Archives :
Alan Bates
-
Clark and Cable: Responsible for everything, accountable for nothing
Two Secretaries of State, whose tenure in office covered significant periods of the Post Office scandal gave evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry today. They are the most senior ranked and last politicians to give evidence in this phase, and some of what they had to say was illuminating, but not much. Vince…
-
Furious Swinson claimed Paula Vennells deceived her
During her evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry former minister Jo Swinson today highlighted the mendacity of the Post Office and what she saw as the conniving “duplicitous” behaviour of her chief civil service advisor. It all centres on the first Clarke Advice, the legal document written in July 2013 which was kept…
-
Ed Davey: Chocolate Teapot
I lost patience with Ed Davey at around 2.30pm this afternoon. It was when Jason Beer read into the record the sheer number of red flags being waved in Ed Davey’s face about the Post Office’s behaviour and its dodgy Horizon IT system from the moment he took office. On 20 May 2010, the day…
-
Davey briefed to dismiss Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance Concerns in 2010
The first meeting between Alan Bates from the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) and a government minister took place on 5 October 2010. Ed Davey was, at the time, the Liberal Democrat minister responsible for the Post Office within the coalition government. The date was crucial: the trial of Seema Misra was less than a…
-
Knighthood for Sir Alan!
Alan Bates has been knighted in the King’s Birthday honours list. He described the award as “a very pleasant surprise”, telling BBC News’ Emma Simpson “I knew so many people who were keen for me to actually receive something, I felt I would be insulting them as much as anyone else if I refused it…
-
Alan Bates threatens legal action against the government
Alan Bates has threatened “possible legal action” against the government for their perceived foot-dragging over financial redress for 555 Subpostmasters who joined him in the Bates v Post Office group litigation order (GLO) High Court case. Most of the 555 qualify for the government’s special GLO compensation scheme*, announced in 2022 and initially designed to…
-
Penny’s Printouts
This is Penny Williams. Penny ran the Manaccan Post Office in Cornwall between 2007 and 2013. I have just come off stage with Penny at Launceston Town Hall where she spoke about her experiences at the hands of the Post Office. During our conversation, Penny revealed she has paper evidence of what appears to be…
-
Phase 5 & 6 curtain-raiser: Alan the Man
Founder of the justice for Subpostmaster alliance Alan Bates today gave evidence to the public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal. The Inquiry has resumed withafter a five week break, and is now entering a four month period of hearings, combining phases five and six of the planned seven phases. Phases 5 &…
-
What’s really going on with the Subpostmaster compensation schemes pt. 2
In Part 1 of this short series I quoted at length from a letter written to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry on 9 Jan 2024, by the barrister Paul Marshall. That blog post covered Mr Marshall’s concerns about Subpostmaster claimants in the Bates v Post Office High Court litigation with overturned criminal convictions. The…