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Post Office Inquiry: Former Post Office General Counsel Jane MacLeod refuses to cooperate with Inquiry
plus: It’s tour over! I’ve had three people get in touch in the last couple of days to ask if I’m okay as they haven’t had any emails recently. I did say I was going to take some time out to focus on the rest of my talks in my last newsletter, but sorry if…
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Post Office Inquiry: Incompetence is not the start of it – Rod Ismay returns
plus: A certain amount of Ismay Hi everyone – I am on a noisy, bouncy train chugging through the Wiltshire countryside. Spring has very definitely sprung and I have just seen a white horse carved into a hill. Exciting. I am on my way to Devon to meet Geoff Pound, one of the original 555…
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Post Office Inquiry: The Post Office Panderer
plus: A certain amount of Ismay Simon Clarke’s candour and clarity of thought made for a refreshing evidence session yesterday. Unfortunately I hit a sort of wall by mid-afternoon and found myself unable to pull together a blog post which I felt would do his evidence justice. Thankfully plenty of other crack journalists were on…
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Post Office Inquiry: Here Comes Clarke-y and Altman’s Big Mistake
The Man Who Called Time Am I allowed to feel an element of anticipatory sympathy for Simon Clarke? It may be misplaced. Clarke wrote the First Clarke Advice, which put a javelin through the spokes of the Post Office’s prosecution machine. But his actions around Seema Misra in particular need thorough examination. This is what…
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Post Office Inquiry: Anticipating Altman, with reflections on Belinda Cortes-Martin’s evidence
The Kahuna Cometh Good morning from the Inquiry ante-room Former Subpostmaster Lee Castleton and his wife Lisa are here, chatting to another former Subpostmaster (and once Britain’s youngest) Chris Head. Lee, Lisa, Chris and his mum Sue (all pictured above) are only staying for the morning session, then they’re off to Buckingham Palace this afternoon…
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Post Office Inquiry: Will the real Belinda stand up?
Plus: Moorhead vs Smith Hi everyone I hope you had a relaxing Bank Holiday. Before looking forward to today, I just want to thank everyone who came along to the five talks we did in Walton, Shoreham, Hailsham and Hayes over the weekend. I am deeply grateful to Parmod (above), Sami, Helen and Ian (in…
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Post Office Inquiry: Keeping their Knees on Seema’s Neck
Lawyers colluded to prolong injustice I think yesterday afternoon’s session at the Inquiry was one of the most devastating I have seen to date. Martin Smith, a former employee of Cartwright King solicitors, gave his second day of evidence, after a remote cameo from former interim Post Office General Counsel Chris Aujard. If you want…
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Post Office Inquiry – the shredding mystery becomes clearer and murkier at the same time
Who made the decision? So many answers, so many more questions. Yesterday’s evidence began with Harry Bowyer’s second stint in the chair. Bowyer was an in-house barrister at Cartwright King charged with providing advice when it came to helping the Post Office prosecute Subpostmasters. He was bright, bluff, confident and unconvincing, constantly repeating the mantra…
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Senior former Post Office lawyer could not tell Inquiry what the criminal standard of proof is, and other worrying tales…
Careful, Hugh Sorry, this is very rushed. I got asked to go on the Today programme at the last minute to talk about the confirmation of the new Post Office Chair, Nigel Railton. It is good to see that Nigels are still being given a fair crack of the whip in the corporate world. I…
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Post Office Inquiry – bonus for lying exec
Angela the Automaton Morning all. I’m going to have to get quicker at writing on-the-day copy. I find it the hardest element of being a journalist because it’s the thing I’ve done the least. Yesterday’s session was done before 4pm and I didn’t file to the website before 10pm. Analysing the evidence, picking the “best”…
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