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At the time I never really took much notice of this and our village post office pulled down the shutters after a Post Office audit, nothing came of it but the postmaster felt enough was enough. A truly riveting drama with well chosen actors (see the true life episode after). Having felt the brunt of corporate bullying albeit no where on the scale of these people who if still alive are suffering today and may never get recompense it was eye opening.
I can say this is the best factual drama I have ever seen, brilliant.The more I know the less I understand.
Agree RTB. The powers that be really should be held to account for this and face custodial sentences themselves given the nature of the fraud that occurred against the postmasters/mistresses who have gone through years of hell. And then their successors who admittedly had nothing to do with the fraud but were trying to squirm out of admitting liability and recompensing the accused adequately.
It was really good to see that Alan Bates turned down his MBE whilst Paula Vennells, the CEO at the time prosecutions were still ongoing, accepted and still has her CBE for services to the Post Office.
It really made my blood boil when I first heard about this a few years ago now and still does.
Brilliant RTB..like yourself never really took a lot of notice but after watching the drama (all 4 episodes in one sitting) I find it hard to believe that Fujitsu themselves weren’t brought to account and made to pay for the damage caused by their faulty ‘Horizon’ system. The fact that they were able to ‘log in’ to sub post offices’ accounts in the middle of the night and double the shortfalls is appalling. I didn’t see anything that said they were made accountable does anyone know?
Also the Post Office putting all the payments made by the sub postmasters for the shortfalls, often their life savings, into the yearly profits.
Their only shareholder being The Government is no more than a scandal.
After 20 years plus of campaigning by Alan Bates for his fellow workers some of whom took their own lives the Post Office has to be finally brought to account for all the heartache it has caused.
JacThings turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...“At the time I never really took much notice of this”.
I suggest that is partly because the scandal was ignored by the mainstream media, which is more interested in Westminster gossip and celebrity tittle tattle.
I have given up on “Private Eye” in recent years. However, it was on to this scandal almost from the start. Its coverage was outstanding journalism but it really needed a national newspaper with a larger circulation to run with the story instead.
Or better still, the marvellous guardians of the truth at the BBC. Someone there must have read the story in “Private Eye”. Why didn’t they pick it up? I think a “Panorama” programme was made somewhat belatedly – but how many people would have watched? It should have been headline on the 6 and 10 o’clock news.
ITV deserves credit for making a drama which will reach more people than a documentary but even it is not being entirely honest. It conveniently fails to mention that one of the people heavily involved in the scandal was Adam Crozier, who then left the Post Office to become highly paid Chief Executive at…ITV!
I am not bothered about Vennells having a CBE. Honours are thoroughly devalued and discredited nowadays. But she and several other people ought to be on trial for what they did.
Agree with everything written so far. It’s an absolutely heartbreaking situation and shows an organisation that was, and perhaps still is, thoroughly rotten at the top end. The ordinary people on the ground who had their lives at best ruined and at worst ended by this disgusting episode I think were honest, caring people who genuinely wanted to serve their communities, and took great pleasure in doing so. Normally I find such talk a bit wishy-washy but in this case I think it’s true.
I think Triptych makes a very good point about Fujitsu, they appear to have got off very lighty so far. As I understand it, the taxpayer is picking up the bill for the compensation (that is of course rightfully owed). Why shouldn’t Fujitsu cough up for its part in all this? It presumably received a large sum of public money for the contract in the first place and was ultimately the one responsible for all of the failures. Total incompetence at Fujitsu and then a disgusting cover up by PO top brass is how this looks to me. How these vile people who were responsible sleep at night is beyond me.
The testimony of the fujitshit engineer itself was rockfuel.
Were you asked to change/ amend the mainframe?
There was also one fundamental question which was asked individually of the police by each defendant, disclosure of which should have stopped all the cases in their tracks.
“Am I the only one?”
“Yes you are. “You are probably correct CAS that the mainstream media ignored it therefore there was little or nothing to see.
The more I know the less I understand.
When there was so many cases the people in charge at the PO should have stopped and asked why , they didn’t therefore the questions start with them … pref questions asked by a suitable police officer … Sorry isn’t enough , not with lost lives
I found it shocking at the end just how many people actually went to prison, convicted with no evidence.
The more I know the less I understand.
Anyone who has ever had the misfortune to have anything to do with Fujitsu will know what a bunch of cowboys they are. Their involvement does not surprise me at all.
The media silence on this was a disgrace. What is the point of it if it does not speak to truth to power and hold it to account?
Unfortunately for the BBC, I believe it is open to the accusation that as a publicly funded broadcaster it did not want to scrutinise another part of the civil service. I can’t help feeling that it would have been a lot more interested if a privately funded organisation had behaved similarly. Note how the drama which has belatedly brought this scandal to the attention of so many people is on its commercially funded rival.
The scandal goes to the top politically as well. After 2010, the responsible Cabinet Minister was Ed Davey. He rejected a meeting with Mr Bates and now claims he knew little about it all, pathetically blaming his officials for not telling him (a typical politician, taking all the credit when something goes right but quick to blame civil servants when it does not). Well, why didn’t he ask a few more pertinent questions? That is his job as a Secretary of State. “Private Eye” is widely read in the Westminster village. I cannot believe he or his advisers did not know.
Of course, Davey has subsequently been knighted and elected leader of his party, which means (in theory at least) he is in the running to be Prime Minister, or for a senior post in a coalition government.
It is not entirely Davey’s fault – other people bear more responsibility. But people were falsely imprisoned partly as a result of his dereliction of duty. Some people even committed suicide. Without pre judging any trial, there are people who have done serious jail term for less. Including Julian Assange, still languishing in a British prison despite having committed no crime.
Rather unsurprisingly given the lengthy timeframe involved, politicians of all stripes don’t come out of this very well. It is absolutely shocking that more has not been said and done until now and as Cork says, it is inconceivable that those in Westminster as well as all national print and broadcast media did not know at least something. It seems that it was a relatively obscure trade IT publication that actually did the most work initially.
Going back to the programme purely as a piece of television drama, it has provided further proof that Toby Jones and Monica Dolan are the outstanding performers of the age. They are both never less than excellent in everything they do.
One slight thing I felt odd unless the Bates moved property after was that fantastic house in Snowdonia. The true life episode shows them in an end of terrace.
The more I know the less I understand.
Cas Says
I suggest that is partly because the scandal was ignored by the mainstream media,
Perhaps if your telly wasn’t on mute you might have caught this story over the years covered by the mainstream media. Certainly by BBC breakfast news, and probably ITV news too. The a inquiry too which will conclude in 2025 and police will be looking into it to see if fraud is provable.
My own mind is that someone did commit a crime and it wasn’t the postmaster/mistress.
You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative.
Don't mess with mister in between.You are missing the point, Red Rum.
This story might have received a few token mentions in the mainstream media – but nowhere near the level it should have received. That is a generally accepted point. Why wasn’t it the headline in the newspapers? Why wasn’t it the leading item on the BBC News?
When I used to read “Private Eye”, I was genuinely shocked by the details. To my knowledge, they were seldom if ever picked up by other newspapers.
This is a situation where innocent people were falsely imprisoned and were at least four committed suicide because of the stress they were placed under. Are you seriously suggesting this story was given due prominence by the media?
At least two people on this thread alone have said they did not realise the extent of the scandal. I have seen similar comments elsewhere. I have heard people in work this week say it is the first they have ever heard of the scandal.
The mainstream media should have been far more proactive in covering one of the worst scandals of our times. It was a dereliction of duty by them to as good as ignore it.
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