Can't persuade voters? Tom Watson's new Palantir job shows you can just buy their democracy. The revolving door spins. 18 September 2026. Labour's former deputy leader, Tom Watson, September 2019. Toby Melville/Reuters Back in the halcyon days of Corbynism, I spent a lot of time thinking about Tom Watson. The then-deputy leader of the Labour party was the right's man on the inside; either a noble fighter in service of the moderate cause, or a committed wrecker, who weaponised antisemitism allegations to undermine his own party. He resigned from the post, and stepped down from the House of Commons, just one month before the 2019 general election. What's he been up to these days, I hear you ask? Well, six years after being elevated to the House of Lords by Keir Starmer, further congratulations are in order. Watson's just been appointed as Palantir's newest senior vice-president, working closely with Louis Mosley (grandson of Oswald, and the second-worst Mitford sister). A hero of the working man, a Labour titan, through and through. Watson's new job is more of a promotion than a big move: the Baron of Wyre Forest had been a member of Palantir's advisory board since 2024. According to the company - named, reassuringly, after the evil and corrupting magic seeing stones from The Lord of the Rings - Watson's role will be to increase the "social and economic value" of its work through public services, jobs and skills. Translation: this former minister will help grease its way to the government teat. The assistance of an ex-Westminster big dog couldn't come a moment too soon for Palantir. The company is facing pressure on PM Andy Burnham to cancel its £330m NHS contract, and is in a legal dispute with London mayor Sadiq Khan over his blocking of a £50m Metropolitan police AI contract. Palantir's involvement with US immigration enforcement (ICE) and work with the Israel Defence Force during the genocide has made the tech giant a flashpoint for protesters. What's more, polling shows that the overwhelming majority of Brits are in favour of regulating AI more tightly. There's a growing sense that AI has more risks than benefits, and more than three-quarters of people cite the use of personal data without consent as a negative impact of the technology on their lives. The task for Watson, then, is to convince the prime minister and his cabinet to ignore campaigners and voters alike, and hand over lucrative government contracts to Palantir with as little fuss as possible. If Palantir was after a man who's had practice going to bat for morally-compromised causes, they could have chosen no better: since stepping down as an MP, Tom Watson went onto advise Flutter Entertainment, which owns Paddy Power, Betfair and SkyBet. Steel-trap memories may recall Watson once having been an ardent voice for betting regulation in the House of Commons. To be fair to Watson, he's hardly the first man through the revolving door. Nick Clegg, another former deputy prime minister, headed for the sunshine of Silicon Valley after leaving government, taking a job with Meta (then-Facebook). Ex-PM Rishi Sunak has taken roles with Anthropic and Microsoft since leaving government, and former chancellor George Osborne leapt into bed with OpenAI. And hey, maybe these guys are just fabulous workers: diligent, industrious, indefatigable. Or maybe, just maybe, it's not their character that's valuable, so much as their contact books. The point of hiring politicians, from a tech-oligarch's point of view, is to wear away at political resistance. Why persuade voters, when you can just buy democracy out from under them? Ash Sarkar is a contributing editor at Novara Media.

Leaders from BBC, Electronic Arts, Flutter and Veolia to present at Alation's revAlation 2026 conference series. Across Chicago, London, and Sydney, data and AI executives and industry thought leaders share what production-ready AI actually looks like. September 10, 2026 09:10 ET | Source: Alation, Inc. REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Alation Inc., the creators of the intelligence operating system, today announced the return of revAlation, its global conference series. The 2026 series encompasses three conferences: Chicago (September 17), London (September 30), and Sydney (October 8). Executives and industry thought leaders from Accenture, AWS, BBC, Electronic Arts, Flutter, MyState Limited, PwC, SanjMo, Veolia, and more will present in more than 20 sessions around the globe. Sessions focus on the problems most pressing for leaders undergoing AI transformation: governing AI assets and proving compliance on demand, scaling governance without scaling headcount, and moving agents from pilot into production on a trusted data foundation. Attendees will also get an exclusive preview of Alation's product roadmap and leave with frameworks they can apply immediately. "Every enterprise now has AI running somewhere. Few can prove it's accurate, governed, and audit-ready," said Satyen Sangani, CEO and co-founder of Alation. "When an agent gets it wrong, most teams can't tell whether the failure was in the data, context, or agent itself. revAlation is where the leaders who solved that problem showcase their work, inspire others, and compare notes." Conference Highlights Include: Corporate Keynote: Hear Alation's CEO and co-founder, Satyen Sangani, share why the organizations that succeed with AI will be those that learn fastest and how AIOS provides the trusted, self-improving foundation they need to align decisions, adapt continuously, and innovate safely at scale. Product Keynote: Join GT Volpe, VP of Product at Alation, for a live look at what's next across AIOS, and how the platform brings governed data, context, and AI agents into a single system. Attendees will be among the first to see Alation's newest capabilities, announced live from the revAlation stage. Customer Keynote: Gain firsthand insights from Alation customers, including Warren Durrett, Sr. Director of Product Data, AI, and Monetization at Electronic Arts, and Sarah Higham, Head of Data Enablement, and Paul Courtney, Director, Data Enablement & Responsible AI at Flutter, as they walk through what they built, what it took to govern it, and the business outcomes they delivered. Partner Spotlight: Meet the Global System Integrators, including PwC, and partners building on AIOS, on how a governed data foundation turns compliance work into sustainable & production-ready AI, and the new engagement models it opens up. Industry: Sanjeev Mohan, former Gartner VP of Research and author of Designing the AI-Driven Data Foundations, shares what his research and the day's conversations reveal about where the industry is heading. Learn how leaders are building on years of investment in catalogs and governance to give AI agents the trusted business context they need and the practical steps organizations can take now. Peer Engagement and Networking: Hackathon: Ahead of the main conference day in Chicago and London, AIOS Hackathon attendees will learn from Alation customers including CNA and Evernorth and build new AI-driven outcomes with Alation deployment strategists and leading System Integrators. AI Radicals Awards: Inspired by the AI Radicals podcast, these awards celebrate the individuals and companies putting AI to work in the real world, recognizing those setting the standard for accuracy, governance, and impact. Welcome and Closing Receptions: Connect with a network of data and AI leaders, governance professionals, partners, and practitioners solving similar problems. About Alation Alation is the creator of AIOS(TM), the open, governed, self-improving intelligence operating system for enterprises that cannot afford to get AI wrong. Having pioneered the data catalog market, Alation helps organizations establish trust in the agents, data, and context that power AI-driven decisions. The result is AI organizations can trust - enabling them to navigate regulatory complexity, maintain data fidelity, accelerate operational outcomes, and transform AI ambition into trusted business impact. Alation partners with the world's leading organizations to leverage better data to solve their most critical challenges. To learn more, visit https://www.alation.com. Media Contacts: Ashley Womack Sr. Director, Corporate Marketing [email protected] 650-504-2647

Jeremy Peter Jackson, CEO of Flutter Entertainment, sold 1,762 shares on 1 September 2026, valued at approximately $172,000. The sale was non-discretionary, fulfilling tax withholding obligations from vesting restricted stock units rather than reflecting a change in investment outlook. Jackson retains 70,452 shares, representing 0.0406% ownership. Flutter Entertainment operates sports betting and iGaming platforms globally, including brands like Betfair and TVG. The company reported trailing twelve-month revenue of $17.2 billion but recorded a net loss of $795 million. Shares had declined 68% over the prior year as of the transaction date. Flutter serves markets across the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, Italy and internationally, offering sports betting, casino gaming and lottery services. The company carries more than $8.9 billion in net debt.