A moment in time

To be perfectly honest I’m sending this email because I am acutely aware a lot of people have kindly donated to the crowdfunding campaign, signed up to this mailing list and might be expecting something in return for their money.

I have not emailed during the last week because I am trying to write a book, which many people reading this have also kindly bought. There’s a Catch 22. If I don’t get the book done then all sorts of problems will occur. Also – I don’t want to just write a book, I want to write something which gets half-decent reviews and ends up selling to people who have never heard of the Post Office Horizon scandal. And that requires… concentration.

MKF rides again

The Mighty Karl Flinders from Computer Weekly has the latest on the problems the courts have with regard to computer evidence, something which I have tried to cover on www.postofficetrial.com for a while now. It looks as if (according to Karl) the government is finally taking this seriously and might make some changes. Good.

Karl has also reported that the Post Office has extended Fujitsu’s Horizon contract for another year, but the wider intention is to bring the system in house.

It seems like Post Office CEO Nick Read is making progress, though, like the government, he doesn’t seem to think anyone in his organisation should be held responsible for what they were up to in the first 13 years of this century. He also doesn’t seem to think the claimants who dragged the Post Office kicking and screaming to its sense should be properly compensated for a) pointing this out or b) their losses.

Mediation

Back in 2013, the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance and a number of influential MPs successfully persuaded the Post Office to set up a Complaint and Mediation Scheme. They did this on the back of an investigation carried out by a company called Second Sight, which uncovered problems with Horizon and the way the Post Office went about doing its business.

More than 100 people applied to the mediation scheme (a big number in the days when journalists could only point to a couple of dozen people claiming problems with Horizon). Whilst the whole process was shrouded in secrecy, there was a sense that something positive might be happening.

Turns out doing the right thing was the last thing the Post Office had in mind. The explosive anger of MPs in the 2014 Westminster Hall debate is testament to that.

I have just published an account of the mediation (as the Post Office apparently sought to conduct it) as late as 2016. It’s by the CWU’s Mark Baker, and it’s worth a read.

Nose back to grindstone

I need to go quiet for another week and crack on with the book. I’ve nearly done 30,000 words, which is nice, but I need to hit at least 100,000 by the end of May, and there are going to be lots of distractions around 23 April for obvious reasons.

Thank you for all your emails and ongoing support. It makes a huge difference to get messages from people with so many perspectives on this story. If you have a direct personal experience of running a post office or working for the Post Office, the government or Fujitsu, please do get in touch. Any and every perspective will help make the finished book a better and more powerful read.

Keep well and enjoy your drink in a freezing cold beer garden next week, if that’s your thing.

Yours

Nick