Hundreds of Post Office workers ‘vindicated’ by High Court ruling over faulty Post Office IT system

[editor]

I once got sacked unfairly from a part time job, wrongly accused of stealing money when I'd never taken a single penny.
Thirty years on it still fucks me off, so I can't even begin to comprehend the anger, frustration and rage of these Post Office workers who have been publicly humiliated, and in some cases sent to jail, over this scandal.

Vennels should spend a long time in jail. She's got blood on her hands.

 

[Petcha]

I once got sacked unfairly from a part time job, wrongly accused of stealing money when I'd never taken a single penny.
Thirty years on it still fucks me off, so I can't even begin to comprehend the anger, frustration and rage of these Post Office workers who have been publicly humiliated, and in some cases sent to jail, over this scandal.

Vennels should spend a long time in jail. She's got blood on her hands.

But she won't, will she...

 

[mentalchik]

Bit late for apologies and fucking tears from Vennels....it's making me shout at the radio

 

[Petcha]

That KC, Beer, is fucking great by the by... hes dismantling her

 

[Petcha]

How can she sit there with a straight face and say that as CEO she was unaware that at one opoint she had a team of 100 lawyers working for them prosecuting hundreds of people...

 

[WWWeed]

How can she sit there with a straight face and say that as CEO she was unaware that at one opoint she had a team of 100 lawyers working for them prosecuting hundreds of people...

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be uncommon for senior level executive management to have no idea what the organization does or what it is responsible for. It's always someone below's problem and even more unsurprising when the outsourcing of system development is involved.

They don't like getting technical or getting their hands dirty by actually understanding things and making decisions. Everything is delegated and dictated. They 'dont want problems just solutions' usually without understanding the problem or the solution.

I'd love to say it's just the post office but can think of many other public and private examples. It's a cultural issue I absolutely detest and one many people feel the affects of on a daily basis.

The unusual thing with the post office is it has got to the public enquiry stage.

 

[WWWeed]

That KC, Beer, is fucking great by the by... hes dismantling her

I've been dipping in and out of the live streams for weeks and I am impressed how he keeps his cool - although I have seen him get visibly frustrated with some of the answers given in previous weeks.

 

[Petcha]

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be uncommon for senior level executive management to have no idea what the organization does or what it is responsible for. It's always someone below's problem and even more unsurprising when the outsourcing of system development is involved.

They don't like getting technical or getting their hands dirty by actually understanding things and making decisions. Everything is delegated and dictated. They 'dont want problems just solutions' usually without understanding the problem or the solution.

I'd love to say it's just the post office but can think of many other public and private examples. It's a cultural issue I absolutely detest and one many people feel the affects of on a daily basis.

The unusual thing with the post office is it has got to the public enquiry stage.

The really unusual thing, is that as I understand it, and it seemed to baffle the head of the inquiry here too, is that the PO did its own prosecutions, not the CPS. She claimed to not know that was going on.

 

[Petcha]

I've been dipping in and out of the live streams for weeks and I am impressed how he keeps his cool - although I have seen him get visibly frustrated with some of the answers given in previous weeks.

You can hear him get exasperated sometimes, just slightly, when he hears for the umpteenth time 'I'm sorry, I can't recall', 'I wasn't informed' etc

 

[Petcha]

Oh god she's in tears again

 

[existentialist]

I've been dipping in and out of the live streams for weeks and I am impressed how he keeps his cool - although I have seen him get visibly frustrated with some of the answers given in previous weeks.

I am sure he doesn't particularly WANT celebrity, but I think he's making quite a name for himself, beyond his legal career.

I really enjoy the way he patiently and forensically dismantles the cavalcade of fools and buffoons he gets presented with.

 

[Wilf]

How can she sit there with a straight face and say that as CEO she was unaware that at one opoint she had a team of 100 lawyers working for them prosecuting hundreds of people...

Suspect she's using the skills that got her the job in the first place.

 

[Sasaferrato]

I roared so loudly at the TV that I've been banished from the living room. That fucking Vennels creature should be flogged.

Oh, and as for her 'Not knowing' it was her job to know.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I roared so loudly at the TV that I've been banished from the living room.

 

[Gromit]

Bit late for apologies and fucking tears from Vennels....it's making me shout at the radio

We need a gif of this face. It's after he tells her to wait to continue... whilst she's shedding her crocodile tears.

 

[skyscraper101]

I can't work out who he reminds me of.

 

[Gromit]

I can't work out who he reminds me of.

Barry from Eastenders?

 

[Gromit]

Anyway. Watched her 'appologies'.
Eloquent, well drafted, ticked all the right boxes...

... And so felt about as genuinely heartfelt as political speech about prescription increases.

 

[skyscraper101]

View attachment 425448
Barry from Eastenders?

I so predicted someone would say this.

I reckon it's a cross between Barry and Rob Beckett.

 

[Petcha]

Post Office Horizon IT inquiry breaks for lunch, will resume at 2.15pm​

One of the victims of the scandal, Janet Skinner, is there today and spoke to PA Media during the morning session. She told the agency:

I’ll be honest I felt quite emotional this morning. I actually felt emotional for [Paula Vennells] because she is up there and she has got all these eyes there that are just full of hatred towards her and that must be such an overwhelming, horrible, intense feeling.

She said Vennells “has brought it all on herself” before continuing: “This is her time on that stand to now put her side of the story out there. Everybody has chucked mud at her, it’s time for her to open up and be quite open and honest about who was at the forefront of it all.”

Skinner was sentenced to nine months in prison in 2007 for false accounting. She was 35 at the time and had to leave her two children behind.

The inquiry has broken for lunch, and this blog will take a break too. We will resume at 2.15pm.

So if this woman got 9 months - how long should Vennells get?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Anyway. Watched her 'appologies'.
Eloquent, well drafted, ticked all the right boxes...

... And so felt about as genuinely heartfelt as political speech about prescription increases.

She apologies that her evidence will be hard to listen to.




Hearing Seema Misra explaining to her son on his 10th birthday that she would be back in the evening to cook his favourite curry. Hearing how her husband had to then pretend that mum had gone to special hospital cos she's pregnant, whilst she was carted off to prison. Hearing her say that she never expected to go to prison as she had committed no crime.

That's hard to listen to, not Vennells' weasel words

 

[WWWeed]

I so predicted someone would say this.

I reckon it's a cross between Barry and Rob Beckett.

I'd add a bit of pissed off Mr Bean into the mix:

 

[Petcha]

Barry's going for the jugular now. Open laughter in the court room.

 

[Petcha]

I'd love to see some kind of count of how many times she's said 'I can't remember'. It must be in the hundreds by now. And this is someone who is presumably highly intelligent to get to her position.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I'd love to see some kind of count of how many times she's said 'I can't remember'. It must be in the hundreds by now. And this is someone who is presumably highly intelligent to get to her position.

"Can't remember"... "I believe"

Prince Andrew makes a more convincing witness.

 

[Petcha]

I would have legged it to a country with no extradition treaty with the UK some time ago if I was her. Shes fucked.

 

[Wilf]

"Can't remember"... "I believe"

Prince Andrew makes a more convincing witness.

Aye, I've still got 'it was just a shooting party' to fill on on my bingo card, but confident we'll get it this afternoon.

 

[Wilf]

I would have legged it to a country with no extradition treaty with the UK some time ago if I was her. Shes fucked.

Nah, I'm 100% certain she won't do time. There'll be some dithering between the police and CPS in a few years time, but absolutely no charges.

 

[Wilf]

There's an almost elegance about her lies, with the pained tone, occasional regrets, frequent Guinness memory lapses and the rest. Also, I suspect a lot of it is actually true. True that is if you change she/senior management didn't know about x, y and z to didn't care. With that in mind, many of the sequences of events she describes probably ran broadly as set out, given that she's having to spin around the already revealed documentation, but with profoundly important conversations, common understandings and strategies left out. In other words, what we are seeing here is a profound and multi layered form of dishonesty. Something almost worse than outright lies.

 

[Wilf]

My absolute favourite bit was the exchange of texts with her former mate who accused her of lying, relating it to here Christian faith. Didn't get the background to all that as I'd only just tuned in (as they used to say in the 1970s). To be fair, I'd have liked to see a bit more cringing wrung out of that, but it was still nice.