Protesters gather outside Number 10 North in Manchester demanding the government puts an end to spy tech firm Palantir’s role in the NHS, October 1, 2026
Patients and health workers unite at demos across England demanding the government cut ties with the spy tech firm
PATIENTS, health workers, and members of the public gathered in more than 40 protests across England today to demand an end to spy tech firm Palantir’s role in the NHS.
In London, protesters converged on Palantir’s headquarters to hand in a giant “contract terminated” poster as part of a global week of action against the company’s involvement in public services.
The protests in Manchester, Exeter, Liverpool, Bristol, Norwich, Newcastle, Birmingham and Brighton were organised by campaign groups, including Medact, Global Justice Now, Keep Our NHS Public, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and We Own It.
Campaigners condemned Palantir’s role in managing the country’s health data, citing its track record of surveillance, human rights abuses and complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
Speaking at the London rally, Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan, a paediatric neurologist in the NHS who has volunteered in Gaza, said: “Everything that I stand for as a doctor, every principle of the NHS committed to providing equitable healthcare for all, is directly contradicted by the core values and repeated actions of Palantir.
Climate commentary added to a British Airways billboard. (Credit: Brandalism)
Policy update also restricts advertising for fossil fuels products and services in council owned ad sites.
Bristol has joined nearly two dozen other UK cities in cracking down on the promotion of high-carbon products like petrol and airline flights on council-owned property.
In a UK first, however the ban also includes adverts that encourage the over-consumption of fast fashion – an industry that demands vast amounts of resources such as water and oil-based synthetic materials to keep up with global clothing trends. The textile sector is responsible for 2-10 percent of global carbon emissions yearly, according to a 2023 report by the United Nations Environment Program, along with nearly 10 percent of ocean microplastic pollution.
Bristol city councillors voted on September 14 to expand the city’s 2021 policy restricting advertising for junk food, alcohol, gambling, payday loans, and tobacco to include products and services that are major sources of climate-heating carbon pollution.
Along with fast fashion, the ban now includes adverts or marketing for oil and gas companies, alongside cars running in whole or part on petrol or diesel, all SUVs, airlines, airports, and cruises.
The restrictions apply to council-owned sites across the city, including bus stops. However, ads for these industries may still run on billboards and screens that are not owned by the council.
Local representatives and campaigners welcome the ban, saying it will reduce climate impacts and improve neighbourhoods.
“Advertising forces itself upon all of us. While scrolling, while walking, while waiting for the bus, it has negative impacts on our health and wellbeing,” said deputy leader of Bristol City Council Heather Mack, who spearheaded the policy. “The advert ban “is something we can do quite easily to reduce our climate impact and improve our local neighbourhoods,” she said.
“We know ad bans are a catalyst for healthy change,” said Nicola Wilks, co-founder and co-director of the campaign group Adfree Cities, in a statement. “Removing tobacco ads saved lives by reducing levels of smoking. As a Bristol resident who cares deeply about climate change and air pollution, I am proud that Bristol has gone even further than other UK councils in curbing polluting ads. It feels like common sense.”
According to Adfree Cities, more than 20 UK councils have now introduced some form of restriction on the advertising of polluting products and services, citing their incompatibility with goals to improve air quality and reduce climate-harming emissions.
Bristol councillors’ decision is the latest in a global trend of cities and regions targeting major polluters with ad bans. In the UK, Sheffield and Edinburgh have adopted similar bans on high-carbon advertising on council-owned property. In the Netherlands, The Hague, and Amsterdam have introduced legal bans on fossil fuel advertising in public spaces citywide.
The advertising and fossil fuel industries are resisting these bans. DeSmog recently revealed that 15 companies and trade associations, including oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, lobbied to dilute France’s national restrictions on fossil fuel advertising.
DeSmog also exposed a last- minute lobbying attempt earlier this year by the world’s largest outdoor advertising company, JCDecaux, to prevent the Amsterdam ban.
While supporting the ban in Bristol, city councillors said there was a “moral argument” for banning ads for industries that are harmful. However, Conservative councillor John Goulandris said the policy made him “uneasy”. “I’m surprised you haven’t said that we’re going to ban Christmas, because Christmas is a time of great consumption, it’s very bad for the environment”, he said.
Goulandris is not the first Tory representative to oppose advertising restrictions on harmful products. Former culture minister Lord Ed Vaizey pushed back against increasing regulation of the advertising industry at the annual Advertising Association conference in January 2026.
“I see a political class that is tempted to ban what it doesn’t like rather than use the power of advertising to change behaviour,” he said.
Bristol’s updated policy has the potential to incur losses of up to £80,000 per year of advertising revenue, according to a report prepared by Bristol’s policy, strategy, and public affairs team — while acknowledging that neither Sheffield nor Edinburgh, which have similar restrictions, have reported any financial impacts as a result.
The report also found that the city’s advertising revenue did not decrease following its 2021 ban on junk food advertising — the first outside London — despite a projected £150,000 loss in advertising revenue.
In a statement, Carla Denyer, MP for Bristol Central, called the policy update “hugely rewarding.” Denyer helped to institute the junk food advertising ban in 2021, and has continued to advocate for further restrictions on the advertising of harmful products.
“Our Green-led council is making huge strides on Bristol’s climate and sustainability commitments, working on public transport infrastructure, home heating and community energy,” she said in the statement. “It makes no sense for these efforts to be running alongside advertisements for things like oil and gas companies, SUVs, or fast fashion which do not align with our community values.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on governments to ban all fossil fuel advertising, calling the advertising and PR companies who work with the polluting industries “enablers to planetary destruction.”
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Charlotte Head speaking outside Woolwich Crown Court in 2026 | Filton24 Defence Committee
My lawyer faces jail over a speech to jurors – a first in English history – as state seeks to silence Palestine solidarity
Editor’s note: Shortly after this piece was published, Rajiv Menon was granted a last-minute stay on his appeal. His case will now be heard in September.
England prides itself on its legal system, supposedly a pinnacle of fairness, neutrality and justice.
Having faced two trials and 18 months’ incarceration before a verdict was even reached, I’ve witnessed the falsity of these claims. Today will mark another low: the lead barrister on my case, Rajiv Menon, will appear at the Royal Courts of Justice accused of contempt of court over remarks he made in a closing speech to the jury.
If found guilty, he’ll face up to two years in prison.
This is the first time in English legal history that a barrister has been prosecuted for defending their client in this way. The Garden Chambers, where Menon is a KC, has said it is “extremely concerned about the chilling effect on the Bar of the state seeking to criminalise barristers for their representation of their clients”. The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) has warned that other lawyers are now afraid of doing their jobs.
“[They] have become uncertain and scared of what they can and can’t say; scared that somehow they might be – at the end of a trial where they have faithfully represented their client themselves – facing a charge of criminal contempt,” said Riel Karmy-Jones KC, chair of the CBA. “It is starting to feel like it’s about the politics of the subject matter of the trial, rather than the core principles of how a barrister represents his client.”
That has certainly been my experience.
In August 2024, I entered an Israeli weapons factory in Filton, Bristol, along with other activists. We destroyed military drones created by Elbit Systems: quadcopters set to be exported for use in Israel’s illegal genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Any nation found to be supporting or abetting those committing a genocide is complicit and culpable under international law; there are legal precedents that allow an offence to be committed to prevent a greater offence occurring, as we did at Filton. Yet upon arrest we were held incommunicado for almost three weeks in counter-terrorism custody, which the UN warned may amount to ‘enforced disappearance’.
We were presented at magistrates’ court, charged with criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary. These were ordinary offences, but Judge Johnson later granted himself the right to use a ‘terrorism connection’ at sentencing. We were denied bail and imprisoned under the Terrorism Act. Johnson introduced reporting restrictions to ban the media from mentioning that, if the jury found us guilty, he could sentence us as terrorists, which would drastically lengthen our jail time and impact our futures. Jurors were also not made aware of this fact.
Despite the restrictions, media coverage of our case blew up during my 18 months in custody awaiting trial, with grand accusations made about my co-defendants and me.
In June 2025, five months before our trial, Yvette Cooper, then the home secretary, discussed her decision to proscribe Palestine Action in the Commons. She specifically acknowledged that she could not discuss our case “to avoid prejudicing future criminal trials”. Yet just moments earlier, she had referred to the “attacks at […] Elbit Systems UK in Bristol”, saying Palestine Action had “committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the government”.
Two months later, Cooper went further still. In an Observer article titled “Palestine Action ‘is not lawful protest’”, she referenced the charges in our case, which she said, “in the assessment of the independent Crown Prosecution Service, [had] a terrorism connection”. She also accused Palestine Action of “intimidation, violence, weapons, and serious injury to individuals”.
Given that our trial had yet to take place, it seemed a case of putting the cart before the horse – and one that risked prejudicing jurors. Given Cooper’s position in government and the role she played in the legal proceedings to proscribe Palestine Action, it is inconceivable that she did not understand the reporting restrictions surrounding our trial. She has faced zero repercussions for what may amount to breaking the law on contempt of court.
For Rajiv Menon, the sole KC for the defence, it is a very different story.
At our trials, a heavy burden fell on Menon’s shoulders as he and the other defence barristers were forced to contort themselves to keep up with Johnson’s ever-increasing restrictions on what he deemed permissible as evidence.
As well as being prohibited from telling the jury about the terrorist connection, we were forbidden from referencing material the prosecution had included in its own evidence bundles. Elbit’s actions in supporting Israel’s genocide were deemed irrelevant.
In his closing speech, Menon reminded the jury of their role. He spoke about the case of Penn and Mead in 1670, which saw a jury imprisoned and fined for contempt of court after acquitting two Quakers of unlawful assembly. As Menon said, that case it is the cornerstone of the British legal system as we know it – it established the right of juries to make decisions freely and without threat of repercussions.
Menon also spoke emotionally and passionately about my background and how I ended up involved in this action, highlighting the centrality of the Palestinian cause to my motivations. His has since been dubbed a historic speech by legal professionals and the public alike.
Charlotte Head speaking at a protest for Gaza in Hackney | Filton24 Defence Committee
On 4 February, after 36 hours of deliberating, the jury found us not guilty of aggravated burglary. It was unable to reach a verdict on the other charges of criminal damage and violent disorder. Two weeks later, we were released.
Around this time, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would seek a retrial and Johnson advised that he would refer Menon for criminal proceedings, a fact that could only be reported on last week.
Johnson alleged Menon committed contempt of court by referencing a plaque commemorating the Penn and Mead case, which highlights “the right of juries to give their verdict according to their convictions”. This plaque isn’t hidden, it’s in the entryway of the Old Bailey, where our trial would have taken place had it not been for space and timetabling constraints. Our jurors would have had to pass it several times a day.
Menon was not threatened for being inaccurate; he was persecuted for jeopardising what has become a lynchpin case in the British state’s war against Palestine Action.
The crucial question is why. Why was a government minister – the home secretary, no less – allowed to publicly and repeatedly prejudice our right to a fair trial and get away scot-free, whilst a renowned human rights lawyer was punished for doing his job?
Did the government feel the Filton defendants were too close to winning, thereby undermining its proscription claim? Did it want to issue a warning, to create a chilling effect on legal professionals and defendants in subsequent trials? Or is our legal system simply a two-tier system, where those in power are above the law and the rest of us can be punished for simply being irksome?
During our retrial earlier this year, further restrictions were placed on the scope of evidence. The jury was told that in that courtroom, Justice Johnson was the law – and in a courtroom, the law is tantamount to God.
We were found guilty of criminal damage. We had never been charged with terrorism, yet Judge Johnson sentenced us as terrorists on 12 June. I am serving six years in prison and will face a further 15 years on notification once I am released, during which time I will have to regularly check in with the authorities, and will have to register any new device, bank account, telephone number, email address, vehicle, relationship and overseas travel plans with the police for the rest of my life.
The UK abolished the divine right of kings long ago; but it is alive and kicking in our legal system. The privileged few in the upper echelons are permitted to bend the law to breaking point to further the government’s political agenda. The same people are trying to rob the British public of the right to a jury of their peers by blaming jury trials for our backlogged court systems. It is not juries that are the problem; it is our courts that are beleaguered by pressure from those in Parliament, the intelligence services and the police.
The Home Office has interfered with our case again and again in a bid to shore up its proscription of Palestine Action by using us as political scapegoats. Yet, for his work in defending me, my barrister may be disbarred and potentially face prison time himself.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Ellie Kamio and her mother Emma. (Photo: Supplied)
Exclusive: We spoke to Ellie Kamio, one of the first people in British history to be sentenced as a terrorist for property damage
“Other than hexing the man, I really wasn’t surprised”.
This is how Leona Kamio, known as Ellie, describes what was going through her mind when a judge announced she would be sentenced as a terrorist alongside three co-defendants earlier this month.
Kamio, a 30-year-old nursery teacher, had been convicted of criminal damage in connection with a Palestine Action raid on an Israeli arms firm in Filton, Bristol, in August 2024.
The jury that tried her had not been informed that any convictions could later carry a “terrorism connection”, she tells Declassified from Bronzefield prison in her first interview since being convicted.
During that trial, the defendants were also not allowed to explain why they targeted Elbit Systems or even say the word “genocide”, stripping the action of all context.
Kamio and her three co-defendants, Charlotte Head, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, and Samuel Corner, have now been sentenced to a combined total of more than 25 years in prison. Two others, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin, were found not guilty.
In the morning before the sentencing hearing, Kamio felt that the judge, Mr Justice Johnson, already “had pre-written a crazy sentence”.
The “terrorism connection”, says Kamio, means the activists will serve at least two-thirds of their prison sentences, though it is “likely we’ll have to sit out the whole five-year term”.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
The article is an account of the trial of six Palestine Action activists who broke into Elbit Systems factory in Filton, Bristol in August 2024. Since I am only able to quote a small section I suggest reading the original article. It has very recently been announced that the six will face a retrial on the charges that the jury was unable to reach a verdict on.
Jordan Devlin and security guard Angelo Volante on CCTV footage (Photo: Court handout)
…
The missing footage
Elbit was not even called to give evidence about their apparently unfit-for-purpose security surveillance system. Remember this is a high-tech company that provides sophisticated surveillance systems for border walls, but more than a year after the incident, it came to light during the trial that the map of CCTV cameras given to the defence team had several missing including those in areas of the factory where disputed incidents had taken place.
Testimony from police witnesses, and in particular the CCTV recovery officer working for the police’s National Digital Exploitation Service, revealed for the first time various issues with camera footage, none of which had been in her original written statement. In the afternoon at the start of the trial’s third week when the jury was not in the court, Menon said that the defence had been kept in the dark about these issues, and only by pressing harder during the trial had they finally been given unredacted body-worn footage including the moment security guard Angelo Volante entered the factory wielding a whip.
Another clip showing Volante moving towards someone while holding a sledgehammer triggered a wider request on 18 November, and the defence team were then drip fed around 300 pages of further evidence including email traffic between the police and an anonymised senior Elbit employee known as “Witness Alpha”.
On 2 December, defence barristers were cross-examining a police officer, PC Sarah Grant. Menon asked Grant if Elbit had sole control and access to the CCTV system for two days. She replied yes. He then quoted an email she had sent to “Witness Alpha” in which she wrote: “There’s a huge opportunity for the defence counsel to use the gaps and jumps to their advantage”. Menon then questioned why among the correspondence revealed in the hundreds of pages of new evidence, police appeared to be “chatting with Israel’s largest arms manufacturer about what the defence counsel might do”.
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Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves discuss wasting money including David Lammy spending £1MILLION on private jets.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Protesters gather outside Number 10 North in Manchester demanding the government puts an end to spy tech firm Palantir’s role in the NHS, October 1, 2026
