plus: news lines round-up

Hello!

I hope you are all keeping well. I had a weekend trying not to do any work, but I found myself reading up on some of the transcripts I missed.

I’ve nearly finished going through the Inquiry stuff from last week. Not all of it was that revelatory, though I think there is some work to be done on Fujitsu CEO Paul Patterson’s evidence to the Inquiry. I’m hoping to turn that into a blog post if I get a moment this week, but I’m not optimistic.

I must admit I am surprised that no one asked (unless I missed it) Patterson exactly when and how Fujitsu decided it had a moral obligation to contribute to Postmaster redress. I think think knowing the process by which Patterson (and presumably the Fujitsu UK board) came to his announcement last Tuesday at the select committee would be revealing.

I also still need to properly go through the House of Lords debate from this time last week, and, of course, the select committee hearing transcript to double-check a few things.

On top of that the Inquiry hearings resumed today, with yet another Post Office investigator (Robert Daily, above) attempting to explain how and why their investigations led to more innocent people being charged with criminal offences.

His conclusion? “I was only doing my job“.

I suspect we are going to get more of this as the week progresses.

TV scheduling

I spent a large chunk of yesterday being interviewed by Paul Brand for ITV’s Tonight documentary which is going out on Thursday on ITV1 at 8.30pm. This is a follow-up to Mr Bates vs the Post Office, which will take into account the public and political reaction to the drama. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

I was just on the One Show on BBC1 (studio photo above) talking about my trip to see Sue Knight and Steve Phillips in South Wales (see previous newsletter).

I’m writing this post-show from the One Show “Star” dressing room, which I can only imagine is too poxy for the actual stars of tonight’s show to wait around in. You’ll be pleased to know the BBC are not in any way wasting your licence fee on soft furnishings or hospitality (the team working here, though, are lovely).

The last time I was in the One Show studio to discuss the Post Office, in January 2017, I had come direct from a High Court hearing to (breathlessly) report that the Post Office had reluctantly admitted (within very limited parameters) that remote access to Subpostmaster accounts was possible and had happened. This was a scoop, and a complete turnaround from the on-the-record briefing to Panorama they had given two years previously.

When, after the broadcast, a worried Subpostmaster and One Show viewer wrote to the Post Office with concern, the Post Office chairman’s office replied to tell them that my report was “disappointing” and that my “summary of the issue was inaccurate”. I’m looking at a copy of that letter now. It still annoys me.

Two years later, on Tuesday 11 June 2019, Dr Robert Worden, the Post Office’s own expert IT witness told the High Court that when it came to remote access “more or less Fujitsu or Post Office could do anything”.

A reminder, if one were needed, that the lying liars lied to us and kept lying until they were forced to admit the truth.

News lines – Times scoop

Here are some news lines which have been drawn to my attention over the last two or three days:

A good scoop from The Times, revealing Duncan Tait as “the Fujitsu boss who said Horizon was ‘like Fort Knox’”. This “Fort Knox” phrase was first raised by Paula Vennells in a 2020 letter to the Business Select Committee in reference to remote access to branch Subpostmaster accounts.

In May 2021, I wrote to Ms Venells’ representative asking who said this to her. Ms Vennells’ representative did not respond.

Tom Witherow at the Times has found two sources naming Tait as the originator of the claim. Tait has subsequently told the BBC his Fort Knox comment “was in relation to the cyber and physical security of Horizon and was unrelated to the remote access issue.”

So it was all a terrible misunderstanding. It begs the question – is that all the investigation Vennells did on the burning issue of remote access.

Well, no, no it’s not, because we know she asked a similar question of her own team in Jan 2015, and got a response filled with such gobbledygook that even the most ollfactorially challenged would have smelt a rat. But Vennells didn’t because Vennells had a “need to say” that remote access “is not possible.” Oh, what a mess.

Channel 4 News

Three days after interviewing Paul Marshall about the Clarke Advice, Channel 4 News spoke to 2nd Sight investigator Ian Henderson.

2nd Sight, you will remember, were invited into the Post Office to look under the bonnet of the Horizon system and sense-check the Post Office’s approach to investigating discrepancies.

What they found was so appalling the Post Office tried to shut their investigation down and then sacked them. As Ian says in his interview, 2nd Sight got “too close to the truth.”

And more…

The Daily Mirror: “Shameless Paula Vennells and Post Office bosses partied while victims fought for justice“

Daily Record: “Struggling sub-postmaster who faces losing business amid Horizon shortfalls helped by big-hearted locals“

ITV News: “Congleton postmistress ‘still covering shortfalls caused by Post Office’s faulty Horizon system‘”

(I think the continuing losses in the Post Office system – caused by Horizon glitches or otherwise could be one of the next big stories in this affair – Steve Phillips told us in the One Show film he was still getting discrepancies, too)

Right that’s enough for now. I am acutely aware that all this gadding about on radio and telly has precluded me doing from much in the way of Actual Journalism these past few weeks. I am very much hoping things will re-balance shortly, and I hope to have some news on the journalism front soon.

Take care of yourselves and thanks to everyone who has signed up in recent days. It’s great to have you here!

Best

Nick