[News] Post Office Scandal -

[Talby]

Twas always thus, our recollections if we wanted would also include multiple NHS failure cover ups, the Cambridge 5, BBC and Savile, cash for honours, politicians expenses, Railtrack, Weapons of mass destruction, ignoring child sexual abuse by grooming gangs, Libya, RBS, demutualisation of building societies the list of National shame goes on and it will continue to do so………….maybe Billy Joel could rewrite we didn’t start the fire?

This episode puts all political parties in the bin, as it does the organs of the civil service like the CPS and Judges who evidently didn’t challenge the narratives provided by the PO. Even the media shouldn’t get a pass given how long this issue has been dragging on. To think it takes a drama on ITV to move this country’s leadership dial to ensure justice for its citizens is shameful.

The old school tie network of leadership in politics, media private and public institutions is probably dead but has been replaced by the new school tie network so nothing has really changed and sadly nothing is likely to do so in future. In some ways the current situation is worse, in the past people used to fall on their sword, but no one resigns any more…………..Vennels may have had a CBE, remember Fred Goodwin was knighted.

Beware the knights…………….they must be the Uber establishment shithouses.

Great assessment of the current situation.

Cash for Honours still exists. I think that system is so flawed now it needs a total overhaul - it’s meant to be about values and a positive impact on society or a specific community. Recent awards seem to focus on only one element of someone’s impact on society and completely ignore those elements which are damaging or are in supporting to others.

 

[Talby]

Although I am a Private Eye subscriber and have been for years, and so well aware of the continuing sage, I was staggered by the very deliberate delaying tactics and obfuscation, well illustrated when in the final episode the judge presiding over one of the enquiries had to step down - recuse himself - because the Post Office had complained that he was deliberately biased against them. As the lawyers made clear, that just DOESN’T happen. It deliberately delayed the whole thing by about a year.(?)

As others have mentioned, I would love to know what is going on in Paula Vennells head at the moment, given the Priest bit.

But another question in my mind is whether all this would have happened had the Post Office not been privatised. I used to work in the Gas Industry 40 years age and always felt very uncomfortable about the privatisation of utilities and Public Services. Is this the logical extension of what can happen if you introduce a profit motive to things that matter? It’s all Thatcher’s fault.

Thatcher’s acolyte - Tony Blair - pushed it on further.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

This is yet another scandal which has been delayed, covered up and obfuscated see, Windrush, The Tainted Blood scandal, Hillsborough, the murder of Stephen lawrence, Aberfan and Orgreave and many others. The state and its organs takes forever to accept a problem, then orders an inquiry which takes years to get to any conclusions and then takes even more years to quash convictions, admit liability and pay out the minimum level of compensation. By this time the hope is that many of those are now dead and compensation and redress is kept to a minimum..

I used to be proud to be British but the scales fell from my eyes about 15 years ago, the sub-postmasters are just the latest and there will be more.

The Grenfell Tower fire is another one that can be added to the list. This happened in 2017 when 72 people lost their lives. The public enquiry report is expected this year - does it really take 7 years for this to happen, the victims and their families need some sort of closure. What we know so far is that the external cladding was changed to another product in order to save money and this product is believed to have caused the fire to spread more rapidly up the side of the building. It also appears that fire doors were installed which were substandard. These two items would not have stopped the fire from starting (which appears to have been caused by faulty wiring to a fridge in one of the flats) but would have stopped it from spreading to other floors so quickly. There is also a question raised by the Fire Brigade advice to "stay put" in the buiding. So far nobody has been prosecuted. Again this has been reported widely by Private Eye and the BBC are making a drama about it - perhaps if the drama had been made a few years earlier it would have had the same effect as the ITV drama. It also makes you wonder if this had happened at a posh block of flats in Kensington and not a council block in North Kensington things might have moved quicker. It seems to me that, like the post office scandal, there are people who should be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter but I somehow doubt that will ever happen

 

[Triggaaar]

Have watched the drama and followed the regular updates in Private Eye over the last many years.. I think what shines through is that many ordinary people think that doing the right thing, being honest and truthful is absolutely no defence for either being shat on or being treated maliciously by government, police or big business. People mistakenly feel they are part of a " Society " and that there are checks and balances in place to protect them when in fact checks and balances work against them...

This is yet another scandal which has been delayed, covered up and obfuscated see, Windrush, The Tainted Blood scandal, Hillsborough, the murder of Stephen lawrence, Aberfan and Orgreave and many others. The state and its organs takes forever to accept a problem, then orders an inquiry which takes years to get to any conclusions and then takes even more years to quash convictions, admit liability and pay out the minimum level of compensation. By this time the hope is that many of those are now dead and compensation and redress is kept to a minimum..

I used to be proud to be British but the scales fell from my eyes about 15 years ago, the sub-postmasters are just the latest and there will be more.

Agreed, and this is why people need to be prosecuted to reduce the chance of it all happening again and again. Prosecution needs to be prompt, whilst robust.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The Grenfell Tower fire is another one that can be added to the list. This happened in 2017 when 72 people lost their lives. The public enquiry report is expected this year - does it really take 7 years for this to happen, the victims and their families need some sort of closure. What we know so far is that the external cladding was changed to another product in order to save money and this product is believed to have caused the fire to spread more rapidly up the side of the building. It also appears that fire doors were installed which were substandard. These two items would not have stopped the fire from starting (which appears to have been caused by faulty wiring to a fridge in one of the flats) but would have stopped it from spreading to other floors so quickly. There is also a question raised by the Fire Brigade advice to "stay put" in the buiding. So far nobody has been prosecuted. Again this has been reported widely by Private Eye and the BBC are making a drama about it - perhaps if the drama had been made a few years earlier it would have had the same effect as the ITV drama. It also makes you wonder if this had happened at a posh block of flats in Kensington and not a council block in North Kensington things might have moved quicker. It seems to me that, like the post office scandal, there are people who should be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter but I somehow doubt that will ever happen

Private Eye - and by extension HIGNFY - are the moral compass of the nation really. Ian Hislop must rank as one of the most deserving public figures to be awarded a title in any honours list, while at the same time being one of the least likely to be awarded one...

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

Private Eye - and by extension HIGNFY - are the moral compass of the nation really. Ian Hislop must rank as one of the most deserving public figure to be awarded a title in the honours list, while at the same time being the least likely to be awarded one...

I saw him in an interview once and he said when he started getting threatening letters from lawyers he figured he must be doing something right.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Although I am a Private Eye subscriber and have been for years, and so well aware of the continuing sage, I was staggered by the very deliberate delaying tactics and obfuscation, well illustrated when in the final episode the judge presiding over one of the enquiries had to step down - recuse himself - because the Post Office had complained that he was deliberately biased against them. As the lawyers made clear, that just DOESN’T happen. It deliberately delayed the whole thing by about a year.(?)

As others have mentioned, I would love to know what is going on in Paula Vennells head at the moment, given the Priest bit.

But another question in my mind is whether all this would have happened had the Post Office not been privatised. I used to work in the Gas Industry 40 years age and always felt very uncomfortable about the privatisation of utilities and Public Services. Is this the logical extension of what can happen if you introduce a profit motive to things that matter? It’s all Thatcher’s fault.

I worked in the electricity supply industry, and hated what happened to customer care. I was basically told to lie on the phone, which I refused to do. I was marked as a trouble maker, but as a union member who had been there many years, they couldn’t get rid of me. I was sidelined into the prepayment section, and then joyfully made redundant with full payments in 2002. The previous 7 or 8 years were uncomfortable working conditions but I wanted to keep my pension.

 

[A1X]

It’s not often I agree with former tabloid editors about things, but David Yelland on Sky News this morning made an interesting point that for all the current Government likes to refer to itself as “populist” and “anti-establishment” it has completely ignored this issue until it was electorally expedient for them to do so (which is, let’s be honest, why Westminster as a whole has picked this up now). I would add the other examples above cited by the likes of Lyndhurst 14 and Vegster to the mix too. Instead they’re time and effort on “woke” issues. Or Trans people. Or small boats.

It just shows all that rhetoric up as bullshit, IMHO.

 

[Triggaaar]

It’s not often I agree with former tabloid editors about things, but David Yelland on Sky News this morning made an interesting point that for all the current Government likes to refer to itself as “populist” and “anti-establishment” it has completely ignored this issue until it was electorally expedient for them to do so

That's not exactly trailblazing insight, everyone is aware that this should have been dealt with years ago.


As an aside, since when did this government pretend to be anti-establishment? They are the establishment.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

That's not exactly trailblazing insight, everyone is aware that this should have been dealt with years ago.


As an aside, since when did this government pretend to be anti-establishment? They are the establishment.

Liz Truss labelled everyone who didn’t agree with her as anti-growth coalition.
Boris Johnson was supposedly against the ‘Westminster establishment’, and Farage has tried to paint himself as anti establishment.

 

[Triggaaar]

Liz Truss labelled everyone who didn’t agree with her as anti-growth coalition.

Liz Truss lasted about an hour

Boris Johnson was supposedly against the ‘Westminster establishment’

Yeah he was a bit weird and he fooled some people, but not sure many of us felt the Eton Oxford Bullingdon PM wasn't establishment.

and Farage has tried to paint himself as anti establishment.

Right, but he's not the government

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Liz Truss lasted about an hour




Yeah he was a bit weird and he fooled some people, but not sure many of us felt the Eton Oxford Bullingdon PM wasn't establishment.


Right, but he's not the government

We felt and knew the Eton, Oxford, Bullingdon, shower was establishment, but it didn't stop them or their client journalists from telling us we were wrong.
That’s how populism works. George Orwell knew a thing or two.

 

[Goldstone1976]

George Orwell knew a thing or two.

Being an Etonian, you mean?

 

[Goldstone Guy]

Presumably this is how crap like the post office scandal begins:

UK: Palantir 'very troubling choice' for NHS contract given links to serious human rights abuses

We are Amnesty International UK. We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights.

www.amnesty.org.uk

A US tech company with "human rights controversies" being awarded a £480m contract to operate an NHS data platform. I don't really understand what interest they'd have in NHS contracts (something to do with "data" apparently) but I'm fairly sure they're not in it for the good of the British people. What could possibly go wrong?
Oh look, it already has:

NHSE to investigate Palantir for possible breach of FDP contract

NHS England will investigate whether US data analytics giant Palantir violated the terms of its contract to run the Federated Data Platform.

www.digitalhealth.net

I suppose it's a good thing that someone's spotted a problem and raised concerns, but then from what I've read of the post office stuff concerns were raised multiple times which resulted in ........ not very much at all.

So like others have suggested, these scandals will probably continue throughout our lives. I really really really hope the next government are a lot better than this lot.

 

[thejackal]

Presumably this is how crap like the post office scandal begins:

UK: Palantir 'very troubling choice' for NHS contract given links to serious human rights abuses

We are Amnesty International UK. We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights.

www.amnesty.org.uk

A US tech company with "human rights controversies" being awarded a £480m contract to operate an NHS data platform. I don't really understand what interest they'd have in NHS contracts (something to do with "data" apparently) but I'm fairly sure they're not in it for the good of the British people. What could possibly go wrong?
Oh look, it already has:

NHSE to investigate Palantir for possible breach of FDP contract

NHS England will investigate whether US data analytics giant Palantir violated the terms of its contract to run the Federated Data Platform.

www.digitalhealth.net

I suppose it's a good thing that someone's spotted a problem and raised concerns, but then from what I've read of the post office stuff concerns were raised multiple times which resulted in ........ not very much at all.

So like others have suggested, these scandals will probably continue throughout our lives. I really really really hope the next government are a lot better than this lot.

Totally agree although unfortunately it appears to be the system, not the government, that needs to change radically and I think we all know how likely that is.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Being an Etonian, you mean?

He saw first hand the elitism and entitlement.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Being an Etonian, you mean?

If being shot through the throat doesn't give somebody a sense of perspective I don't know what will.

 

[drew]

The Grenfell Tower fire is another one that can be added to the list. This happened in 2017 when 72 people lost their lives. The public enquiry report is expected this year - does it really take 7 years for this to happen, the victims and their families need some sort of closure. What we know so far is that the external cladding was changed to another product in order to save money and this product is believed to have caused the fire to spread more rapidly up the side of the building. It also appears that fire doors were installed which were substandard. These two items would not have stopped the fire from starting (which appears to have been caused by faulty wiring to a fridge in one of the flats) but would have stopped it from spreading to other floors so quickly. There is also a question raised by the Fire Brigade advice to "stay put" in the buiding. So far nobody has been prosecuted. Again this has been reported widely by Private Eye and the BBC are making a drama about it - perhaps if the drama had been made a few years earlier it would have had the same effect as the ITV drama. It also makes you wonder if this had happened at a posh block of flats in Kensington and not a council block in North Kensington things might have moved quicker. It seems to me that, like the post office scandal, there are people who should be prosecuted for corporate manslaughter but I somehow doubt that will ever happen

What is appalling about that inquiry is that the Attorney General gave an undertaking that any evidence given by someone at the inquiry couldn't then be used as evidence in a prosecution against that individual.

 

[Goldstone1976]

He saw first hand the elitism and entitlement.

Is that why he said he was “happy” there?

 

[Goldstone1976]

If being shot through the throat doesn't give somebody a sense of perspective I don't know what will.

Indeed so. It’ll shape a person for life.