It’s all going off part 753

Good morning all

I’m not sure I can take much more of this. I foolishly thought I’d finish making the R4 series on Friday last, take this week off and then start looking for something to do at an indeterminate point next week.

Then Panorama got rescheduled, the JFSA decided to set the ball rolling on a complaint to the parliamentary ombudsman, the CCRC decided to refer private prosecutions to the Attorney General and the Chair of the BEIS select committee wrote a series of corking letters to former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells, current CEO Nick Read and Fujitsu.

That’s not to mention the eight further cases referred to the court of appeal and the 800+ page Statements of Reasons issued to the original tranche of 39, which officially set the ball rolling on their adventures through the higher court.

On top of all this, the broadcast of the R4 series itself has generated a huge amount of correspondence from people writing to me about other potential injustices outside of the Post Office scandal – all of which look interesting and need dealing with.

No point in sitting around and complaining, though, is there? Be careful what you wish for, etc etc.

Referrals

I have documented the CCRC’s latest referrals and formal request to get the Attorney General and Chair of the Ministry of Justice Select Committee involved here. There can’t be many government bodies who aren’t now aware of what’s been going on and I am wondering if Paul Scully at BEIS might be minded to conclude an inquiry is best after all.

I am not basing this on any inside knowledge, but the sustained pressure from MPs and the ever-widening scope of this story demands something a bit more far-reaching than Mr Scully’s “review”.

The review was proposed before the Post Office revealed it actually went about prosecuting 900-odd people over 20 years since 1999, and now you have a complaint to the parliamentary ombudsman in the making, the Attorney General, the BEIS select committee, the MOJ select committee, the CCRC, the court of appeal, UKGI, the Cabinet Office, the DPP, the Met Police, several law firms, the CQC (still examining P Vennells’ status as a fit and proper person to chair an NHS trust) and the Post Office all involved at some level, and you wonder just what is going to happen next.

Furthermore, both Fujitsu and the government have successfully dodged bullets throughout, so they need holding to account, and no one – not one single person – has at any stage taken responsibility for destroying so many peoples’ lives. No one at any level has fronted up to the media and said “actually – I don’t know what we were thinking, it was wrong, and I am personally sorry for my role in ignoring/perpetrating/abetting/covering up this scandal.” That more than anything sticks in the craw.

Bleurgh. Sorry – it’s bit early to be saddling up the high horse, isn’t it?

I’d better go. I have to record some lines for Panorama under my duvet and hope that events in America don’t lead to another postponement of the programme.

Oh – I nearly forgot. Episode 9 of the Great Post Office Trial on BBC Radio 4 today actually gets to the high court with a title I borrowed from a line in one of Fraser J’s judgments: “Extremely Aggressive Litigation”. The programme goes out at 1.45pm and is available here after broadcast. I would be most grateful if you could give it a listen.

Thanks to all the new subscribers and for your continued and lively correspondence. Reading through that is the fun part of doing this job…

Have a great day,

Nick