Happy Monday secret emailers! Or is it?
1) The Post Office have confirmed they are to ask the High Court for permission to appeal the Common Issues trial judgment.
More details and how this might play out going forward here.
2) Sam Greenhill, the Daily Mail’s ace chief reporter, is seeking reaction / comments to the claim by the NFSP today that the “Post Office network is close to collapse”. See article link here:
A message from Sam says: “Hello everyone. I am looking for case studies today. I particularly need to speak to serving sub-postmasters who feel that their enterprise has become – or is in mortal danger of becoming – unviable and that its closure would have a bad effect on the local community. I would need to speak to you, by phone or email, about why this is the case, and arrange for a photographer to come and take a picture of you at your post office this afternoon. If you can help, please get in touch asap, and thanks for reading this. Sam.”
If anyone has any thoughts or can forward this to someone who might, please get in touch with Sam ASAP at sam.greenhill@dailymail.co.uk
Sam is a great journalist, a good fellow and has written extensively about the ongoing litigation: An example of his work on the trial can be found here.
3) Tomorrow there is a BEIS select committee hearing into the state of the Post Office network. I know a lot of you have submitted evidence to this inquiry. The people attending the oral evidence session include Post Office interim CEO Al Cameron, Andy Furey from the CWU and Calum Greenhow from the NFSP. It is a matter of sincere regret I cannot be there to report from it myself, but you can watch it live and read it on Hansard. More details here.
4) On Thursday there is a hearing at the Rolls Building to discuss/decide costs for the Common Issues trial AND the Post Office’s application to appeal the Common Issues judgment. Again I can’t be there. I’m really sorry about this. I took a job months ago which requires a trip to Stuttgart and planning my life around this litigation whilst trying to earn a living means I will not be able to attend every hearing. I hope to receive the transcript of proceedings soon after the hearing concludes and will try to get something up on www.postofficetrial.com that evening.
5) The first interview about the mental torture various Subpostmasters have been put through at the hands of the Post Office is going to go up this week. If you think it is worth sharing it is certainly worth sending to various mental health charities – particularly the Time to Change who responded so positively when the Post Office signed up to their campaign last week.
6) Thanks to everyone who has helped with the info around the enforced contract changes to SPDO postmasters. Something on that will go out soon.
More anon.
Cheers
Nick