Paula Vennells was done the other week, the Post Office Inquiry is now questioning associates and others - thread 3

[nauticant]

A continuation of this thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5081592-paula-vennels-being-questioned-at-the-post-office-inquiry-followed-by-others-thread-2

When the hearings are going on, live-streaming can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/@postofficehorizonitinquiry947/featured

All of the previous hearings can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/@postofficehorizonitinquiry947/videos

It was only when I started watching on a PC that I realised there were comments on the livestream. Let's just say they seem to share our feelings about George.

An unpleasant spectre is hanging over this that GT was in it for the money, even if it meant being very cosy with, incurious about, and doing the bidding of, the Royal Mail/Post Office senior leadership.

I suppose that what Blake is doing here is laying out how NFSP's existence depended completely on that deals they could strike with Post Office, particularly over money, and this will be followed by Blake going into how NFSP supported Post Office in its persecution of subpostmasters. That part of the discussion is likely to see Thomson move into la-la-la-can't-hear-you overdrive.

Surely not, Autumn! I’m shocked! 😬

The signal cut for me on the official PI stream.
So, unfortunately, I'm watching on one if the newspaper streams.

I'll try again back on the official one after the 1st break.

I had a brief outage too

Oh yes, I've flipped to the Mirror livestream! Hence the sidebar comments.

George is not Mr Popularity.

All of this can be summarised as: You weren't a trade union, you were a creature of Post Office, and depended on them financially for your very existence.

SHUT UP!!! 😡

Crazy thing is, this should not come as a surprise to George Thomson.

In Bates vs the Post Office, Judge Fraser said

It is obvious, in my judgment, that the NFSP is not remotely independent of the Post Office, nor does it appear to put its members’ interests above its own separate commercial interests."..."I do not consider that the NFSP can in these circumstances properly be considered to be independent, or to be acting in the interests of SPMs [Subpostmasters], given the way it involved its own commercial interests as a condition [of agreeing a settlement for Subpostmasters around the introduction of the NTC]"...

But it seems George here still.hasnt got it.

Ahh, strictly confidential discussions within NFSP in 2006 about unreliability of Horizon. In fact, that should be repeated doubts about reliability and robustness.

Yet, as Thomson said, his faith in Horizon has not wavered in nearly 20 years. This is an article of faith for him, almost like a religious conviction. This will not change.

It's interesting to see that Thomson maintains his denials and his faith on the basis of "systemic" where "systemic" is defined in such narrow terms it's very easy to argue that anything anyone might raise can be said not to be "systemic".

This goes back to Linnell yesterday still being angry over Second Sight having embraced the term.

I wonder if the SPMs should/could ask for their subscription monies back from the NFSP. Maybe it's making George into a feartie.

It's clear that Thomson has got a massive grievance against Lee Castleton. That'll be because in some ways Castleton triggers cognitive dissonance in Thomson.

George is losing it now.

I wouldn’t like to be George's wife when he goes home and stomps up and down effing and blinding about the way he wasn' allowed to have his proper say in court, etc etc etc. (but then I wouldn’t like to be his wife anyway)

He is really winding me up.

That was his job - to find out if the PO was lying to him and to have his members back.
He really isn't getting it.
His job was to find out the truth - not just accept what the SLT of POL was telling him.

Computer weekly managed it. Private Eye managed to do it. Panorama managed to do it. The One Show managed it.

Has nobody sat him down and explained this to him?

He's coming across as a very nasty piece of work. He was basically bought off by Paula Vennells, wasn't he?

I must try and dig out his appearance at the Select Committee. Did anyone see it?

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

minou123 I doubt he would shut up long enough for anyone to be able to explain anything to him.

Here it is

To be honest, it's much the same as today.

He is unbelievable.

He really thinks he knows everything and he has the last word.

He doesn't like it that no-one is listening/believing him.

Thanks, Minou. I've also found the transcript of the parliamentary debate secured by Andrew Bridgen MP on 29/6/15.

George Thomson's evidence to the Select Committee was seized upon by the Minister George Freeman to defend the Post Office. Thomson's evidence was very convenient for both Post Office and Government.

Thomson confirms that "hares were sent running" [over faults in Horizon] was his phrase. Hmmm, that phrase has been used by others in Post Office. This is in the context of Thomson briefing NFSP against Castleton perhaps on the basis on material received by Post Office.

This stinks