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Ooops!

The Crown Prosecution Service is refusing to reveal Sir Keir Starmer’s role in the wrongful prosecution of subpostmasters after admitting it took at least 27 victims to court.

The CPS said it was combing through historic files and had found at least 27 prosecutions it had brought over issues linked to the Horizon IT computer system.

Oh Dear. How Sad. Never Mind.

Also:

Pressure on Ed Davey over knighthood after Post Office boss hands back CBE
Paula Vennells’ decision that she will forfeit the honour puts pressure on Liberal Democrat leader who was Post Office minister at the time

Gosh.

So, let’s get this straight. Three of the psat 5 Lib Dem leaders have been the Minsiter in charge of this as it unfolded. The Labour Party leader, as DPP, prosecuted some of them. Or course, the Tories have been in office this past 14 years it has been hidden.

This is now something of a political issue, isn’t it? And the reason that nowt’s been done about it is, to quote Dr. Kiosk, they are all guilty.

If only there were some political party outside the establishment that could exploit this and sweep with the voters’ anger. Nige?

17 thoughts on “Ooops!”

  1. There’s a clear opportunity here for the Reform Party but the truth is that Richard Tice isn’t the man for the job.

  2. It goes back further than that.
    Yes, Mr Mandelson, we will roll the system out as fast as possible.
    Yes, Mr Byers, the system is working, it’s found all the fraudsters we’ve started procesuting.
    Yes, Mrs Hewit, we’ve dug out more fraudsters and are prosecuting them.
    Yes, Mr Darling, the system is working, the proof is we’re prosecuting all these people.
    Yes, Mr McFadden, the prosecutions prove the system is working.
    Yes, Mr Davey, everything is hunkey dorey, the prosectutions prove it.
    Yes, Mr Lamb, everything is hunkey dorey, the prosectutions prove it.
    Yes, Ms Swinson, Ms Soubry, Ms James, Mr Griffiths, Mr Tolhurst, that stuff in Computer Weekly and The Register is all tosh.

  3. Bloke in North Dorset

    Fraser Nelson did a mea culpa yesterday saying that the press has been asleep at the wheel (my words) and should have done more to expose this in the past.

    This is now something of a political issue, isn’t it?

    Indeed. When Rishi commented that he thought she should hand it back rather than the usual platitudes about the Honours Committee being arms length, their usual excuse for not commenting in these sorts of cases, he opened Pandora’s Box. He and other senior politicians can now be pushed to give answers on all these cases or explain why here case was different.

    Popcorn time.

  4. @jgh

    It began with Blair…

    “Tony Blair was aware Horizon was a disaster that didn’t work. He was also told in no uncertain terms (in a message from a Fujitsu Big Boss carried to him by the British Ambassador to Japan) that if the UK govt biffed Horizon, it would cost hundreds of jobs, and do huge untold reputational damage to the government and to Britain’s standing in Europe.

    The message subsequently came from Number 10 that Blair did not wish to can Horizon, therefore a way to make it work had to be found. Blair didn’t know it, but he had ordered his team to make the impossible happen. With disastrous consequences.”

    from https://www.postofficescandal.uk/newsletter/what-tony-blair-knew-and-why-the-unfit-horizon-it-system-was-green-lit/

  5. Incidentally, if you read some of the links from the piece Jack Hughes has linked to, it seems pretty obvious there been considerable effort to keep the lid on this from all sorts of people for at least 10 years. And that’s not just political or the PO. One also suspects certain people in the media organisations & the legal establishment.

  6. There’s something I find very interesting about the people one might loosely call the “establishment”. Those names that crop up who have influence & power. It’s fascinating when one starts delving, who’s related to who, married to who, who’s the child of who etc etc. That behind the individuals, there’s all sorts of connections we never hear about. And one wonders…

  7. I knew THERE WAS a problem when ComputerWeekly raised it. I knew WHY it was a problem when it was written about online, including Twitter. I knew HOW BIG a problem it was when people started to have their convictions quashed.

    I KNEW. How the hell did people running the PO not? And why did find out WHY did they take assurance from the people who were conflicted when giving answers? This is relatively straight forward senior management and Board stuff.

    Oh Diversity Hires …. Ok.

  8. “How the hell did people running the PO not?”

    It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

    Upton Sinclair, 1935.

  9. Frankly alarming that the CPS doesnt have good enough records to know what it was doing 15 years ago!
    Must be another one of those Fujitsu IT systems?

  10. @bis

    “There must be some way to put Cameron in the frame? ”

    A woman named Eleanor Shaikh who, AFAICT, became involved only because her local SPM was charged with fraud, produced a remarkable report on the PO scandal. The document is here…

    https://www.jfsa.org.uk/uploads/5/4/3/1/54312921/origins_of_a_disaster_-_eleanor_shaikh.pdf

    It runs to 579 pages. Searching for “Blair” gives 109 hits. From a political p-o-v, the most interesting section is Part 6: The Downing Street Dossier which begins:

    ‘…we have recommended that a way should be found to make Horizon work. We have encouraged
    Stephen Byers to become closely involved as an arbiter, with Jack Cunningham also briefed in case some
    ‘enforcing’ is needed at a later stage’

    Searching for Cameron (or Osborne) gives zero hits. It seems unlikely that Cameron had no involvement whatsoever and the absence of his name may be because the relevant documents haven’t yet been released. Those which were used in writing the report were released only in late 2021, almost 15 years after the events described.

  11. And there you have it Jack

    Galactobrain Byers. The man who did such a good job on Railtrack by lying brazenly in the House. I’m surprised that Hilary Benn wasn’t involved to give some further intellectual rigour.

  12. The part played by New Labour in imposing Horizon on the PO (essentially because Blair was frightened that Fujitsu would leave the UK) perhaps explains why Starmer and colleagues are so shy in pointing to Con failures.

    In turn, Con failures since 2010 are the reason they aren’t criticising Lab.

    Likewise LD neither attack Lab/Con nor are attacked by Lab/Con.

    Circular firing squad lays down its arms.

  13. “the boss of the company building it, Sir Jonathan Thompson, has said.”

    Good grief! Yet another knight. Wonder where Jug Ears is supposed to keep them all. No sight of a horse or armour, though. And doubtless, very little honour.

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