Last week, the US data and spy tech company Palantir posted a 22-point manifesto on the social media platform X. Based on a book by the firm’s CEO, Alex Karp, the manifesto — variously described as the “ramblings of a super-villain” and “a parody of a RoboCop film” — has renewed concern about the aspirations and motivations of a company that is increasingly embedded in state infrastructure on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s the contract with Britain’s National Health Service that has proven the most controversial, as Lars Bevanger reports from Manchester.