Making plans

Hello secret emailers

I am on the train heading towards Waterloo. From there it’s a short-ish walk over Waterloo Bridge and probably along Embankment cutting up Exeter Street onto the Strand, Fleet Street, up Fetter Lane and into Rolls Buildings for Day 4 of the Post Office Trial.

This morning before breakfast I drew a rough plan of Court 26 at the Rolls Building:

It’s not to scale, and there are many more chairs at the back than I had time to draw in, but hopefully it is of some use when you’re reading about what was said.

More housekeeping: I received a note from a paying subscriber re my use of social media yesterday which reminded me of my responsibilities to you. She emailed:

“Re your recent comments about “live tweets”… I don’t use twitter so the emails are the only way I am receiving the information, I’m sure I’m not the only one. “I signed up anticipating emails and don’t have the time or inclination to learn another variation of Social media so please keep the emails coming even if they are copies of the tweets.”

I would like to reassure my correspondent, and you, that you paid for an email service and an email service is what you will get, two emails a day when the court is sitting. This “secret” one, which is not published on the blog, and an email version of the report I publish to the blog way ahead (and far better formatted) than those who have used the free subscription link on www.postofficetrial.com

The tweets are a bolt-on, freely available to all, and I think they give a useful blow-by-blow of what’s happening in court. My last blog post linked to an “unrolled thread” of each sessions tweets on one webpage – the brilliant Thread reader – (morning here, afternoon here). I’ll either leave them there or post them to www.postofficetrial.com, so you can read them at a click, in chronological order after the event.

So – don’t worry if twitter isn’t your thing, they will only ever be a click away from this email.

That said – if you want to get involved in twitter – it is dead easy. It’s just another website. You don’t need a log in if all you want to do is read the tweets. All you have to do is click on @nickwallis and you will see my tweets as they appear, latest at the top of the page. If you click on “show this thread” you’ll see them in chronological order on twitter.

Isn’t technology a wonderful thing? Now there’s a moot point.

Thanks to everyone who has been emailing, facebooking and tweeting me over the last 24 hours. Please forgive me for not responding. Everything you send me is fascinating, but sadly I am unable to respond to everything I am sent, much as I enjoy reading it.

Thanks also to the glut of new subscribers who have joined the secret email club in the last two days. It seems to me that word is spreading about this trial and its import, and that is undoubtedly down to early subscribers who are fowarding the tweets and emails to others. Keep pushing with that – think of people who might like to read these emails or blog posts to keep across what’s happening. Put them in the inbox of friends, family, colleagues and interested parties. If you can make a friendly journalist, MP, judge, lawyer, peer, politician and/or influential businessperson aware of what is happening, they will be in a better position to react when the Mr Justice Fraser makes his rulings.

Day 4 of this trial will start at 10.30am with the fourth Lead Claimant taking the stand. It will be either Naushad Abdulla, Elizabeth Stockdale or Louise Dar.

[flexes fingers] Let’s get cracking…