Offer branded “cruel” by leading KC

Hi everyone

Hope you are all keeping well. Here is my write up of the govt’s £600k compensation offer to certain Subpostmasters. It’s got links to some relevant information and quotes from various parties. If you’re interested on what happens behind the scenes on a day like yesterday, read on…

I happened to be filming with Ed Henry KC for ITV News about a different element to this story when the news of the government’s £600,000 offer to Subpostmasters (whose convictions have been quashed) broke. I asked Ed about it, and Liam, my camera man, recorded his answers.

My phone started ringing – the ITV news desk wanted to know where I was and if I could come and do a live in the studio for the Evening News. It was 6pm, I was in Ely Place. The Evening News goes on air at 6.30pm. My slot was 6.50pm.

I said it would be okay. I took my leave of Ed with grateful thanks and started walking towards 200 Gray’s Inn Road (GIR), where the ITV News studios are located.

Liam started feeding the “grab” (Ed’s answer) back to ITV News “traffic” at GIR using his LiveU. Traffic put the raw clip on the output server.

On arrival in the building I had a quick chat with the programme editor and worked with the output producer to edit Ed’s clip and get the gallery details into the programme running order.

We also picked some “float” (so called because it is “floated” in on screen above what is being said in the studio). We decided on archive picture of the celebrating Postmasters outside the Royal Courts of Justice, filmed in 2021. The programme was on already on air as we were having the conversation.

I checked the spelling of Ed’s name was correct in the digital running order, read the “lead in” (the newsreader’s introduction to the story) and found a slightly misleading word. I had a chat with the programme writer to get it changed.

Then I had to prepare what I was going to say. I read an already published online report into the story which confused me. At that point I had ten minutes to get down to the studio, get wired up with an earpiece and a microphone and get in front of a camera, answering questions accurately.

Keen to hear exactly what the deal was from the horse’s mouth, I called the Department for Business Press Office. No answer. I called the mobile of one of the press officers. No answer. I called the minister. No answer.

With five minutes to go I was worrying I was going to have a fudge a key element of this story as I was not clear on a specific detail. Thankfully the minister Kevin Hollinrake called me back.

He confirmed the information I needed and also gave me a new line. I walked the two flights of stairs down from the newsroom to the studio, got miked up and sat down to answer the question asked of me by the ineffably calm presenter, Lucrezia Millarini.

The 90 second studio live passed off without incident, and I was able to reveal the new line from the minister on the back of Ed’s grab. You can watch it here.

Thanks to everyone who tweeted or contacted me yesterday – particularly those Subpostmasters and Subpostmasters’ representatives who provided on-the-record comment, which I have fed into my online piece. I’m also very grateful to the minister for calling me back.

Walkies

I am delighted to say that the walk around Shakespeare’s London, organised by Anne Page, Jane Anderson and conducted by London’s Best Walking Guide (TM), Ian Fagelson, raised more than £700 for the Horizon Scandal Fund. The barrister Flora Page, who represents several Subpostmasters, has once more donated 5% of her net earnings from her work on the Inquiry to the Fund. We continue to receive donations from people each time the story makes its way onto the news agenda.

The charity has made some relatively substantial grants in recent months and this recent spate of donations will help ensure that the charity has the funds to keep helping people going forwards.

We are getting a relatively steady stream of new enquiries about possible help coming through, too. Everything, for the moment at least, appears to be manageable.

I will write a blog post or newsletter containing details and pictures of the ways the Fund has been able to help some Subpostmasters as soon as I can.

It’s obviously quite a lot of work as we have to see who might be willing to feature in any publicity, ask permissions, get decent photos and corral it all together. At the moment I am tied up scripting both the ITV News piece which should be out in October and the next five episodes of the BBC documentary, which should be out in November. And, like yesterday, dealing with breaking news!

Inquiry

Don’t forget phase 4 of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry re-starts today. You can watch proceedings live here. Helen Rose – author of the Helen Rose Report – is currently giving evidence and will do so until today’s session ends at 2pm. I’ll be observing at the Inquiry for most of Thursday before heading up to Salford to present a truncated Drive time on BBC 5 live on Friday. Then I will take the Trans Pennine Express to Leeds to help my eldest settle into her first year University.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of the week!

Best

Nick