Post Office Scandal

Reporting the Post Office Horizon IT Scandal

Post Office Scandal

Reporting the Post Office Horizon IT Scandal

BBC Inside Out South – 19 Jan 2015

Nick Wallis

5 comments

1 min read

I don’t think this TV piece (see below) on the Post Office scandal has been available for a while. As it’s not far off its tenth anniversary, I think it’s worth posting. It features Pam Stubbs, Julian and Karen Wilson, Jo Hamilton, Noel Thomas, Issy Hogg and James Arbuthnot. It is introduced by the legend that is Jon Cuthill!

The very first BBC Inside Out piece on this scandal was broadcast on 7 Feb 2011. You can watch that here, and you can read more in my book, The Great Post Office Scandal, available here.

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5 responses to “BBC Inside Out South – 19 Jan 2015”

  1. Chloe Alexander avatar
    Chloe Alexander

    Pam Stubbs just breaks my heart. All of them do. 13 years on from this film and still it continues, this insanely bewildering saga.

    Reply
  2. Peter S avatar
    Peter S

    Thanks for posting Nik. You’ve done great, exemplary journalism work for many years on this important issue. How long before a Professor of Journalism somewhere commissions a drama with you and Rachel Thomson as its principal subjects? Investigative journalism at its best.

    Reply
  3. Rosie Brocklehurst avatar
    Rosie Brocklehurst

    This is a timely brilliant piece and should be nightly viewing for Sir Wyn from now on.

    Reply
  4. Martin Eldon avatar
    Martin Eldon

    This is a really interesting film Nick. It’s evidence of how far things have come. Gone is the confusion and scepticism of the Horizon System. In its place is the certainly that it was not fit for purpose, the data could changed remotely and that the Post Office Board (Vennells and crew) knew exactly what was going on. Having seen you twice on your recent tour, I’d really like to see you present an update of the situation whenever you think that is appropriate. Well done for all you do. Kind regards, Martin Eldon

    Reply
  5. John Morton avatar
    John Morton

    Thanks for posting this. It’s good to see the real people in the original circumstances. I only recently discovered that this scandal was also responsible for our own local Post office closing. On a wider note I have long been concerned about where computerisation is leading and in this respect this scandal is the portent. When people are given computer systems to operate, they no longer have to think for themselves; in fact they are discouraged from doing so. Many of us have experienced “zombified” staff providing appalling “service” over the phone, sometimes stating that what seems logical and/or sensible action to us cannot be done. I currently have a long running saga with SSE/OVO arising originally from an operator error three years ago, the consequences of which they seem incapable of resolving, adding mistakes to mistakes. And almost unbelievably and simultaneously an accepted significant insurance claim is receiving the similar computerised system process treatment. No-one is in charge, the computer is.

    Fundamentally the law of computer infallibility needs to be changed asap. I’m no lawyer but I suspect that POL could not have prosecuted successfully had this law not been in existence.

    Reply

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