Catherine Miles

NEW

How Palantir captured the Ministry of Defence

How a close read of public domain documents show how MoD was commercially colonised by Palantir

By me, at FT

www.ft.com/content/5207...

a group of penguins are walking in a line on the ground ALT: a group of penguins are walking in a line on the ground

we go live to Heard Island:

Big problem with the BBC is its sheer credulity and lack of intellectual curiosity about stuff. It feels like it has lost the will to interrogate (with rare exceptions)

YouTube video by Sky News Sky News gains rare access to Bank of England's gold vaults

📽️EXCLUSIVE
For the first time ever, @skynews has been into the @bankofengland's gold vaults to see the world's second biggest trove of physical gold. An extraordinary place. An extraordinary sight.
Have a watch of our film👇 youtu.be/dDlY4AFqV7o?...

In terms of the brother of a living king, I think (despite the heroically dysfunctional Georgians who came close) it was George, Duke of Clarence, sent to the Tower by Edward IV in the 1470s.

I reckon the last time the son of a sovereign was taken into custody in Britain was the Duke of Monmouth in 1685.

Waiting for the BBC analysis

‘Andrew arrested: Why this could be a big win for Farage’

One of the more hopeful signs in UK politics is that Reform consistently struggles to poll above the mid-to-high 20s - despite a deteriorating economy, the simultaneous implosion of both the traditional parties and a pet TV station.

Reform is not some unstoppable force. It's eminently beatable.

Britain’s Story: The Next Chapter - BBC Royal Charter Review, Green Paper and public consultation

This is the Gov looking for your input on the BBC. It takes a while to complete (15/20 mins) but it’s pretty comprehensive and covers most aspects.

Please share. I’m surprised many people haven’t seen it yet.

www.gov.uk/government/c...

Goooolldddd!!!!!! #olympics 🥇

15 years ago today I arrived on Downing Street in a cage.
I've seen off Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak and I'm still going strong.
Only two Prime Ministers have ever done longer stints here: William Pitt the Younger and Sir Robert Walpole.
Bill and Bob - I'm coming for you...
(Photos AP)

Bookish (on Now or via Sky?) written/starring Mark Gatiss is really excellent with some lovely 40s period detailing. Annika (on iplayer) if you haven’t seen it is brilliant and Karen Pirie on ITVX also good.

New post out:

Why are Reform's poll ratings falling?
How worried should be about Palantir?
How long does Starmer have left?

And lots more of your questions...

Topics covered listed below.

(£/free trial)

samf.substack.com/p/why-have-r...

I note GB is now ahead Canada in the medal table and they have a lot more snow.

Nigel Farage’s popularity dips as Reform UK surges in polls YouGov figures point to challenges ahead for populist party’s leader as he seeks to win backing from more voters

64% of the UK public view the Reform UK leader unfavourably, up from 59% in June 2025, according to new favourability ratings published by polling company YouGov

Some 27% approve of Farage, down from a peak of 32% in May and August last year

www.ft.com/content/2bcb...

The BBC was not the most over-excited media outlet during this week’s frenzied spasm about the PM. But with right wing commentators like Harry Cole (all the way from MAGAland) who usually foams and froths at mere mention of the BBC now pouring rare praise on its coverage, something must be wrong.

BBC didn’t have to concede those points. I wouldn’t have been surprised by boilerplate ‘breaking news, we just give both sides’ rebuttal. Seen plenty of BBC correspondence over the years and tone of the email definitely chastened by standard of these things. Hope it has some lingering effect.

BBC Verify also analysed several videos from the scene, concluding that none of the available videos showed Alex Pretti holding a gun in his hands. Although we continued to reference these videos regularly in our posts and key points, after further review of the page as a whole, we acknowledge that once we had this analysis, we should have placed more consistent and explicit emphasis on the fact that it contradicted the accounts given by the federal authorities

Although we later obtained and published the family's full statement on our second live page, we also acknowledge that we were late in publishing the full statement, which included strong criticism of the administration and accusations against the agents who shot him, as well as clearly disputing the suggestion that he was holding a gun when he was shot.

In short, while pointing out that breaking news with conflicting perspectives involves publication of competing accounts, pending clarification, BBC accepts it was slow to adjust once it became clear that only one side was engaged in to truth. Key paras in long email here …

Day after Alex Pretti killing I complained to BBC about presentation of White House statements and evidence as equivalent. Duty of balance doesn’t extend to complicity with clear lies, I said. BBC could and should report WH making false statements as a *fact of the story*. Today I got response …

Yeah, British politics is simple. You just need to improve public services without any meaningful tax increases, reduce immigration without any labour market impacts, and deliver growth and you'll be hugely successful.

No-one seems to have noticed, but many of the core developments in the Mandelson/Epstein story these last few days have been broken on this website. @pickardje.bsky.social and @petergeoghegan.bsky.social are both posting each breaking development on BlueSky, not X.

BREAKING: Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home and the focus on work-life balance

"People aren't more productive working from home - it's a load of nonsense”

Whatever you do JUST DON’T VOTE REFORM!

Having a great first day as the new Downing Street Chief of Staff. Have just got my emails sorted and completed the health and safety training.

Now before I begin work, it's time to take a big swig of water, and check the latest news.

This is mad. They've all gone mad.

He and Cummings now have the chance to create the most god-awful podcast together.

NBC appears to cut crowd’s booing of JD Vance from Winter Olympics broadcast The US vice-president, JD Vance, was greeted by a chorus of boos during when he appeared at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan on Friday

Wow, NBC edited out the audience booing JD Vance at the Olympics. And this is one of the few remaining news outlets NOT owned by right-wing billionaire Trump sycophants

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

past 7 days BBC special Kuenssberg ‘Reform ready for Gvt? Cunningham on Bbcaq and Yusuf on question time 🤯 and most media including. Sky and LBC push ‘rumours ‘ Starmer so low he’s considering resigning ‘ we looked on during America voting Trump twice and asked ‘how did this happen? ‘ now we know

Go every year and really liked this year’s edition. The images from the young photographers section were outstanding!

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says London Centric's investigation shows the need for greater regulation of the algorithms on sites such as TikTok to stop "bad faith actors spreading hate for clicks".

"Accounts are talking London down because the algorithms reward them for doing so," he says.

Hate-filled fake videos about London are everywhere. We've obtained a recording of a TikToker confessing to secretly filming Londoners in their homes for clicks.

He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger.

Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...