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

Oh God, Sir Wyn, don’t ask him that 🫣

Oh god, Sir Wyn don't ask him for more.

He's just repeating himself now.

Yes, because he's hardly been given the chance to say anything up to now, has he? 🙄

Can we add 'there was more nuance' to the drinking bingo? 🍻

'Have you left anything out?'

'Yes, just to repeat what I've said on numerous occasions ...'

Yes, yes we can.

Also
"Some random story throwing another SPMR under the bus"

Ooh, did you see a bunch of people walking out?

I have visions of everyone gradually leaving, like Haydn's 'Farewell' symphony, until he’s just left on his own, still shouting

Thomson comes across in his evidence as utterly repugnant and dim.

Yes. That was a group of subpostmasters who were attending.

My feed just suddenly ended.

Or maybe I went into a trance, it's hard to tell.

Did I misheard or did he say something to the effect of what yooz at this inquiry haven't done....

Not sure that'll go down well

I feel as though we all ought to go to the pub after today, or eat cake, or something. We’ve earned it.

@grumpygrape - yep he said that (the poor schmuck)

Never fear, he'll be continuing to tell his "nuanced" and "balanced" side to fellow train passages on the way home tonight.

Oh dear, is it indecent that I'm laughing so hard it hurts?

Sadly, my mother is like this as well.

She always thinks that if people don't soothingly agree with her when she's being spiteful and nasty, it's because they haven't understood. So her remedy is to keep flapping her gob "explaining" until she hears the response she wants.

It never crosses her mind that, actually, people understand all too well. They just don't agree with her.

Overall, his evidence didn't deviate from: it's inevitable that some subpostmasters' lives will be destroyed in the course of Post Office running its business and since it's bound to happen, it might as well serve the interests of NFSP (as a proxy for his own interests).

So true!

God, I can't even bring myself to think about what it must have been like being a SPM dealing with this madness – trusting the Federation to act in good faith, and then this...

Again, when you look at all of the Forces of Darkness ranged against them, it makes the victory of the subpostmasters all the more astonishing.

Just trying to collect my thoughts after having watched today's evidence and I keep wondering about the following . . .

From what I understand, Mr Thomson was originally a sub-postmaster but handed this role over to his wife when he took on a major role in the NFSP.

If Mrs Thomson had experience discrepancies in her PO accounts, how would Mr Thomson have reacted?

He seems so entrenched in his view that there have always been some SPM's who succumbed to having cash available but, after Horizon was implemented, these SPM's were putting the blame on Horizon when it was, in fact, a robust system

Would he have taken the same view if his wife had experienced large discrepancies?

Forgive me if I have got any of this wrong, my brain has become somewhat addled by viewing today's hearing

He would have raised merry hell that his wife, and so him, would have suffered a loss, but I suspect he'd still be blaming it in a particular bug, and not one that necessarily represents a "systemic" fault in Horizon.

It seems that shortly after its introduction into the scandal, the term "systemic" lost any concrete meaning and it became Humpty-Dumptied:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."

Ooh yes, @nauticant - that's perfect.

One could add in George's 'SEP Field'. Let dear Ford Prefect explain:

'The Somebody Else's Problem field... relies on people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain. If Effrafax had painted the mountain pink and erected a cheap and simple Somebody Else’s Problem field on it, then people would have walked past the mountain, round it, even over it, and simply never have noticed that the thing was there.'
(Douglas Adams)

I have found this weeks evidence incredibly compelling and have just caught up . I’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the pp’s helping we laypeople with their expert analysis and comments . It’s been a revelation .

This is what pisses me off @KnitnNatterAuntie

George Thomson keeps saying it was only a tiny minority of SPMR who complained about Horizon and supposed losses. But this is not true.

In fact, I'd be very surprised if his wife did not suffer from some discrepancies, but due to her husbands insistence on Horizin being "robust" put it down to human error and just paid the loss back out of her own pocket.

I can guarantee there are thousands of SPMR who had discrepancies and because of the insistence of POL and NFSP just paid the money and kept quiet.
Probably because the amount was small enough to cover themselves or they were too scared to say anything for fear of losing thier business, homes, freedom and maybe even thier lives.

I know this to be true because of government data.
Up to 1 March 2024 2,800 SPMR have applied and been paid compensation by the 3 compensation. Schemes.

Bear in mind, this is only the SPMR who have been paid. We have no idea how many SMPR have applied but not been paid yet.
I watched an interview with Sir Alan Bates and Carol Vorderman, in which Sir Alan explained he hasn't been paid his compensation, so he is not included in that 2,800 figure.
I think Carol guesstimate maybe around 5,000 SPMR have applied under the 3 compensation. Schemes.

Also bear in mind, POL are not making it easy to get compensation.
So, just purely based on the 2,800 SPMR who have been paid compensation, that's 24% of SPMR who had discrepancies because of Horizon.
Not such a small.minority after all.

I'd be very interested to know if George Thomson wife has made an application under one of the 3 compensation schemes. This is pure speculation on my part.
However, shouldn't be too difficult to find out as Post Office have been breaching GDPR had publishing SPMR names on thier website.

Rant over 😁