Sir Alan goes to the BAFTAs

Hello!

First of all congratulations to everyone involved in Mr Bates once more. The series won big at the BAFTAs last night, and it was quite a sight to see Sir Alan in his best bib and tucker doing the red carpet rounds.

Alan also did a sit down interview with Good Morning Britain which you will be able to watch here, shortly.

Further congratulations to all the Subpostmasters who appeared on the BBC Breakfast special on the Monday after following the drama series broadcast. That won the News Programme BAFTA. My old boss at ITN Richard “Freddie” Frediani (left) dedicated the award to the nine Subpostmasters who participated in the broadcast (Mohammed Rasul, Tim Brentnall, Sally Stringer, Janet Skinner, Maria Lockwood, Tom Hedges, Scott Darlington, Alison Hall and Varchas Patel who was there to represent his father Vipin).

I know at least one participant is as pleased as punch to have got a mention from the BAFTAs stage at the awards last night. Well done, everyone.

Discount code to Central London event this Friday

If you would like to come to see me and the Sunday Times Political Editor Caroline Wheeler talk about our books and long-form journalism in general at Stationers’ Hall (right next to St Paul’s Cathedral) this Friday at 6.15pm, I have a 50% discount code for the tickets. It is – FOW50 – just put it in at the checkout point and you’re in. This is the link for the tickets:

(Event expired)

Please do share the link and the discount code with whoever you want. The code works for any event and there are quite a few good ones here even if you can’t make mine and Caroline’s.

This is the festival’s first year in operation and they’re hoping to get as many people as possible along so that it can continue next year. If you work (or live!) in Central London I am sure they would appreciate your support.

Rab in Scotland

Thanks to everyone who came along to the talk I did with former Subpostmaster Rab Thomson at the Boswell Book Festival at Dumfries House on Saturday. It was quite the event. Rab told his story in brutal detail. It was a highly charged hour which I could tell the audience found deeply affecting.

Rab put himself through the emotional grinder in order to raise awareness of the sheer number of Scottish Subpostmasters who have not come forward for help. He has founded the Scottish Postmasters for Justice and Redress with former SNP MP Marion Fellows and Calum Greenhow of the NFSP.

Marion used to be the former chair of the Post Office All Party Parliamentary Group. Shockingly, she told me that since she lost her seat last year, no MP in parliament has picked the reins and the Post Office APPG remains inactive.

The NFSP is likely to need no introduction to readers of this newsletter. Given their culpability for the Post Office scandal I am reluctant to endorse anything which has their involvement until there has been a proper reckoning for those who either stayed silent or actively collaborated with the Post Office whilst their members suffered terribly.

Nonetheless, I do keep a civil line of communication open with the NFSP as I do with the Post Office and other actors in this scandal, and it was interesting to sit down with Rab, Marion and Calum before our talk at Dumfries House to find out more about what they are trying to achieve.

Rab wants to use the SPJR to reach as many Scottish Subpostmasters as possible. He is concerned they might be living away from the media and their communities, too ashamed to come forward and apply for redress. I have chatted to Rab about maybe doing some more events with him in Glasgow, Edinburgh and northern Scotland to spread the word. If that happens it won’t have any NFSP involvement.

Understanding the Impact of the Scandal

Today marks the publication of a timely piece of work by Dr Karen Nokes, Dr Sally Day, Professor Rebecca Helm and Professor Richard Moorhead who have spent months working with former Subpostmasters and their families at the University of Exeter and University College London to map “a range of complex harms that often include invisible outcomes associated with the longevity of the scandal and the ripple effect on secondary victims, such as children, partners, and other family members”.

The study is called Understanding the Impacts of the Post Office Scandal and its launch will be marked with two events for Subpostmasters at UCL and the Palace of Westminster.

The latter will be hosted by Lord Arbuthnot, who I hope will start cracking MPs’ heads together over the lack of a Post Office APPG, as this is exactly the sort of publication they could do something with. Good luck to everyone involved in today’s launch. I hope your report has some effect.

Back to work

Right – I have written very little of the new book over the last seven days so I am going to knuckle down. Please do come along in London on Friday if you can. And don’t forget to use the code FOW50 to get that whopping great discount.

Have a great week.

Nick

I am (still) writing a new book about the Post Office scandal called The Great Post Office Cover-Up. You can put your money down now for a limited edition signed, numbered, hardback copy. There are fewer than 50 left. Doing so will help support an independent publisher, help support the Horizon Scandal Fund and offer you the opportunity to join my secret email mailing list without having to make a donation. For more info about the book, click here!