Good morning,
Former Chair of the Post Office Tim Parker gave evidence to the Inquiry yesterday, and I think the thing we all probably learned was that he was not sufficiently interested in the scandal to do much about it.
You can read my report here. Some of it was written on a train, some of it was written on a tube, some of it was written at an AC/DC concert at Wembley Stadium (see photo at the bottom of this newsletter), which was a little unexpected, but still very enjoyable.
Other takes on Mr Parker’s evidence include:
Ex-Post Office chair expresses ‘sincere regret’ over Horizon scandal – Guardian
Post Office lawyer advised against sharing critical Horizon report, ex-chair tells inquiry – Sky News
Ex-Post Office chair denies hiding key Horizon report – BBC News
Glitch news
Both The Guardian and The Telegraph have reviewed Glitch – the play about former Subpostmaster Pam Stubbs.
Dynamically delivered drama about the Post Office scandal – Guardian – 3 stars
The True Story of the Post Office Scandal Powerful response to a national disgrace – Telegraph – 4 stars!
You can read my write-up, if you missed it, here. I also thought it was worth uploading the BBC Inside Out piece I fronted in 2015 just because it featured Pam (and many many other Subpostmasters).
Being able to upload videos is one of the reasons I handed the technical control of the Post Office Scandal website to someone who knew what they were doing. It is thanks to your donations (and the endless saintly patience of Andrew, our web guru) that I can do this. Thank you.
Andrew has been hard at work to make the Post Office Scandal homepage look more newsy. I’m delighted with it. I’ve already got a couple of ideas for some tweaks, but I think it’s a definite improvement. Do check it out and let me know what you think.
Daly’s
I mentioned in Tuesday’s newsletter I might be going for a drink after Parker’s appearance at the Inquiry with Private Eye’s Richard Brooks. This happened. I suggested we have a pint in Daly’s so I could take some photos of the private room we have reserved for the Subpostmasters’ Social on 19 July.
Despite using the “estate agent” lens on my iPhone, you can see the room is pretty small. Also, having said it was step free, there are a small number steps to negotiate to get down into the room. If you are already registered to come and this is a problem, please get in touch.
If you are a former Subpostmaster, and you would like to come along and you are not already registered, please have a look at this webpage. Help with travel and accommodation is available.
The social is for people directly affected by the scandal only. Forgive me, therefore, if this information is only relevant to a small (but very important!) number of secret emailers.
We could, one day, do a secret email social for everyone on this newsletter mailing list, though that might be weird.
Legal seminar klaxon
If you’re not a Subpostmaster, you might be a lawyer. If so you might be interested in this message from a correspondent called David Bridge. David writes:
“I have been working with the barrister Stephen Mason to produce a seminar based the book he edited entitled Electronic Evidence and Electronic Signatures.
“The book gets to the heart of the Post Office Scandal from the justice system point of view – how electronic evidence is dealt with in court.
“To deliver the seminar, Hodge Jones & Allen have offered us use of their meeting room in North Gower Street in London on 17th July at 5pm.
“We hope this will be the first of many opportunities to use the seminar to educate the justice system as a whole in the use of Electronic Evidence and help to prevent further miscarriages of justice.
“The business we have set up to deliver this has a central purpose to donate a share of profits to the Horizon Scandal Fund, and as such, we felt that you might like to help us promote our initiative.”
Happy to. The link to the seminar is here: https://whattoask.co.uk/electronic-evidence-seminar/
Right, I promised you a picture from Wembley last night. Here you go. I must admit, I didn’t get a whole load of work done whilst I was there and I did look like a massive plum in my suit, but I wasn’t going to turn down AC/DC, who did, as expected, rock.
Best regards
Nick
