A Big Day in court

Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to read every archive Post Office Trial post on each of their anniversaries, but you might want to see the report for day one of the Bates v Post Office Common Issues trial, written two years ago today.

It was an important moment for a large number of people, and a lot history has flowed from what started on 7 November 2016 in court 26 of the High Court’s Rolls Building, W1.

My main impetus for drawing attention to these old posts is to demonstrate just how recently the Post Office was advancing laughable (but hitherto successful) arguments about the Horizon IT system’s reliability and its right to treat Subpostmasters like the dirt on its corporate shoe, or as Lord Justice Coulson would later have it, “in capricious or arbitrary ways which would not be unfamiliar to a mid-Victorian factory-owner“.

This strategy, this attempt to bury the campaigning subpostmasters in legalistic denial was either driven by Paula Vennells, the Post Office board, or the government. Or, as I suspect we will one day eventually find, all the above.

Crowdfunding

On a housekeeping note, there is an awful lot going on in the Post Office world over the next few months. I have only ever launched one formal crowdfunding campaign (which finished in October 2018), but that, your subsequent ad-hoc generosity and the ever-swelling ranks of the secret emailers has allowed me to keep reporting on each twist and turn of this scandal.

With the significant amount of activity on its way, it may be that I will have to launch another crowdfunder to cover the Williams inquiry, the parliamentary ombudsman complaint, the court of appeal developments, the challenge to the historical shortfall scheme, the police investigation into certain Fujitsu employees and, of course, any future malicious prosecution cases.

Please be clear this is just a potential heads up. It is not an immediate request for money. Most of you have been terrifically generous with your cash already and if I am going to launch a campaign, I’d like it to be as successful as possible. So please, if you have ever thought you might chuck me a few quid again in the future – please wait until any campaign window is open.

If you do want to do something now, feel free to forward this email to a friend or colleague who might have an interest in miscarriages of justice, legal history, politics, journalism, corporate governance, public affairs etc.

This story is on a par with the Windrush and Infected Blood scandals. The more people who are aware of it, the more victims might get proper redress, those responsible might get held to account and the truth might eventually come out; because it hasn’t yet, not by a long way.

Right, time for a nice lockdown cup of tea. If there’s anything on your mind, just hit reply!

Cheers

Nick