Mr Bates v's The Post Office

[Cassandra]

I watched the first three episodes of this saga via streaming last night, seemingly a flagrant case of perjury at least? However the escalade of planned systemic lying, cheating and cover-up is even to my criminal experience unique. I understand the woman who headed up the Post Office and who lied to parliament got a 2.2 million payoff (tax free): whilst the postmasters are only to be settled at £600K each. This paltry sum barely puts them back in many cases to where they were, try that one on over here as a plea bargain!

They should get a minimum, minimum of £2 million per case for up to 20 years of conjured purgatory and misery on the barb of that dreadful careerist Vennells woman, who oversaw this pit of cheating. She should face Criminal investigation, along with a whole tirade of cheats at her fellow miscreants and liars in tandem, the shamed Fujitsu Corporation.

I understand Venells was a Church Minister after she left The Post Office in 2019 - what a wonderful advert for Welby's debilitating set up!

[JBR]

I agree entirely.
Unfortunately, this is typical of the way things are done now in this country.
Those in power look after themselves, even when they are proved to be wrong.  What a shame that even our supreme court can only be seen as being complicit.

[Alex]

I shall have to watch this programme, it's received mostly positive reviews I believe 

[Scrumpy]

Bloody scandalous.. 
Once again money courts money..
Them and us..

[GrannyMac]

Watched the first episode, terrible business. Good cast, Toby Jones is always convincing IMO.

[Sheila]

I have signed a 38 degree petition to get Paula Vennells stripped of her CBE.

I thought this was a brilliant, well acted programme.

[klondike]

Just grabbing this from the emporium.

In the download I see there is both a 4 part mini series and a documentary titled

Mr Bates vs The Post Office - The Real Story

I'll give this a go after I've seen the last 2 episodes of The News Reader and then maybe Fool Me Once

I'm annoyed I started watching Reacher season 2 on Prime as I like to watch stuff over a short perion and episode 8 of that is a couple of weeks away. I'm even more annoyed that Prime will be putting adverts in all their stuff  and charging more to watch ad free. I can watch ad free by downloading their stuff but I do actually pay a Prime sub.

[JBR]

I have signed a 38 degree petition to get Paula Vennells stripped of her CBE.

I thought this was a brilliant, well acted programme.

Me too, and a donation, just this afternoon.

[Ruthio]

Me too! 

[Diasi]

It's a good job that you have to be at least 18 to become a postmaster or we could have been watching Master Bates vs the Post Office.

Which would have been appropriate given that wankers were running it.

Petition signed & a donation made.

[klondike]

I had an idea of the problem but not how big it was. I watched the documentary and that was a shocker. There was no real answer in the documentary other than manual corrections of corrupted transmitted data on how this happened. I fail to see how the PO books could possibly balance if 500+ postmasters were made to pay up thousands each for shortfalls that were simply errors. 

[1955vintage]

I was on an Accountant Institute committee with a senior Post Office accountant. What a useless arrogant piece of work. No wonder they had so many issues.

[Diasi]

I was on an Accountant Institute committee with a senior Post Office accountant. What a useless arrogant piece of work. No wonder they had so many issues.

That applies to most of the top Civil Service as well.

Complete tossers who's sheer inefficiencies often never come to light as the lower ranks do their best to mitigate them & make the system work.

[JBR]

That applies to most of the top Civil Service as well.

Complete tossers who's sheer inefficiencies often never come to light as the lower ranks do their best to mitigate them & make the system work.

Civil Service, government, yes, they are all incompetent but self-centred and self-congratulating 'leaders' of the country.  This, of course, explains the root cause of the downfall of the country.
Next year, under Labour, will really finish us off.

[Cassandra]

I have now watched the 4th and final episode in this disastrous saga, plus the excellent documentary that followed. I have spent many hours today exchanging emails with compatriots in my late trade over here, all decent honest men and women, not 'Ambulance Chasers'. Also in two instances talking with members back in the UK - as I sadly discovered one of the sub postmasters was known to me professionally. I was able to trace him and and spoke for close to two hours today. His case dated from 2006, his wife has passed and the poor man was in tears. I felt sorry at recalling all this for him, but he said that our speaking again had made his day and could not praise Alan Bates highly enough for the support he had provided to them all over the 22 years this ignominious disgrace was perpetrated. At the end of our conversation I realised I had tears in my eyes and anger, real anger in my heart.

I was involved as leading counsel in a 107 multi litigant (class action) back in the 90's that took two years against one of the biggest corporations in the world, via it's UK subsidiary. They too tried every trick in the book, including running our side out of funds through continuous appeals and delays. However at the point of exhaustion, one of the richest figures in 'entertainment' guaranteed all costs, we had less than £19k left at this point.

In finality our case had it been a game of cricket, would have been judged as a 'winning' draw in our favour. No criminal prosecutions followed (the shredders had been busy), to be replaced by the cheque book. Social media was then in it's infancy, but many plaintiffs wanted to go further beyond settlement. In the Post Office Action, hopefully being a wholly Govt owned entity the Public Hearing will be thorough in its process and provide 'Justice' to those this body hurt and wronged so badly.

Unfortunately 'class' - multi litigant actions are difficult in maintaining a common path for procedure. I had a real job to persuade my 'clients' in absolution to settle. However that said our team achieved in real terms on average, ten times the money being offered up as this squalid outcome is at the present time. There were no criminal convictions to be overturned, unlike the Post Office case where no evidence existed beyond the Futisui 'Horizon' erroneous figures, for prison sentences to be imposed on bullied and frightened people, totally illegally.

A 'settlement' in our case was reached eventually but the bad feelings that came out due to document disclosure in the 'discovery & disclosure' part of the procedure, prior to court actions kicking off, left divisions beyond repair. The acrimony resulted in nearly all the litigants ending their association with the company involved, some of twenty years or more. They were mainly very happy to achieve the emancipation that such a contrast provided.

Again I cannot emphasise how shocking this case is. In British legal history it has broken all records concerning contract and common law and just civil decency. Over here my brother American lawyers and Judiciaries are totally shocked not only at the level of the top-down flagrant lying, but at the disdainful levels of compensation being considered.

In the end, as with Fujitsu (suppliers off the wretched Horizon), third party moles from the defendant (we were the appellant) appeared from out of the woodwork as personal conscious and decency surfaced above 'career at all costs'. These few brave souls who provided irrefutable evidence of the deceptions that had taken place were nuclear, the case was altered and irretrievably for our opposition. Even in the 'poker-face' personna displayed in the high court amongst protagonists, you know when you've landed the killer punch. At that stage the defence wanted to collapse and the accountants achieved the 'retributive justice' we were due. Millions were showered exponentially day after day in private meetings, a complete contrast to the attitude throughout the many hearings we all attended. The litigation partner of the Solicitors involved was merciless in his role here. I too had an 'Alan Bates', our named lead Plaintiff of 'others'. Every so often a human being appears who is selfless and brave, such was my friend alas now no longer with us these past ten years. As we said goodbye for what turned out to be our final meeting, he thanked me for giving him the strength. "No it was always there just waiting to be aroused" I told him, "I'm just the hired hand". Had it been a war he would have won the V.C.

I can tell you that actions like this achieve a life of their own, an immortal entity with every human emotion within it's sometimes ugly development. Displaying fitfully and repetitively, devoid of humanity.

For the Postmasters, life will never be the same, their trust and belief in the the State, will never return, for the rest of their lives. They will believe unequivocally in the greed, deception and nastiness of human nature above all other considerations, however hard their subconscious attempts intervention to such considerations.

Those responsible need to be held up to forensic investigation and then criminal prosecution, otherwise the very cloth in which UK Society is clothed, is as nothing.