFICITS** Enterprise zones bypass normal democratic oversight. Demand that all zones require local council approval, genuine public consultation with veto power, and annual performance reviews with revocation powers.

Actions the @TheGreenParty and @thisisyourparty must consider implementing now that they have both publicly stated they are against deregulated Freeports and Special Economic Zones.
@graceblakeley and @jeremycorbyn discussion on free zones👇🏻
x.com/EuropeanPowell…
The Green Party's public page on voting against free zones👇🏻
greenparty.org.uk/2024/09/08/gre…
A Proposed Plan
Dismantle the deregulatory structure of all free zones, align them with the EU’s regulatory orbit. What must be demanded:
Immediate transparency: Full disclosure of which companies benefit from zone subsidies, what IP they acquire, what profits they extract, what taxes they avoid, and what environmental damage they cause.
Democratic accountability: All enterprise zones must operate under normal democratic oversight, including local council approval, genuine public consultation with veto power, and annual performance reviews with revocation powers.
Conditionality: Attach strings to all public subsidies—living wage guarantees, union recognition, profit-sharing with local communities, IP sharing requirements, environmental compliance, local hiring quotas.
Public ownership: Create genuinely public alternatives—community-owned food processing, publicly-run research facilities, municipal data centres, cooperative enterprise zones governed by workers and communities.
EU realignment: Rejoin EU regulatory frameworks that prevent state aid abuse and protect food standards, worker rights, environmental protections, and data privacy.
Labour organising: Unionise workers in all enterprise zones to resist exploitation and demand fair wages, secure contracts, and democratic workplace governance.
Legal challenges: Challenge the legality of Mayoral Development Orders, compulsory purchase orders, 25-year licenses that lock in corporate advantages, and “regulatory sandboxes” that suspend democratic protections.
Electoral pressure: Make enterprise zone accountability a voting issue in local and national elections. Demand candidates commit to zone reform or abolition.
International solidarity: Connect with communities globally fighting Special Economic Zones, Export Processing Zones, and corporate sovereignty—this is a worldwide phenomenon requiring worldwide resistance.
Alternative economic models: Build and demonstrate that democratic, cooperative, publicly-owned economic development delivers better outcomes than corporate welfare zones.
Media pressure: Force mainstream media to cover the zone network, 140+ zones affecting every aspect of national life deserve front-page investigation, not buried in business sections.
Parliamentary opposition: Demand MPs scrutinise ISZ governance, question the merger of Freeports and Investment Zones, challenge Defence and AI Growth Zone expansion, and investigate conflicts of interest in zone governance boards.
Community organising: Build coalitions between affected communities, farmers losing abattoirs, students in commercialised universities, workers in low-wage zone jobs, residents facing compulsory purchase, and communities losing democratic control.
The corporate carve-up of Britain is systematic, comprehensive, and intentional.
It has cross-party support and billions in sunk costs. But it’s also fragile.
These zones depend on:
Public money (which can be withdrawn)
Public legitimacy (which can be challenged)
Political protection (which can be voted out)
Legal frameworks (which can be challenged in courts)
Community acquiescence (which can be transformed into resistance)
I am a volunteer who has been researching the Tories and Labour's collusion in the nationwide stealth rollout of deregulated free zones.
Please read my findings on here, on Bluesky and on Substack💚
@ZackPolanski @zarahsultana
substack.com/home/post/p-17…

https://x.com/EuropeanPowell/status/1983857036140908788

Apart from @TheCanaryUK has anyone seen a single left-wing media outlet investigate the duopoly's nationwide rollout of deregulated free zones?
The ongoing proliferation of free zones under Keir Starmer now includes AI Growth Zones, and Defence Growth Zones (the digital layer), while Labour published their paper, Industrial Strategy Zones Action Plan in June 2025. The paper states it will merge the Tories' Freeports and SEZs under the umbrella of Industrial Strategy Zones (ISZs)
@novaramedia @declassifiedUK @TurnLeftMediaUK @DoubleDownNews @owenjonesjourno @The_TUC @RMTunion @UniteSharon @TheGreenParty @yourparty @zarahsultana @jeremycorbyn @ZackPolanski Jeremy Corbyn 100% against Freeports and Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
@jeremycorbyn
"A freeport is essentially a tax-free zone created by a government to persuade a global corporation to move in there, and be exempt from an awful lot of laws and property taxes, and a number of other taxes as well, a lot of workers protections are lost in these free zones"
x.com/EuropeanPowell…

My article on UK Special Economic Zones is free to read on my Substack. Please subscribe and, where possible, make a donation to my online Ko-Fi tip jar.
ko-fi.com/europeanpowell
Thank you💚
open.substack.com/pub/europeanpo…
I think what’s happening in the UK with free zones represents one of the most significant, and underreported transformations of democratic governance in modern British history.

It is patently clear that if the MSM gave as much attention to Palantir and Blackrock's incursions into the public sector, and the duopoly's nationwide rollout of deregulated free zones as much as they give to Nigel Farage and immigration, we would be seeing outrage directed at these actual seismic issues that are secretly changing Britain into an authoritarian state under a right-wing corporate political model.

https://x.com/EuropeanPowell/status/1974732012532510909

Blackrock have 677 registered entities at Companies House UK, possibly more, many of the addresses are from the Cayman Islands. Blackrock has 80% ownership in 3 British Freeports, Felixtowe, Harwich, and Thamesport, they are moving into critical public infrastructure.
Blackrock also has 4.7% shares in Palantir.
Palantir have 24 contracts with key UK public institutions, the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, the polices forces, the Cabinet Office, the DLUHC, and Coventry City Council whose contract is the 24th and was arranged by Keir Starmer this year.
The UK is being privatised.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/search?q=Black…


Starmer's enthusiastic partnership announcement suggests policy capture at the highest levels. This isn't ordinary foreign investment; it's a systematic acquisition of control over the infrastructure backbone of the UK's economy by one the most criminally corrupt shadow banks in the world.

In June 2025, the Starmer government released the Industrial Strategy Zones Action Plan, which consolidates the Tories' 12 Freeports and 74 SEZs with Labour's new AI Growth Zones (200 applications to date), Defence Growth Zones, University and Food Enterprise Zones.
This represents a fundamental shift toward privatisation across the UK.
Areas outside these designated zones simply cannot compete as millions in public funding is lavished on free zone applicants.
Neither the public nor the Press were consulted about these details due to secondary legislation being embedded in the Tories free zone policy, which Labour lapped up behind the scenes while signing off on these carve-outs. Keir Starmer’s AI Growth Zones, layered atop 86 deregulated free zones (12 Freeports, 74 SEZs), are wiring the UK into a techno-feudal fiefdom, fueled by Bitcoin’s environmental carnage, automation, and corporate land grabs costing £19.78 billion, with £64 billion more pledged.
These dedicated AI Growth Zones (200 bids on sites so far) are designed to speed up planning permission and provide energy connections needed for AI infrastructure.
gov.uk/government/pub…
Bitcoin’s energy-guzzling mining, water-intensive infrastructure, and lithium extraction threaten landscapes like Dartmoor, while tech lords like BlackRock, Palantir, and libertarian ideologues, Peter Thiel, Nigel Farage, and Balaji Srinivasan, carve nations into corporate sovereignties. This is end-times fascism: billionaires bunkering down in deregulated enclaves, ravaging the planet, and dismantling governments.
The Public Knows Nothing, and The Stakes, Economic, Democratic, and Environmental, are Existential.
europeanpowell.substack.com/p/the-genius-a…

You need to see what Blackrock are doing with Global Infrastructure Partners in the US.
They are taking public companies that provide critical infrastructure such as water, electricity, data centres, food markets, logistics, land, schools and hospitals, and farmland.
Keir Starmer’s govt has partnered with Blackrock (and Blackstone) plus 700 more corporate lobbyists).
It means the commons is up for grabs and your bills will skyrocket, this is how corporations monopolize critical public infrastructure.
Blackrock in partnership with Keir Starmer’s changed Labour Party are going to privatise the UK.
Watch the video
m.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTxjZ… x.com/europeanpowell… x.com/europeanpowell…

Peter Thiel funded Próspera.
Próspera is currently suing the Honduran Govt for $11 billion via an ISDS mechanism because their ZEDE/charter city was shut down by the Honduran Supreme Court.
The ISDS mechanism allows foreign investors to bypass domestic courts and take disputes directly to international arbitration panels, which is exactly what Próspera is doing in this case. This has become a significant point of controversy, as critics argue it allows foreign companies to challenge sovereign democratic decisions through international tribunals.
The equivalent ISDS mechanism is the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), this is embedded in all UK free zones.
substack.com/@europeanpowel…
Próspera is backed by multiple investors, including Balaji Srinivasan, Peter Thiel, and Marc Andreessen, through the venture capital firm Pronomos Capital. Próspera - was founded by Patri Friedman (grandson of Milton Friedman) with seed funding from Thiel.
substack.com/@europeanpowel…
A Startup Linked to Peter Thiel Wants to Build the "Next Great City" in Greenland, and Pronomos Capital has raised at least $13.3 million from free-market evangelists including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen.
Palantir was co-founded by Peter Thiel and Alex Karp has 24 contracts with key UK public institutions, including the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, the police force, the Cabinet Office, the DLUHC, and Coventry City Council.
Louis Mosely is the head of Palantir UK, he is the grandson of British fascist Oswald Mosely.
substack.com/@europeanpowel…
Keir Starmer set up the 24th contract with Palantir for Coventry City Council (@zarahsultana 's constituency.
Palantir with Keir Starmer will continue their capture of UK councils and key UK infrastructure.
This is absolutely connected to Starmer's blind embrace of deregulated AI Growth Zones rollout and Datacentres.
open.substack.com/pub/europeanpo…
When the fuck are the MSM and Independent news outlets such as @novaramedia and @TurnLeftMediaUK going to investigate Zone Fever and the corporate capture of the UK by US techno feudalists, all of which are a direct result of Brexit?
All the articles I've linked to are on my Substack.
Please read, share and subscribe.
I am a volunteer researching the free zone phenomenon. I explain why they are not being reported on and why most people have not heard of them.
I am a member of @thegreenparty

https://x.com/EuropeanPowell/status/1948773137878822977

Keir Starmer and Blackrock: A Relationship Built For The Total Privatisation Of Britain open.substack.com/pub/europeanpo… Deloitte should not be receiving new contracts from Keir Starmer's Govt along with astronomical amounts of public money to carry on its atrocious track record of dodgy auditing for some of the most powerful corporations in the world.
The DWP’s focus on benefit fraud, which accounts for a relatively small fraction of public expenditure (£5.5 billion in 2022/23 per the National Audit Office), contrasts sharply with the estimated £46 billion lost annually to tax avoidance and evasion.

The Sovereign Corporation is being constructed in real time, this is what will turbocharge corporate fascism in the UK.
The deregulatory landscape was laid down by Brexit, Labour, and the Tories colluded to carve up the UK into 12 Freeports and 74 SEZs.
In January 2025, Keir Starmer launched AI Growth Zones, which have over 200 bids on sites in the bag, bids are to stay open indefinitely.
In June 2025, Labour published a policy paper titled Industrial Strategy Zones Action Plan, which aims to merge the 12 Freeports and 74 SEZs, and no doubt the digital layer of Starmer's AI Growth Zones as well.
Tories, Labour, and Reform UK all back free zones.
This is a live corporate coup, the UK is being privatised. Sign the petition if you want to continue living in a democracy without corporate free zones stealing your money, your land, your homes, and your human rights.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/7294…

@jasonhickel is fantastic, and I'm glad @novaramedia interviewed him.
The richest countries in the world cannot guarantee food security for their own citizens; something is seriously wrong with the 'economic growth' policies of the centrist right.
The degrowth movement is a global socio-economic and ecological philosophy and activist framework that advocates for a deliberate reduction in economic growth, particularly in wealthy nations, as a means to achieve sustainability, social equity, and human well-being.
Degrowth emphasises redistributing wealth and resources through policies like universal basic income (UBI), shorter working hours, and universal public services. We can no longer prioritise corporate profit over community well-being, which has proven completely unsustainable as the last 45+ years have shown.
youtube.com/watch?v=bjlqWH… Growth is the obsession of the capitalist class.
Under socialism you can scale up and scale down sectors.
Socialists should care about human needs and well-being, while decreasing production of harmful and unnecessary things.
So let's all question what exactly entails Labour's 'economic growth' plans more publicly.
Read about Degrowth.
Keir Stamer is a buffoon.

⚠️WARNING⚠️
The head of the UK branch of Palantir is Louis Mosley, who is the grandson of the renowned British fascist Oswold Mosley.
Louis Mosley is quoted as saying that Palantir's strategy for entry into the British health industry was to "Buy our way in" by acquiring smaller rival companies with existing relationships with the NHS in order to "take a lot of ground and take down a lot of political resistance"
The fact that Palantir has 24 contracts with UK public institutions including the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, the police force, the Cabinet Office, and the DLUHC should be ringing alarm bells.
Quotes from Peter Thiel "The NHS makes people sick" and "I no longer believe freedom and democracy are compatible"
It was the Tories who arranged 23 of the Palantir contracts, the most recent contract given to Palantir was to Coventry City Council by Keir Starmer in April 2025.
Keir Starmer will continue handing out Palantir contracts to councils, as one by one, councils are collapsing due to insufficient funding and poor management. This is part and parcel of how predatory corporations are making serious incursions into the public sector.
Palantir is a key component of the mass privatisation of infrastructure currently accelerating at pace post-Brexit. Lack of Transparency in Procurement
Many contracts were awarded without competition, with some being "handed over in secret" until transparency organisations forced publication.
Even now, the UK government is withholding details of Palantir contracts, making it difficult for the public to understand the full scope.

Hi @zarahsultana
Coventry City Council (your constituency) has just signed a £500k AI contract with Palantir (running 2025–2030), and was set up by Keir Starmer's Govt in June 2025.
Given Palantir’s record (surveillance, ICE, Gaza), many of us in Coventry & beyond are really worried. I know you’ve always stood up for human rights, and that’s why I support the new party you’re building with Jeremy Corbyn.
Your constituents' personal data, including yours, will be in Palantir's hands.
This feels like exactly the kind of issue where your voice could make a real difference, holding power to account locally while connecting it to the global struggle for justice.
Palantir isn’t just another tech supplier: it builds surveillance platforms, powers ICE deportations, and provides software used in drone targeting systems linked to civilian deaths in Gaza.
This deal follows 23 Tory-awarded Palantir contracts, and now Starmer’s government is continuing down the same path, embedding a company with a deeply troubling human rights record into UK public institutions (NHS, police, MoD… and now Coventry City Council).
Given your long record of speaking out for Palestine, against surveillance, and for democratic accountability, and now your call for public involvement in shaping a new party with Jeremy Corbyn, will you commit to challenging Palantir’s presence in Coventry?
Residents deserve to know:
How was this contract awarded?
Why Palantir, despite its record?
What safeguards (if any) exist to stop our data being used for harmful ends?
This is exactly the kind of issue, local, global, and moral that could show how your movement offers a genuine alternative. Palantir's mass surveillance tools & human rights risks Palantir’s systems are widely used across military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies. Privacy advocates warn its platforms enable broad, unchecked surveillance, raising concerns about civil liberties and misuse of data.

https://x.com/EuropeanPowell/status/1958130221103689771

When Keir Starmer’s government announced its AI Growth Zones in January 2025, I saw zero press coverage of what this actually entailed, just the usual MSM puff pieces parroting Labour's “jobs”, “innovation”, and “future-proofing Britain” bullshit.
But the real story was hidden in plain sight: this wasn’t just about AI, and it wasn’t just about technology. It was about hardwiring a corporate-first model of anti-governance into Britain’s economic geography by stealth.
europeanpowell.substack.com/p/industrial-s… They arrive silently, no fanfare, no public debate, no parliamentary scrutiny. But across Birmingham, Cornwall, Dorset, Norfolk, Suffolk, and beyond, a corporate takeover is underway. Freeports, Investment Zones (SEZs), and AI Growth Zones are not just coexisting, they’re consolidating into a single threat: Industrial Strategy Zones (ISZs).

This is insane, look at this!
DEFRA is pre-empting a barrage of FOI requests on their Land Use Consultation paper.
The Defra Land Use Consultation paper (February 2025) contains an unusual confidentiality clause that raises serious concerns about transparency.
While framed as procedural, the notice effectively pre-empts a wave of Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests. Stakeholders are invited to mark their submissions as confidential, but the government warns it "cannot provide an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances", a line that appears crafted to discourage disclosures rather than protect openness.
In the context of rising public concern over the financialisation of nature, and amid reports of BlackRock and other private asset managers eyeing "natural capital" as a portfolio class, the clause reads as a defensive legal posture. It suggests the government expects scrutiny around who is influencing land use policy, how "nature's assets" are being defined, and whether financial firms are shaping frameworks behind closed doors.
Such pre-emptive language undermines public trust and transparency, especially as environmental commons face unprecedented commodification.
consult.defra.gov.uk/land-use-frame… I reviewed the UK Government’s February 2025 Land Use Consultation and its Analytical Annex, and there is no mention of BlackRock or any specific financial institutions in either document, despite both paper’s foundational emphasis on natural capital and nature markets, which BlackRock explicitly lists among its strategic investment priorities.
As the government simultaneously pursues a partnership with BlackRock and encourages asset-like valuation of environmental resources, the omission of any corporate stakeholders appears less accidental than strategic.