Lord Callanan weighs in

Morning campers

It’s nice to have an exclusive every now and then. I have posted on my blog the contents of a letter from Lord Callanan, the business minister in the Lords, to Lord Bethell at the department for health.

You can read the details, context and actual letter here.

Reading between the lines, it’s pretty obvious what Lord Callanan’s position is. The letter itself has clearly been through the mandarin-speak mangler and so isn’t perhaps as powerful as it could have been, but the message is loud and clear.

Already people are speculating that Paula Vennells is being set up as a scapegoat, and I have some sympathy for that position. I also think she has legitimate questions to answer about the decisions she took whilst Post Office CEO, and her subsequent ability to drift away from it with a clean pair of heels.

Inquiry and Court of Appeal

My last two pieces have been about media scrutiny of the forthcoming Post Office Horizon IT inquiry and Battle Royale brewing at the Court of Appeal which could see the first Subpostmaster convictions quashed.

This recent flurry of activity has been brought to you courtesy of COVID-19, a case of which in my household meant I lost a lot of work and was forced to sit at my desk all day. This is the last day of full isolation, thank goodness. My thoughts and sympathies to everyone who has been affected by this disease in far worse ways than my family. And thanks again for all the kind messages of support. You’re a lovely bunch of secret emailers.

I will still be working on Post Office stories for the remainder of this week and hope to publish something seismic at some stage over the next seven days.

Until then, my friends…

Nick