Skip to content

This could be interesting

Horizon scandal champion Alan Bates knighted
Hero immortalised in ITV drama only accepted after former Post Office boss Paula Vennells returned CBE

Does he get upgraded to a peerage when she’s jailed?

16 thoughts on “This could be interesting”

  1. Vennells was in fact officially stripped of her CBE after she sent it back.

    Bates deserves his honour. 20+ years campaigning, unpaid and for a long time unsupported and unheard.

    But the quashing of the convictions and financial compensation is still not justice. Justice will only be achieved when those responsible for the financial loss, convictions and lost careers suffer the same fate. Watching the Post Office/Horizon enquiry shows incompetence, arrogance, disregard for the law, cover-ups, and now blame shifting.

    Next week I think the Second Sight accountants are giving evidence and the week after that, the whole week has been set aside for Gareth Jenkins, the Fujitsu ‘expert’ who gave evidence that led to many of the convictions and managed to ‘forget’ about the bugs in the software that were leading to the phantom losses.

    Not that many on here would think otherwise but if anyone thinks giving government or government bodies more power is a good idea, watching the Post Office staff being questioned would be sobering. If the NHS and HMRC are similarly staffed (and they surely are) then no wonder those bodies are as shambolic as they are.

  2. And what’s the betting that Jenkins becomes the fall guy?

    He gets done for perjury and the other crooks get away.

  3. BiND in Germany searching for Varus’ legions

    What struck me about the whole affair is how many women in very senior positions were actively complicit or not sufficiently curious enough to ask the questions their seniority demanded. It seems that all my life I’ve been told that if only there were more women involved businesses would be much more caring and have higher moral standards but when it finally happens they failed miserably.

  4. Anywhere there is billions floating around corruption will exist. The NHS with all the attendant lunacies under its umbrella must be stuffed full of it…

    As for Bates, King Al I after Venal Vennel’s execution!

  5. In my experience of female senior managemen the hard as nails Queen Bitches from Hell use that as an excellent cover for their serial incompetence, because the other male managers like a bit of domina.

  6. Martin Near The M25

    It’s a big generalization and there are counterexamples but women at work seem to prefer a consensus that everybody says they agree with, even if they don’t. They’ll say they do but work to undermine it and each other. Men are more likely to sit down and thrash out how they’re going either work together, or if they can’t work together then move on somewhere else. Or, in one extreme case I remember, fight in a pub car park to settle it.

    Expression of even mild dissent seems to frighten some of them. I think this explains why we have so much talk of “hate speech” now politics has become more feminized.

  7. “It’s a big generalization and there are counterexamples but women at work seem to prefer a consensus that everybody says they agree with, even if they don’t. They’ll say they do but work to undermine it and each other. Men are more likely to sit down and thrash out how they’re going either work together, or if they can’t work together then move on somewhere else. Or, in one extreme case I remember, fight in a pub car park to settle it.”

    Its hardwired into male DNA. You don’t take down the woolly mammoth without a whole team of men working together in harmony, everyone agreed what the plan is, their role in it and executing it as best as they can. Ditto fighting a war. Ergo men need to thrash out their differences when its not mission critical, get rid of any dissenters, those that remain subsume themselves to the agreed plan for the greater good, and then get on with it.

    Women, not so much.

  8. I would be amazed if Vennells goes to jails.

    The Fujitsu/PO employees who gave evidence will be done for perjury, and probably some of the PO lawyers will be done for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

    The Board weren’t close to the detail and gross incompetence is not by itself a crime.

  9. BiND,

    “What struck me about the whole affair is how many women in very senior positions were actively complicit or not sufficiently curious enough to ask the questions their seniority demanded. It seems that all my life I’ve been told that if only there were more women involved businesses would be much more caring and have higher moral standards but when it finally happens they failed miserably.”

    This is about who chooses those people. You’re Ed Davey or whoever the minister is in charge of the Post Office, how much do you know about these people? How much do you really care if they screw things up? It’s not your money invested in it. So you’re going to pick the “right sort of person” in your eyes. The sort of person with qualifications, who is polite, presents as intelligent, who went to university, worked in the right sort of blue chip companies, does the right sort of after-work activities.

    I’ve worked for some really good women in senior management in companies, but they all got there by being appointed by people who cared about making money, who understood the field they were in, whether it was running drug trials, training courses or retail. They also tended to be more like men in spirit (like they didn’t care much about their wardrobe).

  10. “And what’s the betting that Jenkins becomes the fall guy?”

    100%. I said all along they’ll find someone who isn’t ‘connected’ and pin it all on him (almost certainly a him, they aren’t going to sacrifice a woman on this pyre), and everyone else will get off scot free, and continue their gilded waltz through the boardrooms and institutions of the nation.

    Jenkins fits the bill perfectly, a old white man, an IT bod so not part of the Establishment class, lets blame him for everything.

  11. Will Ed Davey be attending the ceremony in person? He’d never believe it if his officials told him about it.

  12. One of my favourite bits of the enquiry so far was when Jason Beer was quizzing Vennells about an email from Mark Davies her head of communications about how to respond to the second sight report in 2013- basically not to commit to reopening old cases because of the way the media might react to that news

    Beer asked her whether it was right and proper that her response to such an important report and what actions the Post Office should take should be influenced by how the media might react.

    Vennells blustered on about how she would never take just one person’s advice and would have sought views from all those around her.

    “Shall we look at your reply to Mr Davies?” smiled Beer

    And up on screen came her reply

    “You are right to call this out. And I will take your steer. no issue.”

  13. “You’re Ed Davey or whoever the minister is in charge of the Post Office, how much do you know about these people? How much do you really care if they screw things up? It’s not your money invested in it. So you’re going to pick the “right sort of person” in your eyes. The sort of person with qualifications, who is polite, presents as intelligent, who went to university, worked in the right sort of blue chip companies, does the right sort of after-work activities.”
    I very much doubt it works that way. I would think the Civil Service bods present the candidate as the only possible choice & any talking about alternatives “would be very unsettling Minister, possibly daring.”

  14. My experience is that generally men will disagree but still commit to the plan when the discussion is done, women will continue to undermine the execution.

    Lack of executive commitment/support is a classic in project failure, would be interesting to have stats on male vs female executives being the cause.

  15. You only have to look at that Dido Whatsit woman. Who’s risen from failure to failure without check. Apparently she’s currently sitting on the Economic Affairs Committee if you’re looking for someone to blame.
    From Wiki: Harding is an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration at Anglia Ruskin University. What a hoot eh?

  16. Western Bloke,

    Agree there are some fore good women out there and I’ve worked with and for many some very good ones. Probably the best boss I had in the Army was one of the first Sandhurst trained and Royal Signals badged female officers. I also came across a lot in telecoms engineering and management consulting.

    But these were always the exception and generally didn’t like the idea that women should be promoted just because they were women and some quotas needed to be filled.

    bis,

    Agree Harding is a classic example of women filling jobs because they’re women, on the other hand Kate Bingham.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *