To draw your attention to Mr Bates vs The Post Office

Adam Crozier, who was CEO of Royal Mail, has been questioned by the inquiry, as have Stuart Sweetman, David Mills, Alan Cook and David Smith, who held the post of MD or CEO of Post Office whilst it was owned by Royal Mail.

Vennells is the focus because she was in charge when it became clear that Horizon was unreliable. She was in charge when Post Office was trying to cover up the scandal. She was in charge when Post Office tried to win the group litigation by deliberately ramping up costs for the subpostmasters to try and run them out of money. She made promises to MPs which she then broke. And she was in charge when Second Sight were sacked for getting too close to the truth. It is also clear from things she wrote at the time that she did not intend the mediation scheme that was set up in 2016 to offer proper restitution to wronged subpostmasters. Her intention was token payments only. However, that isn't to say she should take all the blame. She shouldn't. There are many others in Post Office who should carry some of the blame.

As much as I’d love to see Vennells thrown into a prison cell and pay back all her ill gotten gains, it seems to me she’s being the sacrificial lamb?

One of the post mistresses was on the BBC news and made a valid point that she was sent to prison before Vennells became head of the PO. As were many others.

People were convicted from 1999. That was long before Vennells came to the PO.

Where are all the other head sheds , why aren’t they all being questioned?

I can’t help but feel that they hope that if they let Vennells take all the blame, they can all get off Scott free.

You're a braver woman than I, Duncin'! Two torrents of shit at once!

Thanks, I was wondering why it had gone quiet on here.

I watched the Covid Inquiry today and need to catch up with this Inquiry now.

Just adding a link to the dedicated deconstruction of Vennells thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5080262-to-enjoy-hearing-paula-vennels-being-taken-apart?page=1

I feel that one may be busier for the next few days...

Quite the question to finish with

"In the briefing that you received prior to your evidence to Parliament it was suggested you should be circumspect in the answers you gave. Why?"

Got a bit distracted, thanks for the updates

Several of her answers have been essentially, "Well I wouldn't want to speak ill of anyone... BUT IT WAS PERSON X!"

It's like talking to my mother!

They're literally laughing at her

So she's not coming back tomorrow right?

🤣

I still don't know how she could square her religious beliefs with doing that job and not quitting it in disgust due to actual morals and principles. It's one reason I don't understand people having a religion when those at the top of them are often questionable individuals.

Note the parallels:
When the scandal was still uncovered Vennells blackened Crichton's name as someone who'd risked it becoming known.
Now the scandal is completely blown and people might be held to account, Vennells is still blaming Crichton but this time as a bad person who kept information about the scandal hidden from her.

That's par for the course because Vennells also stitched Crichton up for being to blame for getting Second Sight onboard which turned out to be a massive thorn in the side of the top management, and made sure that everyone saw this as being a sort of treachery, and, with Crichton having a blackened name, Vennells was able to work with others to drive Crichton out of the business.

Crichton might be highly compromised in her actions, but introducing Post Office to Second Sight proved to be one of the foundation stones of the scandal being uncovered.

Yes, and as part of the big boss performance there's a lot of 'I trusted the lawyers to give me full, fair and accurate information...' I think she's thrown Susan Creighton under the bus more than once this afternoon.

I get the impression Vennells is relaxing into giving evidence and is defaulting into I'm important and authoritative. The humility has faded.

The viewer count has updated: 18772.

Another important email. "This shouldn't have reached me... avoid unnecessary additional noise about Horizon". Repeats concept that there has never been anything proved to be wrong about Horizon.

So, circular. Haven't yet found any probs => don't tell me about any probs => don't find any probs.

Busy bloke, he is presently instructed in:

• The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, as Leading Counsel to the Inquiry
• The Covid 19 Inquiry, as Leading Counsel for NHS England
• The Grenfell Tower Inquiry, as Leading Counsel for the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• The Thirlwall Inquiry, as Leading Counsel for NHS England
• The Malkinson Inquiry, as Leading Counsel for Greater Manchester Police
• The Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, as Leading Counsel for Counter Terrorism Policing South East
• The Jalal Uddin Inquiry, as Leading Counsel to the Inquiry
• The Undercover Policing Inquiry, as Leading Counsel for a group of undercover police officers

Lead counsel Jason Beer: https://www.5essex.co.uk/profile/jason-beer-kc/

Urgh, that woman getting tearful on the radio just now.

It's an absolute endurance test for the legals and the witnesses. I'm in full admiration of lead counsel ? Is that what he is? The relentless questioner. Admirable. Little to no sympathy for the PO witnesses, an assemblage of people who should have been suffering from Imposor Syndrome but believed themselves competent instead.

I suppose so? I've never been through anything like this myself.

It's an exhausting process to go through. Things fall apart if people get to the point where they can't focus properly. The Chair has to have an especially high level of concentration.

In my experience breaks are actually essential every hour or so.

What's with the breaks? They've only just had one and there's another now?

Oops, sorry, Sir Wyn Williams. Getting him confused with a historical figure.