We won! Thank you.
Hello
I would not normally lead on winning an award, but I have you to thank. In September, when I asked you to vote for The Great Post Office Trial in the Radio Times Screen Test Awards audio category, I felt our chances of winning were tiny to slim.
By last night I thought they were non-existent. Imagine the surprise when the series won. I’ve won awards before and not been in the room. I’ve won an award before and (wisely) not been allowed to speak. This was the first award where I was expected to say a few words, having done no preparation for it whatsoever.
Reader, I failed to thank the secret emailers.
I even failed to thank my genius producer Bob Nicholson by name. I did manage to thank every single Subpostmaster who had ever spoken to me (or any other journalist) about their experiences, which was obviously the main thing, so hopefully I got away with it.
But my point is – this award would not have come to pass without those who voted for it as well as those who contributed to it and made it. If you were one of those people – thank you. This one’s for you. And the Subpostmasters. And Bob. Definitely Bob.
Anyway…
I’m off to Tring tonight to talk to an audience of dozens about the Post Office Scandal, so I’m not going to get a chance to see all the evidence at the Inquiry today. I have, however, written up what I’ve seen of Kevin Hollinrake MP, the former Post Office minister this morning. Top line – people continue to die waiting for compensation despite it supposedly being Hollinrake’s number one priority when he was in office.
I also wrote up the remainder of Simon Recaldin’s evidence yesterday. At one point he seemed close to tears as he bemoaned the dysfunctionality within his department at the Post Office. Very strange.
Bates vs the Munby Doomloop
I missed top civil servant Sarah Munby’s evidence yesterday afternoon because I was watching Sir Alan Bates give evidence to the Business Select Committee. I have yet to find a write up of Munby’s evidence – though a commenter on twitter called Tim Bush told us:
“Munby was appalling today. Started confidently with management/civil service speak. Ended up tied in knots when document after document showed the ‘value for money’ test was slowing settlement down. A doomloop of glacial slowness.”
You can make up your own mind by watching her evidence and/or reading the transcript of the session here.
Here is what the Guardian and BBC has to say about Sir Alan’s evidence:
Post Office operators may sue over compensation delay, Alan Bates says – Guardian
PM responds to Sir Alan Bates after repeated requests – BBC
And this is another story Karl pulled out of Recaldin’s evidence:
Post Office data breach caused by botched website upgrade – Computer Weekly
Tring my bell
If you would like to come and see me in Tring tonight, please do. I haven’t been plugging the event as much as I should so I’m sure it won’t have sold out. Tickets are available here.
I’m also doing a Q&A on Friday at the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham Common (see what they’ve done there!) after the matinée performance of what will be the third theatrical production and first musical about the Post Office Scandal I’ve seen to date.
The musical is called Made Good, and I’m looking forward to seeing it. Tickets can be bought here with some of the proceeds going towards the Horizon Scandal Fund.
I’ll probably go back to the Inquiry for the afternoon session tomorrow. The man due to give evidence after lunch is Sir Alex Chisholm KCB, former Chief Operating Officer for the Cabinet Office and (more importantly) Accounting Officer at the Business Department during a period when civil servants were actively trying to suppress the scandal and crush the campaigning Subpostmasters.
The campaigning parliamentarian Lord Arbuthnot has had his sights on Chisholm for years. Let’s see if the Inquiry can land anything on him. I’m not expecting much, but then I wasn’t expecting an award last night. Life can be full of surprises.
Thanks again for your support. I’ll be back soon.
Yours
Nick