Post Office scandal

[KungFooBob]

I wouldn't hand back my CBE's, those spots make my Mk2 Escort look proper cool.

[JackyJoll]

The performance of the criminal courts wasn’t great, was it?

[Mussels]

The beeb has a piece on the options to correct these convictions and it seems to be showing up other flaws in the justice system. Not least the appeals review board who rejected 30% of appeals before they even got to court, apparently they were unlikely to succeed so weren't allowed to start.
If the government use a bill to pardon them all it risks setting a precedent that a government could abuse in the future. The justice system has been shown to be untrustworthy, this goes a bit further than the PO and Fujitsu.

[Dodgy69]

and I've always understood that these high level corrupt cases generally get delayed long enough for most of the guilty high flyers to have moved on.

[Mr. Dazzle]

If the government use a bill to pardon them all it risks setting a precedent that a government could abuse in the future

This.

Allowing the government to blanket pardon a group of people because of popular opinion doesn't really fit in with a "rule of law" society, however worthy the case seems to be.

Hell of a good time to be an actually dodgy Postmaster too eh?

[Count Steer]

The thing that gets me is that this has been known about for years. Private Eye (as mentioned above) have been reporting on it for ages and, judging by the letters to it, lots of politicians read it or are briefed on the content.

Now there's a flurry of words and suggestions coming out of Westminster because there's been a TV drama about it. (Brilliant choice by ITV if it had been a 'worthy investigative' programme it wouldn't have had half the impact).

So, what would have been happening if ITV hadn't blown the bladdy doors off? The scandal is that they knew and did bugger all.

[Supermofo]

The thing that gets me is that this has been known about for years. Private Eye (as mentioned above) have been reporting on it for ages and, judging by the letters to it, lots of politicians read it or are briefed on the content.

Now there's a flurry of words and suggestions coming out of Westminster because there's been a TV drama about it. (Brilliant choice by ITV if it had been a 'worthy investigative' programme it wouldn't have had half the impact).

So, what would have been happening if ITV hadn't blown the bladdy doors off? The scandal is that they knew and did bugger all.

[Mr Moofo]

The true shame is that it has taken a TV series to actually force the government into action - when all knew the issue. But until last week it was low level chatter and not high on the agenda.
It goes to show just how plastic all our lead politicians are - and how they have no intention or standing for right or wrong.
Private Eye, plus many others have been trying to highlight with little success.

Are labour going to be any better than this superficial bunch of narcissists ?

[Greenman]

The true shame is that it has taken a TV series to actually force the government into action - when all knew the issue. But until last week it was low level chatter and not high on the agenda.
It goes to show just how plastic all our lead politicians are - and how they have no intention or standing for right or wrong.
Private Eye, plus many others have been trying to highlight with little success.

Are labour going to be any better than this superficial bunch of narcissists ?

No

HTH...

[JackyJoll]

If the government use a bill to pardon them all it risks setting a precedent that a government could abuse in the future

This.

Allowing the government to blanket pardon a group of people because of popular opinion doesn't really fit in with a "rule of law" society, however worthy the case seems to be.

Hell of a good time to be an actually dodgy Postmaster too eh?

If evidence about missing money, from the software that counted the money is/was not credible, what prosecution evidence is left, in each case?

I don’t mean you should know the answer.

[Mr Moofo]

The thing that gets me is that this has been known about for years. Private Eye (as mentioned above) have been reporting on it for ages and, judging by the letters to it, lots of politicians read it or are briefed on the content.

Now there's a flurry of words and suggestions coming out of Westminster because there's been a TV drama about it. (Brilliant choice by ITV if it had been a 'worthy investigative' programme it wouldn't have had half the impact).

So, what would have been happening if ITV hadn't blown the bladdy doors off? The scandal is that they knew and did bugger all.

It is a sad state of affairs when that ironic post rings true ....
What a shambolic state of affairs

[Mr. Dazzle]

Making a TV drama about a bunch of people who were wrongly convicted is easy and an easy win. Who's gonna disagree with the protagonist?

Can't really say the same about the much more nuanced Climate Change, Inflation, Covid etc. can you?

[Mr Moofo]

Making a TV drama about a bunch of people who were wrongly convicted is easy and an easy win. Who's gonna disagree with the protagonist?

Can't really say the same about the much more nuanced Climate Change, Inflation, Covid etc. can you?

According to Hislop there other day, Boris threw an incredible strop about the way he was played in the Partygate TV programme.
As Hislop said, it just showed the masses how we had been played for mugs

[Tarmacsurfer]

As a software engineer I found the below article very interesting.

"Whoever wrote this code clearly has no understanding of elementary mathematics or the most basic rules of programming."

https://www.postofficescandal.uk/post/i ... h-barrels/

The guy doesn't pull his punches.

[JackyJoll]

Making a TV drama about a bunch of people who were wrongly convicted is easy and an easy win. Who's gonna disagree with the protagonist?

Can't really say the same about the much more nuanced Climate Change, Inflation, Covid etc. can you?

I’ve got an idea for a movie- the World powers revive Ted Heath from his cryogenic torpor, to cut inflation at a stroke!

He’s got a nuclear (Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor) racing yacht and an enormous pipe organ.

[Taipan]

I sat down to watch the first episode last night and ended up watching the whole thing. Like most I knew of the sub-postmasters thing, but no real idea of just how many people this affected and just how badly. Paying off non existing debts by remortgaging and life savings etc and even suicides!!

Staggering incompetence on the POs behalf and just how the red flags were not picked up is incredible. Given the impacts on the lives of the people involved and the fact that there is hundreds of thousands of pounds floating around somewhere, I think Vennells et al should be subject to a proper criminal investigation.

[Mussels]

As a software engineer I found the below article very interesting.

"Whoever wrote this code clearly has no understanding of elementary mathematics or the most basic rules of programming."

https://www.postofficescandal.uk/post/i ... h-barrels/

The guy doesn't pull his punches.

I've seen work like that and it doesn't surprise me, what does is the PO didn't check. I don't think I've ever had a client (similar size companies) not thoroughly audit anything reporting money values.

[mangocrazy]

On a more nerd-ish tangent, does anyone know what operating system/platform the Horizon boxes that were supplied to all sub-postmasters ran? Was it a standard Unix or Windows box, or was it entirely Fujitsu proprietary hardware/software?

[Greenman]

On a more nerd-ish tangent, does anyone know what operating system/platform the Horizon boxes that were supplied to all sub-postmasters ran? Was it a standard Unix or Windows box, or was it entirely Fujitsu proprietary hardware/software?

Probs an unpatched windows 7 machine knowing the Gov, connected to server 2008...

I was in a council corporate building last week and most people were still on windows 7!

[mangocrazy]

On a more nerd-ish tangent, does anyone know what operating system/platform the Horizon boxes that were supplied to all sub-postmasters ran? Was it a standard Unix or Windows box, or was it entirely Fujitsu proprietary hardware/software?

Probs an unpatched windows 7 machine knowing the Gov, connected to server 2008...

I was in a council corporate building last week and most people were still on windows 7!

In the early 2000s they'd have probably still have been running Win 95/98. Or even (the horror) 3.11...

But seriously, I'd very much like to know whether the boxes in the sub-postmaster's offices were Fujitsu proprietary or not.