Archives :
January 2024
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Post Office scandal: Private Eye podcast, Inquiry phase final week, more on Capture and Tony Collins speaks!
plus: Chris goes to Parliament Good evening I know I said I wouldn’t write until Friday, but if I did, that email would end up being several yards long. So here is an unplanned midweek special. The photo above shows indefatigable campaigner Chris Head after a meeting with the Post Office All Party Parliamentary Group…
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Post Office scandal: Staunton sacked, daylight robbery and IT Capture
and: a peek behind the compensation curtain Hello! It is 4.55pm and I am currently trying to cope with that creeping sense of sleep-deprivation familiar to anyone who works nights or shift patterns. I presented the TalkTV breakfast show this morning, and despite being very early to bed last night, it wasn’t quite early enough.…
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Post Office scandal: More Convictions Quashed!
plus: The Weeping Policeman Hello, dear secret emailers I am adopting the persona of an Editor-at-Large for this newsletter, as that’s what it seems my life has become. I am not comfortable with being a columnist – I would far rather be working on New Developments. That is coming, but, for the time being, if…
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Post Office scandal: Week of the weak investigators
plus: news lines round-up Hello! I hope you are all keeping well. I had a weekend trying not to do any work, but I found myself reading up on some of the transcripts I missed. I’ve nearly finished going through the Inquiry stuff from last week. Not all of it was that revelatory, though I…
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Post Office scandal: Fujitsu voluntarily stops bidding for govt contracts
plus: Back to the Valleys Hi all I’m on a train back from Wales having spent a day filming in the village of Nelson where I spent some time behind the counter of Steve Phillips’ Post Office having a chat for the One Show on BBC1. I first met Steve in 2014, and to my…
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Post Office scandal: Fujitsu’s chance to squirm
Inquiry + select committee double whammy I honestly thought I’d get to watch yesterday’s Business Select committee hearing at home in my pyjamas, but we seem to live in a very different world nowadays. As a result of calls from various broadcasters, my schedule involved a pre-hearing hit with BBC1’s Breakfast programme from outside the…
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Post Office Director Richard Taylor suspended
plus: the story behind Vennells CBE You didn’t see me, right? I’m not meant to be writing this newsletter. I’m meant to be having a relaxing weekend with the family. We went out for dinner tonight. Any talk of the Post Office was banned (not by me – by the rest of the family, who…
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Post Office Director recorded smearing Subpostmasters and denying Horizon IT system caused discrepancies
Scoop: the Post Office’s poison messenger Hi Sorry I haven’t been in contact for 48 hours. I’ve been trying to break a story and learn how to front a live television programme (tricky but not impossible, as it turns out). I did two days presenting Rosanna Lockwood’s show “Primetime” on TalkTV and last night I…
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Post Office Scandal: Prime Minister announces plans to quash ALL (subject to Ts & Cs) Post Office convictions
Extraordinary people telling their stories Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our new joiners. It’s good to have you on board. We start with some breaking news. Rishi Sunak has just announced that the government is going to attempt to get the majority of Subpostmaster convictions in England and Wales quashed. This is the breaking…
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Political leaders respond to Post Office drama as matter is debated in parliament
Public outcry provokes action Hello all Many times over the years covering this story I hoped we might get to a moment where this story would become huge. I thought that moment was on 23 April 2021 when so many Subpostmasters got their convictions quashed and dear old Tom Hedges was filmed popping open a…