Yeah I do think being aligned with a democracy rather than Communist states is better for the UK. None of your quotes have changed my mind on that.

A significant disadvantage of the US and UKs democracy, more so in the US, is the short term thinking. China and Russia don't have that problem. They're more stable in that respect. They can execute real long term plans. Like businesses can. Nothing wrong with seeing advantages where they exist even if the way they go about it is disagreeable.

I'm not much of a history buff either but the US has been advancing it's global supremacy of "hard power and targeted violence" since at least the second world war. Palantir is nothing new.

And none of this has anything to do with an IT system in the NHS. What alternatives are there? Personally given the choice between palantir and a russian/Chinese company I'd go with palantir. Hopefully it works.