plus: Watch the Bates v Post Office trailer!
Good afternoon
I’ve written a piece about Jarnail Singh’s evidence to the Inquiry. It was a shambolic, miserable affair.
Day 1 revealed Singh as an utter incompetent. Day 2 was more about specific failings in the prosecution of Seema Misra. These were revealed to be huge, and whilst Singh (in his elliptical, deflective manner) eventually accepted responsibility for some of them, it appears that the entire prosecution function at the Post Office was, certainly by 2010, in a state of disarray.
Professor Richard Moorhead has already pulled together an indictment of Warwick Tatford’s shortcomings as the prosecution barrister in Seema’s case. Yesterday, Jason Beer KC shon a spotlight on the internal workings of the Post Office’s legal department. These were not people acting properly or competently or with the remotest shred of good conscience.
I have regularly characterised the Post Office, particularly its investigation and prosecution function, as an arm of the state essentially gone rogue, but that was largely based on reporting the effects of its actions. What we are now seeing, thanks to the Inquiry, and Jason Beer’s saintly patience, is the internal misfiring of an organisation with limitless legal and financial firepower.
The last few weeks’ evidence has afforded us an opportunity to scrutinise key points at which senior individuals within the Post Office were making atrocious decisions which eventually blew up in their faces.
And frankly, they would have got away with it, were it not for those pesky, proud, under-resourced, but utterly, utterly determined Subpostmasters. For all its money and power, the Post Office could not outwit, nor outsmart a group of people who were not going to go away, and who had the wherewithal to gather good people around them and take the fight to the enemy. Which brings me neatly to…
Mr Bates vs The Post Office
The first trailer for the drama has been shown on ITV, and can be seen here on YouTube. I’ve been lucky enough to watch all four episodes and whilst I am a little biased, I can honestly say it is a stunning drama which will hopefully bring the Post Office scandal to a completely new (and vast) audience.
I was out at dinner last night, sitting next to two people who had never heard of the story. It was great to be able to show them the trailer. The star power of Toby Jones immediately piqued their interest and they wanted to know more.
I’ll let you know as soon as the TX dates are confirmed.
Old news
I’ve managed to crank out three blog posts this week, all of which are quite lengthy, and all of which have a slightly different take on elements which have come up in the Inquiry.
As well as the fisking of Jarnail Singh, I’ve also written about the nascent corporate conspiracy within the Post Office around 2009 – 2013 and the ongoing appalling treatment of former Subpostmaster Teju Adedayo.
If you haven’t yet had a read of all three, please do!
Theatre Talks
If you haven’t yet bought a ticket to any of the theatre talks I’m doing in England next year, please do consider having a look to see if there is a date and location which suits. I’ve added a couple more special guests to the list and I’m hoping to confirm more in the next few days.
Thanks
A warm welcome to the new secret emailers who have joined up in the last week. I hope you find these emails useful. If you ever want to comment on anything you read, please just hit reply. It goes straight to my inbox.
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Yours
Nick