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Altman General Review finally published
Read More…: Altman General Review finally publishedOn Friday, a key document in understanding the Post Office scandal was brought to the surface. It is the 15 October 2013 General Review into the Post Office’s past prosecutions and future prosecution policy, written by Brian Altman KC. The Review came up almost in passing during former Post Office auditor Chris Gilding’s evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry*. As soon as it had been mentioned, I asked the inquiry to publish the Review, which they kindly did. I have published a searchable version of the Review below this blog post. What’s the Review about? Brian Altman KC…
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A Christmas message to the Post Office CEO
Read More…: A Christmas message to the Post Office CEOSusan Craddock (above) has multiple sclerosis. She runs Largs Post Office in Ayrshire on Scotland’s West Coast. She cc’d me in the letter below. When I asked her if I could publish it she agreed, describing herself and many other Postmasters as “desperate”. There is something Dickensian in the tone of Susan’s letter. I couldn’t help thinking of Bob Cratchit and Ebeneezer Scrooge when I read it. Maybe it’s the time of year. I asked the Post Office for a response to Susan’s letter, ideally from the Post Office CEO, Nick Read, himself. They have provided me with a statement…
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Government ‘unveils’ compensation scheme for Subpostmasters in Bates v Post Office litigation
Read More…: Government ‘unveils’ compensation scheme for Subpostmasters in Bates v Post Office litigationThe government has announced some details of its compensation scheme for the civil claimants in the Bates v Post Office litigation. You can read the ‘process document’ here. The scheme will be run by BEIS, the government’s business department, and overseen by an ‘independent advisory board’ to ‘ensure the scheme works effectively’. Although there is no mention of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance in the press release, the independent advisory board includes Lord Arbuthnot and Kevan Jones MP, both of whom have campaigned for more than a decade for Subpostmasters. The new business minister, Grant Shapps says: “I am acutely…
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From the archives…
Read More…: From the archives…The gentleman behind this website – Andrew Neale, Master of the Dark Arts – is currently engaged in a mammoth project which involves taking every single secret email newsletter I have written and converting it into an archive. Each newsletter will then get posted up on this site once it is six months old. A lot of interesting reportage and information has been exclusive to newsletter subscribers (as it should be), but I think there is some sense in ensuring the older posts can be made available once they have lost their immediate news value. For example, nearly four years…
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EXCLUSIVE: How not to commission a complex IT project
Read More…: EXCLUSIVE: How not to commission a complex IT projectGoing around the country trying to spread the word about the Post Office Scandal (whilst also hoping to sell copies of my book) has brought me into contact with a class of bright, often retired, professional people who are appalled at what happened. Some even have direct experience of the story, usually from an interesting angle. Every now and then we strike up a correspondence. The following piece is the result of a chat which started with John’s partner Pam getting in touch after she came to see one of the presentations I gave earlier this year. John Murray (pictured)…
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How to destroy a business and a human being: Part 753.
Read More…: How to destroy a business and a human being: Part 753.In December last year, shortly after I’d published the hardback version of my book, I got an email from Lisa Kear. Lisa ran a Post Office counter within her “Pet Stop” shop in Belmont Sutton in South West London from April 2018 until November 2019. Lisa got in touch because she had read the book. She seemed utterly traumatised. I asked her to put her story in writing with a view to publishing it on my blog. Lisa wrote me her note below on 24 Dec 2021. Sadly – things got lost over the Christmas period, I got caught up…
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Inquiry Phase 2: Star Witness – Dave gives it both barrels
Read More…: Inquiry Phase 2: Star Witness – Dave gives it both barrelsDavid McDonnell, a former Deputy Development Manager on the Horizon IT project with Fujitsu/ICL gave evidence during the Horizon IT inquiry on the morning of Wed 16 November. What he had to say was devastating. In October 1998 McDonnell co-wrote a report on the Horizon EPOS system with Jan Holmes, a Fujitsu/ICL internal auditor (and a very interesting witness in the afternoon of 16 November). The Task Force report was put together to try to address the serious number errors in the Horizon project at the time. You can read it here. The Task Force report has surfaced already during…
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False Accounts – London run review by Eleanor Shaikh
Read More…: False Accounts – London run review by Eleanor ShaikhIf she didn’t have her hands full fisking the inquiry evidence of a former Post Office executive or writing a mammoth document on the disastrous origins of the Horizon IT system, Eleanor Shaikh would make a fine theatre reviewer. Here’s her take on the London production of False Accounts: “Only a hardened dramatist would consider going anywhere near the Horizon scandal and it would take almost madness to tackle it with black comedy. It would also take an unusually brave bunch of actors to recreate the carnage left in Horizon’s wake, in the knowledge that some of those most deeply…
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Miller Time – ep 18 of Investigating the Post Office Scandal is live
Read More…: Miller Time – ep 18 of Investigating the Post Office Scandal is liveRebecca and I have made a new podcast – do have a listen. If you’d like to come and see me do a live presentation in Henley-on-Thames on the Post Office Horizon scandal alongside former Subpostmaster Pam Stubbs (who was treated so badly she gets a chapter to herself in my book), tickets can be bought here. I would be very grateful – we’re at the “almost breaking even” stage of ticket sales, which represents a good number of people already coming – it would be nice not to make a loss! If you want to share the box office…
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False Accounts – London run approaches
Read More…: False Accounts – London run approachesThe London run of False Accounts – a satirical play about the Post Office Horizon scandal by the Outcasts Creative theatre group – starts its one week run on 1 November. It has attracted quite a bit of interest from many people directly affected by what happened, some of whom have been kind enough to submit reviews. I got the first tranche of notices – from Wendy Buffrey, Tracy Felstead and Janet Skinner – up here (along with a short treatise on the difficulty of trying to get laughs from such a serious subject). What follows are some more reviews…
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