The Post Office scandal did not happen, or get covered up because of a single Machiavellian baddie. It happened because a bunch of serially incompetent people spent oodles of other people’s cash groping their way around a crisis without the competence or moral backbone to do the right thing. Alice Perkins, Chair of the Post Office between 2011 and 2015, has all the hallmarks of a capable, clever person. And it’s true that capable, clever people sometimes makes serious mistakes, or lots of regular stupid mistakes, whilst surrounded by people making similar stupid mistakes. Maybe. But, come on. The short…

Alice Perkins was Chairman of the Post Office for four years between 2011 and 2015. She got the job after a career spent in the civil service. One of the people who ostensibly worked for her during that period told me Perkins was “patronising… wooden and inarticulate”, complaining she “couldn’t connect with people at all… we used to see her about twice a year and she would give speeches that made you numb with boredom.” This is exactly what you might expect from a career civil servant. It might serve to lower your expectations for the next two days of…