Archives :
2022
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A Christmas message to the Post Office CEO
Susan Craddock (above) has multiple sclerosis. She runs Largs Post Office in Ayrshire on Scotland’s West Coast. She cc’d me in the letter below. When I asked her if I could publish it she agreed, describing herself and many other Postmasters as “desperate”. There is something Dickensian in the tone of Susan’s letter. I couldn’t…
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Government ‘unveils’ compensation scheme for Subpostmasters in Bates v Post Office litigation
The government has announced some details of its compensation scheme for the civil claimants in the Bates v Post Office litigation. You can read the ‘process document’ here. The scheme will be run by BEIS, the government’s business department, and overseen by an ‘independent advisory board’ to ‘ensure the scheme works effectively’. Although there is…
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From the archives…
The gentleman behind this website – Andrew Neale, Master of the Dark Arts – is currently engaged in a mammoth project which involves taking every single secret email newsletter I have written and converting it into an archive. Each newsletter will then get posted up on this site once it is six months old. A…
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EXCLUSIVE: How not to commission a complex IT project
Going around the country trying to spread the word about the Post Office Scandal (whilst also hoping to sell copies of my book) has brought me into contact with a class of bright, often retired, professional people who are appalled at what happened. Some even have direct experience of the story, usually from an interesting…
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How to destroy a business and a human being: Part 753.
In December last year, shortly after I’d published the hardback version of my book, I got an email from Lisa Kear. Lisa ran a Post Office counter within her “Pet Stop” shop in Belmont Sutton in South West London from April 2018 until November 2019. Lisa got in touch because she had read the book.…
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Inquiry Phase 2: Star Witness – Dave gives it both barrels
David McDonnell, a former Deputy Development Manager on the Horizon IT project with Fujitsu/ICL gave evidence during the Horizon IT inquiry on the morning of Wed 16 November. What he had to say was devastating. In October 1998 McDonnell co-wrote a report on the Horizon EPOS system with Jan Holmes, a Fujitsu/ICL internal auditor (and…
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False Accounts – London run review by Eleanor Shaikh
If she didn’t have her hands full fisking the inquiry evidence of a former Post Office executive or writing a mammoth document on the disastrous origins of the Horizon IT system, Eleanor Shaikh would make a fine theatre reviewer. Here’s her take on the London production of False Accounts: “Only a hardened dramatist would consider…
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Miller Time – ep 18 of Investigating the Post Office Scandal is live
Rebecca and I have made a new podcast – do have a listen. If you’d like to come and see me do a live presentation in Henley-on-Thames on the Post Office Horizon scandal alongside former Subpostmaster Pam Stubbs (who was treated so badly she gets a chapter to herself in my book), tickets can be…
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False Accounts – London run approaches
The London run of False Accounts – a satirical play about the Post Office Horizon scandal by the Outcasts Creative theatre group – starts its one week run on 1 November. It has attracted quite a bit of interest from many people directly affected by what happened, some of whom have been kind enough to…
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Podcasting the Post Office scandal
When Rebecca suggested we do a podcast to cover the Inquiry, I thought it was a brilliant idea. I’m a broadcast journalist. I’ve done this sort of stuff before. What could be easier than just recording our thoughts at the end of a week and releasing them into the ether? Turns out producing a podcast…