Peter Thiel Says British Affection for NHS Is Stockholm Syndrome
- Thiel’s company Palantir is vying for £480m NHS contract
- Palantir says comments don’t reflect views of the company
Peter Thiel
Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel, whose data analytics company Palantir Technologies Inc. is vying for a £480 million ($595 million) National Health Service data contract, has described British people’s affection for the state-backed health service as “Stockholm syndrome.”
The venture capitalist’s comments came during a Q&A session after a speech at the Oxford Union, a 200-year-old debating society, on Monday. He also said that the crisis-stricken health service, currently grappling with strikes and long wait times for emergency care, was making people sick and needs “market mechanisms” to fix it. Such mechanisms include privatizing parts of it, avoiding rationing and loosening regulations.