Archives :
Paula Vennells
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Closing statements: Day 2 – Circular Firing Squad
There were some good points made today, but the main one was a big shrug – “not me, mate”. In this blog post I’m going to focus on what was said by the various core participants’ barristers. For more on what it was like to be there and why there’s a basket full of chocolate…
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Closing statements: Day 1
The hearing room was packed today as Subpostmasters, their supporters, lawyers, journalists and members of the public attended a long day of submissions at Aldwych House in London. First out of the blocks was Ed Henry KC who sought to draw the line of conspiracy upwards through the executive to the Post Office board. Henry…
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Dame Sandra Dawson vs Paula Vennells’ lawyer
I am publishing this blog post largely as an excuse to use one of my favourite screenshots of the entire Inquiry. See above. Corporate governance experts Dame Sandra Dawson and Dr Katy Steward wrote two lengthy reports about the Post Office’s corporate governance responsibilities and failings when it came to the scandal. On 12 and…
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Chisholm: helping Paula Vennells fail upwards
Sir Alex Chisholm KCB was one of the most powerful government civil servants during a crucial phase of the Post Office scandal, and to nerds like me, his evidence was always going to be of some interest. Chisholm made it quite clear (watch it here) he was crawling all over the Post Office’s disastrous defence…
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Post Office Paula in Pant Topper Showstopper
I suppose it was only a matter of time. Even so, the first Horizon IT Inquiry-themed post box topper to materialise in the UK is quite the talking point. The well-executed tableau appeared overnight last night. It immortalises a crucial week of the Inquiry in May this year, when Lead Counsel Jason Beer KC questioned…
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Ghost Storey
Usually when thinking about how to write a summary of the day’s evidence, there are one or two moments or lines which have made an impression. I’m struggling to think of anything Susannah Storey said during today’s session worth reporting. I realise I’m not exactly selling what you’re about to read, but it did feel…
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Asleep at the Neil
Neil McCausland was a non-executive director (NED) at the Post Office. In fact, he was the Senior Independent Director (SID), responsible during board meetings for robust examination of the executive’s actions and responsible outside board meetings for doing his research, marshalling the opinions of the other NEDs and communicating them to the Chair and executive…
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Furious Swinson claimed Paula Vennells deceived her
During her evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry former minister Jo Swinson today highlighted the mendacity of the Post Office and what she saw as the conniving “duplicitous” behaviour of her chief civil service advisor. It all centres on the first Clarke Advice, the legal document written in July 2013 which was kept…
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More dispatches from the Post Office bunker: the PR guy goes Tonto
On 1 Dec 2014 I was in Cornwall, where Tim Robinson, Jane Goddard, Joe Cooper and I had been filming with former Subpostmaster Sue Knight. After 32 years service Sue had been sacked and prosecuted by the Post Office for false accounting. Although the prosecution had been dropped, Sue’s life was falling apart. She had…
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The taxi for Paula Vennells which never quite came
A powerpoint slide deck was the most newsworthy element to leap out of former Post Office chair Alice Perkins’ second day of evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry today. Thanks to an anonymous nine-page presentation, we know that in February 2014 the government was tempted to sack Post Office CEO Paula Vennells because…