On Tuesday there was constant rain or as we coarse northerners usually observe, "It was pissing it down!" Consequently, I was not drawn outside and in fact stayed in all day with nothing much to occupy my time.
This is not something I would normally do but I had the idea of spending the afternoon watching a current ITV drama series called "Mr Bates Versus The Post Office". It is very much based upon a rather shocking true story and incidentally, a story that is by no means fully resolved.
In the late nineties, the British Post Office invested in an expensive new computer accounting system called "Horizon". It cost over £1.5 billion and was meant to streamline post office services. In league with the Fujitsu computer company, it was claimed by The Post Office leadership that the "Horizon" system was entirely reliable, foolproof in fact. To them it seemed entirely proper that if there were any accounting shortfalls they should be personally made up by postmasters and postmistresses in charge of thousands of post office branches. After all, it could never be the computer's fault or so they said.
Some village or suburban postmasters and mistresses found themselves liable to repay thousands of pounds that they swore blind they had not stolen. Many of these people lost their livelihoods and homes and some were sent to prison when all along it was the fault of the "Horizon" system. It wasn't foolproof after all.
Proving that fact became exceedingly difficult. The Post Office had the wherewithal to pay enormous legal costs but the accused employees had next to nothing. However, they did have the redoubtable Alan Bates, a North Wales postmaster who himself had been caught up in the scandal. With dogged determination, he led the fightback and brought the victims of the terrible injustice together.
In the end, the victims won their case in the highest courts in this kingdom but even now they haven't received the full compensation packages they so richly deserve. Meantime back in 2019, the retiring head of The Post Office, Paula Vennells, was awarded a C.B.E (Commander of the British Empire) honour for her "service to The Post Office" by Johnson's Conservative government.
As I write, a petition to get that honour quashed has attracted over 100,000 signatures - on the back of the success of this week's TV drama.
Paula Vennells belongs in prison along with other people who occupied high positions within The Post Office. Some of them knew all along that "Horizon" was flawed and yet they did nothing to stop the destruction of good people's lives and reputations. At least four of the accused postmasters and postmistresses committed suicide and a few others died prematurely of "natural" causes. There were divorces . Friends were lost and family homes were sold.
The whole thing has been an absolute disgrace that brings shame upon my country. A country which prides itself on fairness and a judicial system that roots out injustice. However, it is also a country in which the makers of film and TV drama have licence to tell the truth even when that creates huge discomfort in high places. You would not be able to watch such a lid-lifting drama in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia or various other countries that claim to be "free".
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/E9H6qdh
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