Major Inquiries

Investigations into highly complex cases where a single initial contradiction exposes a much wider chain of questionable decisions. We track the linked evidence across different government departments and public bodies. This helps us map exactly how the failure spread and why it was allowed to persist.

A thought-provoking visual that captures a forensic photograph of a researcher’s hand peeling a 1920s pulp magazine cover off an original 1900 Northern Lighthouse Board Inquiry Report in a dark archive.

The Flannan Isles Legacy

The Flannan Isles Disappearance and the Story Built Around It

In 1900, three lighthouse keepers vanished from the Flannan Isles and the case was quickly closed as an accident. This investigation examines how the story drifted from the record, and why that false version proved so durable.

A conceptual visualisation of a matte-black box resting on a cold steel table in a dimly lit government archive. Classified documents spill chaotically across the floor, while a blurred child’s silhouette lingers in the distant shadows.

The Black Box

The Saviour Sibling Investigation

The UK licenses ‘saviour siblings’ under a legal duty to protect child welfare. Yet the regulator tracks no long-term outcomes and publishes no complete success rates. This investigation examines a system operating with wide discretion and no memory.

An imaginative interpretation of a top-down view of a 1978 police evidence table featuring a gold watch, a marked search map, and a 2025 homicide reclassification report under a modern laser scanner.

The Yuba County Five

An Investigation into the Case the Official Story Could Not Hold

In February 1978, five men drove into the mountains and never came home. This investigation examines the contradictions left behind, from the abandoned car and the shelter death to the witness problems and the later homicide reclassification.

A conceptual illustration depicting the Voynich Manuscript on an archive desk, visually split by statistical heatmaps and linguistic patterns. A metal Cardan grille and precision tools are in the foreground.

The Manuscript That Broke Itself

Voynich Manuscript Investigation

The mystery of the Voynich Manuscript is not just that its text remains unread. This investigation examines a book whose physical form and internal patterns do not sit easily together, leaving every major theory under strain.

The Pasty Paradox

A forensic audit of the Cornish Pasty PGI

In 2011, the Cornish Pasty received legal protection under a fixed recipe that secured a major industry. This investigation examines how that official version parts company with the archival record, the miner’s diet, and the history used to justify it.

The Creatine Paradox

An Investigation into the ‘Universal Super-Brain’ Narrative

Creatine is often promoted as a brain booster for everyone. This investigation goes back to the original trials and finds a narrower claim, shaped by vegetarian subjects and the brain’s limited ability to take up creatine.

A photorealistic photograph of a vast, dimly lit government archive room featuring endless rows of grey filing cabinets and legal documents illuminated by a cold blue light.

The Static Departure

Investigating the Failure of Brexit Deregulation

Brexit was sold as a legal break from Brussels, followed by a new domestic regulatory path. This investigation examines why that break stalled in practice, as missing legal inventories, weak regulatory capacity, and the realities of trade kept pulling Britain back towards alignment.