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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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Podcasting the Post Office scandal
Read More…: Podcasting the Post Office scandalWhen Rebecca suggested we do a podcast to cover the Inquiry, I thought it was a brilliant idea. I’m a broadcast journalist. I’ve done this sort of stuff before. What could be easier than just recording our thoughts at the end of a week and releasing them into the ether? Turns out producing a podcast is harder than it looks. And producing a good podcast is a lot harder than it looks. It’s been a learning curve for both of us. I’d like to think we’re getting there, but maybe we’re not. Either way – I think the last two…
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The ‘Shredding’ Advice
Read More…: The ‘Shredding’ AdviceLast week I published the first Clarke advice, which was effectively a THIS ENDS HERE. NOW document written by Simon Clarke, an external barrister working on Subpostmaster prosecutions To give context to the initial advice, I have updated that post with some (hopefully) helpful links. The Shredding Advice Shortly after writing his first advice, Mr Clarke was moved to write a second advice, when it came to his attention that measures put in place to attempt to start to rectify what had been going on with Post Office prosecutions were being subverted (by, as it turns out, the Post Office’s…
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False Accounts – the notices are in!
Read More…: False Accounts – the notices are in!It’s a very strange thing, the Post Office scandal. I know there are people still suffering horribly, and in silence, about what they went through. There are no laughs, or jokes, or good times for them. As someone not directly connected to what happened, there is a fear that if you ever use humour about any element of this disaster you are disrespecting those whose lives have been traduced and ruined. Nothing I have ever experienced comes remotely close to knowing what it is like to lose my business and reputation due to forces beyond my control – to be…
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Jenkins wants inquiry ‘immunity’
Read More…: Jenkins wants inquiry ‘immunity’Gareth Jenkins, the former Fujitsu engineer who has become a person of interest to the Metropolitan Police, has demanded certain assurances from the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry before he gives evidence. Jenkins, the subject of the first Clarke Advice and a spectre at the feast during the Bates v Post Office litigation wants an undertaking from the Attorney General that he will not be criminally prosecuted over any testimony he gives to the inquiry. This is not an unheard-of request. It was put to use recently in the ongoing Grenfell inquiry. If a potential witness asks for an ‘Attorney…
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