Secret email about the Post Office Scandal. Shh!

Post Office Inquiry: Former Post Office General Counsel Jane MacLeod refuses to cooperate with Inquiry

plus: It’s tour over!

(l-r) Eleanor Shaikh, Chirag Sidhpura, Seema Misra, Davinder Misra at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.

I’ve had three people get in touch in the last couple of days to ask if I’m okay as they haven’t had any emails recently.

I did say I was going to take some time out to focus on the rest of my talks in my last newsletter, but sorry if I didn’t make it absolutely explicit. I am okay, just. Thank you for your concern!

Anyway the live dates are now done, and all I have to do now is focus on the inquiry. And my brother’s forthcoming nuptials. Major Tom (yes, really) is picking me up to take me on his stag do at 9.30am today, which is obviously just the R&R I need (Footgolf, hovercrafting, crossbow shooting, pause to watch Oxford Utd valiantly fail to make it into the Championship, comedy club, Fury vs Usyk, bed). I’m sure I’ll find a way to struggle through.

Former Post Office General Counsel refuses to cooperate with Post Office Inquiry

Amazing. Or as Alisdair Cameron, current Post Office CFO said at the Inquiry yesterday: “Wow.”

I’ve written up Jane MacLeod’s extraordinary stance here.

You can also read various takes on this (with added material about Cameron’s candid evidence) from my brilliant colleagues in journalism:

Post Office’s top lawyer can’t be forced to give evidence to inquiry – The Times

Post Office lawyer who oversaw Alan Bates case refusing to co-operate with inquiry – Telegraph

Former Post Office GC ‘won’t co-operate’ with public inquiry – Law Gazette

Paula Vennells news

Ahead of her three day appearance at the Inquiry on Wednesday, interest in the Rev has been ramping up.

Former Post Office boss Paula Vennells hands over 50 new documents ahead of scandal inquiry appearance – Sky News

Ex-Post Office boss did not believe there had been miscarriages of justice, inquiry hears – Guardian

Into Britain’s angry pulpit steps Rev Vennells, who ran the Post Office – to explain why it sent honest people to jail – Marina Hyde

Tour begone

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Hella and Sami Sabet in Wimbourne, Dorset

I am deeply, deeply grateful to every single guest and audience member who kindly gave up their time to come and see one of the Post Office Scandal – the Inside Story talks over the course of the last two months.

It has been hard work, but incredibly rewarding in so many ways. We lost hundreds of pounds some nights, but the sellout in Guildford and a few big numbers elsewhere hopefully means we have broken even across the piece.

To put on events like these, you only think you need a man and a laptop. I have discovered you also need theatre crew, front of house staff, tour crew (all of whom need to eat, sleep somewhere and get paid), hotel rooms, travel cash, emergency alcohol etc etc etc. LP Creatives took all the risk on this tour and organised it superbly. Bath Publishing did an amazing job of getting books to all the theatres (and in many cases, selling them themselves).

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Graham Ward in Chelmsford

The most important element in every instance was our wonderful cast of mainly former Subpostmasters, but also including (in Walton and Abingdon) the heroic Ian Henderson and Ron Warmington from Second Sight.

Actually being able to spend some time with my guests, and in many cases, meet their families, was a privilege I will always remember. If you came to speak at one of the events, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You were all amazing.

And again, another massive thanks to everyone who bought a ticket or a book or both. You made it happen and I am grateful.

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Hanging with the Brentnalls in Burnham-on-Sea

I’m back at the Inquiry on Tuesday. I’m particularly interested in the evidence of Alwen Lyons OBE. She, like Angela van den Bogerd, was another one of those completely blinkered execs who refused to believe the Post Office was capable of doing anything wrong. She told Ian Henderson that remote access to the Horizon system was impossible, shortly after he reported having a conversation with Fujitsu’s Gareth Jenkins. Jenkins told Henderson that of course remote access was possible.

As company secretary, Lyons held an incredibly influential position within the Post Office and could to some degree control and shape the information reaching the Post Office board. Henderson remembers Lyons’ assertion as a turning point in Second Sight’s relationship with the Post Office. I hope she is given a much harder time than Mark Davies and Patrick Bourke, who seemed to get a very easy ride at the Inquiry last week.

If you’re going to be at Aldwych House next week, please forgive me if I am a little antisocial. I have to spend most of the day with my head buried in a laptop so I can do my job, and I want to get next week’s evidence reported to the best of my ability.

Early Bath

If you are in the Bath area next Sunday at 1.30pm, I am delighted to be appearing alongside m’podcast colleague Rebecca Thomson (who broke the Post Office story with her seminal investigation for Computer Weekly in 2009) and former Post Office manager Nicki Arch at the Bath Festival. Tickets are available here.

Also, if you live in Reading, you might be interested in this:

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… a play based on Pam Stubbs’ experience of losing her livelihood at the hands of the Post Office. Pam was a key character in the ITV drama and has been a stalwart of the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance. I have nothing to do with the production, but I’ve been in touch with the play’s writer Zannah Kearns for a couple of years now. Her enthusiasm and desire to land this story right suggests she’ll make a good job of it. I’ll try to get along if I can.

Thanks for all your messages over the past week. Have a great weekend.

Nick


If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to get it delivered directly to your inbox when it is published, please consider making a donation to fund the journalism behind it. Anyone who donates any selected amount will be added to the secret email mailing list. This newsletter will keep you informed about developements at the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry and the wider scandal. Thanks.

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