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

This is the link.

George Thomson appears on p 5/9 I think. (I used Ctrl F.)

https://www.jfsa.org.uk/uploads/5/4/3/1/54312921/hansard_29_jun_2015.pdf

Yes.

So, the sum total of his in depth investigation was "asking the Post Office".

That's it.

Perfect, thank you @AutumnCrow

Oh, my stream says the broadcast is suspended.

Anyone else?

We never knowingly waste a tea break!

Looks like George managed to self-combust.

<drums fingers>

We're back.

I wonder if he was told to calm down.

We're back.

I wonder if George has been told to calm the fuck down.

Ha ha ha ha, snap @AutumnCrow 🤣

Snap, Minou!

Does he seem calmer? It's hard to tell.

I can imagine he's been told to stop throwing questions at Mr Blake, and so aggressively as well.

In 2012 NFSP were opposed to Post Office conducting an independent investigation (ie Second Sight) into the reliability of Horizon.

No, I dont think he's calmed down.

As @CustardySergeant beautifully put it I doubt he would shut up long enough for anyone to be able to explain anything to him.

Has one of the barristers got a smoking gun email or letters showing that George was told that Horizon had bugs? I mean, he obviously was by SPMs.

This is nuts - he didn't even regard an independent investigation into potential faults as necessary, because 'there weren't anyway' [paraphrase]. It mainly upset him that he was NFSP were excluded. Ffs. He wanted to interfere in it.

He brain dumps through the medium of his gob.

As has been flagged up thread, much of their income came from Post Office. They were also concerned that the value of their businesses (i.e. their post office branches) would be reduced if it became clear that there were problems with Horizon. They therefore vigorously defended Horizon (including giving evidence to support the Post Office in the Bates vs Post Office trial) and failed to help any subpostmaster experiencing problems. This led to a member of their executive, Mark Baker, leaving them and becoming branch secretary for subpostmasters in the CWU.

Here's the smoking gun email.

There were confidential discussions within NFSP about a lack of robustness and reliability of Horizon in 2006 AutumnCrow.

From Paul Taylor to Amanda Cox cc'd to George Thomson.

Thank you, @nauticant and @prh47bridge for that background.

Wow. He really thought he was calling shots here.

But the permanent get out for Thomson is that he would not engage with the issue of unreliability unless it was "systemic", where "systemic" is defined as "not the fault you're telling me about now". He uses this shield even now. He's the last member of the Japanese Imperial Army still holding our in the jungle decades after the war has ended.

'Over 70 million transactions ...' really is Thomson's mantra, isn't it? He bleats it out like a nursery rhyme.

I know why he is pissed off.

.....George Thomson with £millions of funding, proper offices and a team of people
Achieved absolutely nothing in comparison with
.....Sir Alan Bates and others, with no money, a community hall and only thier voices.

That must wind him up.