Bogey back for more

Hello,

My alarm call this morning was only 5.45am as I’d agreed to go into the TalkTV studio to talk about Angela van den Bogerd on their breakfast programme. It’s a half hour walk to the station where I discovered no trains would be running for the foreseeable future.

Curses. TalkTV had offered me a car, but I try to avoid them where I can. Now I was stuck. I called the producers and they suggested doing me DTL (down the line). The only sensible place to do that was back at home, a half hour walk away (all the cabs had been nabbed by desperate commuters). I began to realise the most sensible thing to do was to go home, do the DTL and then cover the Inquiry from home too.

Which is where I am now, back in my civvies, loading up on painkillers, and flexing my functioning fingers, looking forward to the day ahead.

Angela’s Career Ashes

Covering Angela van den Bogerd’s evidence in both real time (through the live tweeting – curated here with document screenshots) and on reflection (see The First Lady of Flat Earth) was immensely frustrating.

You would think Chris Aujard, Rodric Williams and AvdB would want to tell the Inquiry the truth, to admit where how and why they conspired to conceal, obfuscate and lie. But they seem unwilling or possibly incapable of doing so. I realise playing the incompetent card means they are less likely to see the inside of a prison cell than if they admit the true motives behind their actions, but surely there comes a point at which one of them holds their hands up and comes clean?

Maybe that will happen if/when the CPS gets involved and there’s something at stake for them.

Anyway, van den Bogerd dissembled and obfuscated her way through yesterday’s session, displaying not a shred of compassion, nor any cognisance of the damage she’d done. I’m expecting more of the same today.

Here are some alternative takes on van den Bogerd’s evidence:

Horizon scandal: Ex-Post Office executive ‘doesn’t recall’ learning Horizon could alter accounts – ITV News

Former Post Office executive gave ‘false’ evidence at high court, inquiry hears – The Guardian

Paula Vennells dismissed proposal to end sub-postmaster prosecutions, inquiry hears – The Telegraph

Good people

On the upside it was a joy to see so many good people at the Inquiry yesterday, particularly Wendy Buffrey who kindly gave me half her sandwich when I was too busy to leave the Inquiry building to get any lunch. Wendy has been extraordinarily good company over the past couple of weeks, speaking, as she has, on three of the theatre dates we’ve done so far. She also knows her onions when it comes to injuries, and has been full of helpful advice and reassurance about my wrist.

As well as Wendy and Mark Kelly, who I mentioned yesterday, I managed to say hello to Parmod Kalia, Tony, Caroline and Katie Downey, Chris Head, Seema Misra, Chirag Sidhpura, Kamran Ashraf (all former SPMs or otherwise directly impacted by this scandal), Eleanor Shaikh (campaigner), David Chaplin, Helen Lacey, (publishers of The Great Post Office Scandal) Richard Brooks (Private Eye), Natasha Bondy (who made Mr Bates v The Post Office), Emma Simpson (BBC), Paul Brand and Isabel Alderson-Blench (ITV News) Neil Hudgell, David Enright, and Sam Stein KC (lawyers). Apologies to anyone I missed out. It was quite the gathering.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who signed up over the last 24 hours. It’s great to have you on board. Forgive me for plugging my theatre talks this weekend once more. Just in case you didn’t know, I will be in Bishops Stortford with Tony and Katie Downey tomorrow and in Southend on Sunday with Graham Ward, whose name actually came up in documentation put to van den Bogerd yesterday. I’m looking forward to talking to him about that and many more things besides. Do have a look at the dates and times to see if you can make either of the above or any of the other dates in May. Apart from the rescheduled Stourport date this autumn I don’t think I’m going to be doing this again, so please grab a ticket if you can. They can be special evenings.

Right – back to the Inquiry. You can follow me on twitter, or wait for tonight’s summary. Either way, thank you for your support. I would not be able to focus so intensively on the inquiry evidence without the ever growing army of secret emailers’ donations. So, thankyouthankyou and apologies for not replying to any emails. I’ll do my best to go over them over the weekend.

Yours

Nick

Post Office Scandal – The Inside Story

In April and May 2024, I’ll be visiting various theatres in towns around England.

At each venue I’ll be joined by a former Subpostmaster (apart from Walton when Second Sight’s Ian Henderson will be in the chair). There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions and learn even more about the scandal.

All the dates and box office links are here. Please do have a look, see if there’s a venue near you, and if you fancy it, book a couple of tickets. Please also feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends who may live near a venue!

I’ll be around after each show in the foyer or bar and look forward to saying hello if you can make it.