The Post Office Commons debate

Hi all

After sterling work in the commons from Kate Osborne (asking the PM the relevant questions) and Lucy Allan (leading a Westminster Hall debate), it’s time for the chaps to step up.

This afternoon Kevan Jones and Andrew Bridgen will host a debate in the main chamber of the House of Commons on the “Horizon settlement and future governance of Post Office Ltd.“

You can watch it here.

After its over I will put the link to the start of the debate up on the Post Office Trial website alongside the transcript from Hansard.

Whilst these are certainly very strange times and most of our minds will be focused on matters closer to home, I think our MPs deserve some credit for soldiering on with their work, partly because it’s important, and partly out of solidarity with those in the UK who are working in the essential services, keeping the country ticking over. To this end I sincerely hope the parliamentary select committee hearing on Tuesday 24 March will go ahead as Paula Vennells has confirmed her attendance, and for those who have been waiting five long years, I hope the CCRC commissioners also meeting on Tuesday 24 March don’t cancel.

Tell us watchoo got

Incidentally if you want to submit ANY evidence to the select committee inquiry, you can – it’s very easy – just send them a message on this webpage and upload the documents or witness statement you wish to submit. You don’t have to be part of any organisation at all. The inquiry in 2015 received submissions from all parts of the Postmaster community as well as the NFSP, Post Office, CWU, professional advisers etc etc and it made for an important treasure trove for the inquiry and for those documents which were published – journalists like me. You can still read it all here. As before, with this latest inquiry can request anonymity if you want to, but remember, you are covered by parliamentary privilege so you can submit hitherto confidential documents if you like, and no one can get you. The deadline is a week today, though, so get your skates on.

Essential reading

It is extremely gratifying to see so many journalists writing so much on what is happening at the Post Office. If you have a few minutes, I’d be grateful if I could point you in the direction of a few superb pieces, which between them will have you completely up to speed on the latest twists and turns:

The indefatigable Karl Flinders at Computer Weekly has been a veritable hive of activity in recent weeks. In his latest piece he speaks to his namesake Karl Turner MP, who, in a previous life, represented a Subpostmaster prosecuted for theft and false accounting by the Post Office. That Subpostmaster was secret emailer Janet Skinner whose story also features in the BBC’s forthcoming Panorama, Scandal at the Post Office.

The masterful Tony Collins (who, whilst at Computer Weekly, commissioned the first ever investigation into this scandal) has just published a piece weaving all the current strands of the Post Office story into one lengthy but extremely accessible article in which he wonders if, through their manipulation of the government and the courts the Post Office have won this titanic battle.

There’s a fundamental question of fairness involved here, too. Jack Courtez at Better Retailing has an exclusive on the settlements Postmasters outside the litigation group are starting to get from the Post Office. As campaigners and MPs are pointing out – it was the litigation which led to the way to the volte face in the Post Offie’s attitude, yet others are reaping the benefit. That’s not the others’ fault, but something has gone seriously wrong if that’s how this ends up.

This week’s Private Eye has an interesting take on the Post Office story – the claimants’ litigation funders Therium will take home a few million quid from the settlement. Many people say they deserve it – but will they pay tax on it? Have a guess. Or buy the magazine and find out. Whilst we’re on the subject of Private Eye, I am thrilled to tell you a six page special into the Post Office scandal is in the works. It’ll be out a week on Tuesday. I had a hand in getting it together, but the main credit must go to Richard Brooks who has diligently followed this story for years and Ian Hislop, who commissioned the extra pages to tell the story in many thousands of what I hope will be blistering prose.

Panorama

I mentioned the Panorama already, but we’re getting very close to transmission now (coronavirus being the potential spanner in the works) and I’ve seen an early cut. It’s a strong piece. Making it has filled most of my waking moments over the last couple of months and I am grateful to the many secret emailers who gave interviews to us. There are lots of people in involved in the making of half an hour of television so I am not going to thank them all here, but I do want to highlight Janet and Seema for being brave enough to tell their stories once more. I hope it and the Private Eye Special make a difference as there’s some new information in both which could make the government and/or m’learned friends sit up and take notice.

Thanks to all the new secret emailers who have joined the swelling ranks in recent weeks. I’m stockpiling your donations to have a proper splurge on sorting out the website and writing more stuff if we have all to self isolate – thanks to your generosity I’ve got enough cash to last a week, at least.

Be good. Stay safe. Keep your distance. And stop buying bog roll.

Now Wash Your Hands!

Nick