The Post Office has a death wish

The Times' new top story:

Horizon scandal: Police investigate Post Office ‘potential fraud’

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/091281c1-c51f-48c4-bca1-088256305f4c?shareToken=aa9511ac349b84a7db075824b8e17c93

Oh no! Not Sir Ed Davey. He is as pure as the driven snow. I know this because he has told us.

@NotBadConsidering a lot of young women footballers have used the 'L' word to describe themselves. Megan Rapinoe, Jill Scott, Jess Carter etc. I think there are half a dozen in the England squad alone.

According to someone on that twitter thread Davey’s brother, Henry, was a partner at HSF until just six weeks before Davey joined them. Ed Davey declared these interests in 2012 so he knew exactly who HSF were.

Doesn't this show how corruption runs through our political system like a stick of rock.

Allow us to educate

1. Patronising twonkery of the highest order.
2. Which reads very badly...

As far as I can tell the word “queer” is used by two groups of people.

1. Weird quirky young people who are terrified of admitting they’re just boring heterosexuals so express an interest in “still exploring” their sexuality and

2. Young lesbians who have been scared out of using the word lesbian because of trans activism.

I don’t know of a single famous person under the age of 40 who describes themselves as a lesbian.

So to me, Jess, the word “queer” hasn’t been reclaimed as a positive at all, it’s a word of fear.

Wow MrsOvertonsWindow. Not only was Davey the Minister and refused to meet Mr Bates but then he worked to advise HSF on policy and political issues, when they were working for the Post Office! (The LDs say when he was hired by HSF he didn't know of their work for the PO, but say nothing of whether he came to know about it). And Jo SwanSong took over as Minister covering the Post Office.

"Allow us to educate"

Well after your tremendous fuck up POL I'll allow you to fuck off!

It appears that the dodgy leader of the Lib Dems, Ed Davey, who refused to get involved with this scandal when he was postal minister for the coalition government, subsequently went on to accept a well paid consultancy for the law firm HSFLegal that prosecuted all the post masters. An enlightening twitter thread showing what looks on the face of it to be more corruption with this story, especially given the "nothing to see here" interviews Davey's given in the last few days, And of course, the Lib Dem's history of being bought by companies looking for political influence (puberty blockers) :

https://twitter.com/chrish9070/status/1742904982439936474

The Mail had a story in one of those sent to prison. A woman aged 19 at the time. 19!!

Tracy Felstead breaks silence after being wrongfully jailed
mol.im/a/12927845

And one of the other victims is urging people to write to their MPs. Worth noting here as we are no strangers to doing just that:

x.com/castletonlee/status/1743307126288646412?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

Thank you @puncheur and @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . The things you learn on this board 😂 And yes I'm old enough to remember Family Allowance

It's awful that a pregnant woman gets locked up for a money crime but men can rape without fear of punishment, even when that rape/bestility kills farm animals and the farmer loses his investments/money (yes, you read that right). Actually it's not awful, it's sickening 😡

Although I'd expect in the first instance Post Office would say that they don't have complete records of the people whose lives they set out to destroy.

I also don't get the 'redaction' thing. How does that even fly? How can it be considered acceptable that you can't deny somebody the relevant information that they are requiring, but you can give them pages and pages of black lines that tell you nothing more than receiving nothing would have done?

I understand the principle that the odd word/line or two might be sensitive or identify an innocent third party and thus have to be obscured, but what justification can people possibly give for hiding the entire lot and still claiming that they have complied with the request?

It's the equivalent of responding to all the judge's questions by singing the Mr Blobby song over and over again - and then claiming that you have answered all of the questions, just because something audible did come out of your mouth at the appropriate times. Sheer contempt.

Welsh Government has been digging its heels in in a similar way, insisting that because the tiny cohort of metropolitan LGB and T people it consults with wants to include the Q in policy documents the fact that others find it offensive doesn't matter.

I don't know what the stats are for the rest of the UK but Stonewall Cymru's own report and graphics state that only 500 people in Wales identified as 'queer' in the 2021 Census. I doubt whether it's a chosen descriptor for many LGB or T people in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland either.

People can call themselves what they like of course, but foisting it on others and denying that it's offensive isn't on. Imagine insisting that the N- word was OK and should be used in government policy documents or public service marketing just because a small minority of black people have reclaimed it and use it within some in-groups!

Fifty new potential victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal have contacted lawyers after ITV broadcast a drama about the case this week.

Neil Hudgell, a lawyer acting for claimants, told the BBC that the new enquiries include former sub-postmasters who were given convictions.

Am I missing something here? Surely we are long past the point when a body with enforcement powers should have got the management of Post Office by the scruff of the neck and told them "you will make your very best efforts to track down everyone you have convicted or otherwise hassled over Horizon and let them know that they could well have a claim against the organisation".

Although I'd expect in the first instance Post Office would say that they don't have complete records of the people whose lives they set out to destroy.

Or she's a cat that identifies as human - a reverse furry?

@OldCrone I stand corrected!

And no excuses as I've been following it for years in Private Eye...

'Allow us to educate.'
Just fuck off.

You can pay in cheques and withdraw cash from your regular bank account at POs now so I guess they have a basic bank function. Actually quite useful with banks closing left right and centre...

(Sorry I see puncheur said the same thing)

they are completely separate and have been for years (since before the Horizon scandal).

They've only been separate since 2011. The Horizon scandal started in 2000 when the new computer system was installed.

@PurpleSparkledPixie no they are completely separate and have been for years (since before the Horizon scandal). Royal Mail Group is owned by a listed company (International Deliveries Service). Post Office is a private company that is wholly owned by the government. To be honest you would think it would be the other way round and that Royal Mail, being critical infrastructure would be in public ownership.

Royal Mail collects, sorts and delivers post. That's basically it.

Post Office is a corner shop franchising company, they are under contract to Royal Mail for selling stamps and accepting registered post and the like, but they are also under contract to Evri and Amazon, and to the government itself for providing things like universal banking service. They also sell their own services like currency exchange and insurance.

In fact Royal Mail is in direct competition with the Post Office with services like Bring My Label (which is ace if you are at home when the postie comes - no more queueing at the PO to drop off parcels).

Look it's a new year. Can 2024 be the start of all these companies fucking off with their virtue signalling and performative displays of their "engagement" with social issues that have fuck all to do their organisations? It's getting absolutely crazy now.

Same here. It has the same impact on me as hearing the casually racist terms for certain ethnic groups which were in common usage at the time that the Q word was being used.

No sympathy. The split was and is ridiculous. It's nonsense to have the national postal service separate from the offices of the national post.