Govt knew about Post Office Horizon cover-up

[VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia]

Whilst everyone is panicking about some military staff saying "well, we might have to conscript", it becomes clear that that particular media-whipped panicfest is a dead cat deployed to stop us all from clocking that David Cameron's coalition govt knew about Project Sparrow, knew about the Post Office's decision to fire the forensic accountants who found the bugs, and were complicit in the cover-up of software defects that cost the jobs, livelihoods, and liberty of over 700 sub-postmasters. The actual govt knew.

Heads are already rolling but frankly this is not enough. The BCS want legal changes to the presumption of "computer is always right".

It's a shame that Jo Swinson has left politics because I'd love to see her in front of an inquiry.

@VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia
Local authorities can, for instance - https://www.isonharrison.co.uk/our-services/regulatory-law-solicitors-for-business/local-authority-offences/

ive dipped in an out of a series on radio 4 about this but Im pretty sure the problems at Horizon/Fujitsu were known about almost from the start. (ie turn of the century)
Paula Vennells has been (rightly) implicated but there must be a lot of others at the post office, at Horizon (who was authorising the "no one else has had a problem with it script at the helpline for a start?) Fujitsu and the government.
Why has she been singled out? the corruption is widespread, she was not a lone wolf masterminding the whole thing!!

1. She's female (see rule one).
2. She was in charge of PO at the time.

The two make her a very convenient scapegoat.

The problem started (and was known about - although perhaps not in mainstream media) before her tenure , why is her predecessor also not being brought to account?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoating

If she is given all the blame, everyone else gets away scot-free.

I agree that everyone who is culpable for the scandal should be held accountable.

However, Paula Vennells took home more than £4.5 million during her tenure. If CEOs being paid such obscene amounts can't take accountability for what happens on their watch, what are they being paid for? By contrast, the average current salary for an investigator is £40k.

It's so frustrating isn't it. Not that she doesn't have some accountability but utterly outrageous how many others are likely to get away Scot free because the public are happy once a single head has rolled

Of course she is responsible for what happened on her watch. But a lot of it happened many before she was appointed

All the relevant chief execs and chairs (as a minimum) should all be accountable

I dont think she shouldn't be held accountable as I stated in my post, however as it stands she is the only one that has been publicly held up as culpable. But I refuse to believe that the CEO before her (I think Adam Crozier) plus big wigs at Horizon or Fujitsu were not also partly responsible.

nb Adam Crozier is now at itv so that may expalin why he wasn't featured in the drama but its feasible he may have been implicated in records/documents etc

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Limited indicates that Alan Cook and David Smith should also be answering difficult questions right now.

who was authorising the "no one else has had a problem with it" script at the helpline for a start?

It's standard in the early stages of a major incident for a help desk to be told not to say "yeah, loads of people have that problem" as part of reputation management and treating the service's users consistently. This, however, should be swiftly followed by an official service status update acknowledging the problems that the help desk staff can refer users to whilst second- and third-line staff work their arses off to get the underlying issues fixed.

@VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia Last week when they came out with this conscription thing was also Grenfell Testimony Week