plus: Scottish Subpostmasters’ Suffering

Hi

I’ve spent chunks of today and the weekend wading through the closing statements by the various parties to Phase 4 the Inquiry. I’ll save my reflections for the next newsletter, but I did want to draw your attention to a couple of things right now, not least Part 3 in a short series of blog posts about the barrister Paul Marshall’s letter to Sir Wyn Williams on compensation.

We have known for a while that the compensation schemes are a mess, designed, it seems, to under-pay, wear down, or in some cases basically cheat Subpostmaster claimants out of what they are due (here is tax lawyer Dan Neidle with eight things which are wrong with the Horizon Shortfall Scheme alone).

Marshall’s letter details some of the rank unfairnesses baked into the Overturned Conviction and GLO schemes.

For more, please read Part 3 of “What’s really going on with the Subpostmaster compensation schemes“.

BBC1’s Disclosure

The week before last I travelled to Basingstoke to meet the “Redoubtable” Former Subpostmaster Mark Baker and complete some filming with BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team.

The Disclosure team, led by Mark Daly, asked me questions and told me a bit about what was in Wednesday’s episode, which concentrates on Scottish Subpostmasters and their interactions with Horizon, Post Office investigators and the Scottish justice system.

I really cannot wait to see the resultant film, which you can watch here, anywhere in the UK, shortly after it has been broadcast on BBC1 Scotland at 8pm on Wed 7 February.

The Misras and the Lord

Wed 7 February also happens to be the 13th anniversary of my first broadcast foray into the Horizon IT Scandal. My colleagues at BBC Surrey Radio put together a breakfast show special featuring a recording of Davinder Misra about his wife Seema, followed by a chat with Seema and Davinder’s MP Jonathan Lord. Then we had Jo Hamilton with her lawyer Issy Hogg live in the studio. In the evening BBC Inside Out South broadcast their first film about the scandal.

I am delighted Seema and Davinder very kindly allowed me to come and record a “13 years on” interview in their new home, a day after they had travelled up to London to witness Jonathan Lord ask Rishi Sunak about their situation at Prime Minister’s questions.

I also had the opportunity to interview Saj Hussain, Woking Postmaster and local NFSP rep. Hussain was around when the Misras were having difficulties. He says the NFSP has changed.

I am not in control of the editing/broadcast of the material we recorded, so I am looking forward to hearing the result. I’ll post a link here and on social media as soon as I have one.

Further reading

– The Guardian today published an in-depth interview with former Subpostmaster (and stalwart claimant in Bates v Post Office) Teju Adedayo. It is a great read and I wish her all the best. If you want a slightly more technical reading of Teju’s situation, here is a piece I wrote last November.

– The Guardian is also reporting that on Wednesday, at the behest of the CWU, the Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake will meet with union representatives to discuss mutualising the Post Office – an idea put on the table by the Lib Dems and then shelved.

Moorhead on manœuvres

Prof Richard Moorhead has been banging out the blog posts on his substack recently. All are fascinating:

In post a) he has a go at the Law Society.

In post b) he makes a very serious point about the Post Office’s misuse of legal terminology in its communications with (largely unrepresented) Subpostmasters (now the subject of a complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority).

In post c) he raises two significant omissions from the list of forthcoming inquiry witnesses.

And in post d) he focuses on the closing submissions to the Inquiry by Stuart Munro, a solicitor advocate representing former Scottish Subpostmaster Susan Sinclair. Moorhead says Munro “raises matters of great significance to the Inquiry and Scotland’s justice system. In particular he raises a set of questions that suggest the Scottish Crown Office and/or Procurator Fiscals have significant questions to answer.”

I don’t want to give too much away, but the BBC Scotland Disclosure episode also raises significant questions about the Scottish Crown Office. With bells on.

Will meets Lee!

Finally, here’s a heart-warming moment (it’s what Good Morning Britain does best). Actor Will Mellor and Lee Castleton are reunited on the GMB sofa to have a little chat about the Mr Bates drama. It starts 7m 45s into the youtube clip and is all just rather nice.

It’s gone 10pm and I have to be up in 5 hours so I’m going to hit the sack. Thanks to everyone for your comments and, if you’re a new subscriber, thanks for signing up over the weekend.

I’ll try to be back with another secret email before the end of the week, but I’ve got a 51st birthday to mark and a few more of these early starts to deal with so I may go awol for a bit.

Look after yourselves,

Nick