MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE - mon to thur ITV 9pm - tv pace no spoilers

[Blondeshavemorefun]

Mon to thur

Mr Bates vs The Post Office is an ITV drama based on a true story of injustice starring Toby Jones, Julie Hesmondhalgh, WIll Mellor and Monica Dolan.
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Mr Bates vs The Post Office is a hard-hitting ITV1 drama starring Toby Jones, Monica Dolan and Julie Hesmondhalgh among others.

The series details one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, where thousands of Post Office sub postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

Mr Bates vs The Post Office follows Alan Bates (Toby Jones), a sub postmaster who decided to fight back against a scandalous miscarriage of justice.

He was one of thousands of sub postmasters and postmistresses who between 2000 and 2013 were falsely accused of theft due to financial discrepancies thrown up by the flawed Horizon computerised accounting system.

More than 700 were prosecuted and several went to prison while others lost their homes and life savings trying to pay back the money the Post Office claimed was missing.

Many were unfairly ostracised from their communities, who believed they were criminals.

In 2009 Alan Bates decided to form the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance (https://www.jfsa.org.uk/), uniting thousands of his colleagues to
fight to clear their names.

Gillian Keenan’s ( education secretary) husband is head of Fujitsu UK and Ireland.

Would that explain why the government is still giving contracts to the firm ?

Its gets worse doesn’t it ?..

Good

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67925304

No, he isn't now. He had that role back in 2013/2014 I believe and he got a retraction from The Times when they wrote about his involvement in the Post Office Account (he said something along the lines of: I didn't know the details as I was too high up). The current Head of UK and Ireland is Anwen Owen. Her partner works in the Cabinet Office and is apparently 'quite well connected'.......

They are repeating the documentary again tonight

What a bloody cast. Including some of my favourite posho actors. Let’s hope this has repercussions throughout the establishment

Hmmm, I haven’t watched this video yet but I think that’s where the figures in the image were quoted, number of PO prosecutions per year

Well thats something, Vennells has handed her CBE back..

The media are not letting this drop which is great, hopefully keeping up the pressure will mean more heads roll!

Of course I say number of PO prosecutions per year apparently 😉

I Hope the media don’t let this drop

Yes and I hope they see that the trust is broken. I certainly don’t trust those in power. It feels like they are only interested in themselves. No integrity.

Let’s be honest, the whole reason this case came to light is because of Alan Bates and his campaign which started 15 years ago.

Neither Labour nor the Conservatives government, gave a shit really did they ?

It took an ITV drama to cause the outrage it did. No government past or present comes of well from this.

This is just another inconvenience for the government , Im sure that’s how they see it.

But compensation isn’t enough, but that doesn’t hurt or punish the individuals responsible for this.

I want them to face criminal charges. I want to see them financially hurt.

Just giving the post masters a sum settlement isn’t enough- those responsible need to see a prison cell or be financially punished.

I actually agree with them facing criminal charges - they knowingly lied. No two ways about it. People lost their lives. They deserve to be hounded & shunned as they did to others. Never thought I’d say something like that as I don’t believe in vigilantism but for once I do.

The government want people back in work probably those who are already quite vulnerable etc they need to show that it is safe for people to work and that they won’t end up being placed in such catastrophic situations by simply trying to do honest work. People need to be held accountable, and I agree there need to be criminal
charges taken, otherwise this will keep on happening. And yes, if it wasn’t for Alan we wouldn’t really know about this horrifying situation.

I heard an interview on PM last night with someone whose brother had died in the contaminated blood scandal. He was writing a drama about the scandal and was encouraged by the public response to the post office scandal.

Too many scandals brushed under the carpet, or taking forever to be resolved, costing millions of pounds and devastation to so many lives. We all know we're waiting for the medicalisation and sterilisation of children scandal to land in the public consciousness. Wonder who will pen that drama?

It really is quite scary but also not surprising sadly, you need to have a lot of money basically to avoid ever being in prison!

A Welsh older man who worked as a postman then later a post master. His whole working life. They sent him to prison. He spent his 60th birthday there , he did nothing wrong.
Poor man. Even on the local news I think handcuffed in his way to the prison after sentencing. Humiliating.

And people knew they were innocent and let it happen.

And those post masters who had their names and pictures splashed across the local newspaper branded as thieves.

Their reputations ruined. Jess , the Asian lady included. In her culture shame is a really big thing too. It’s quite common for people from the Asian community to commit suicide after being shamed.

Imagine being plastered over the media being accused of something you didn’t do. Your whole community seeing it.

And all because you were just trying to earn an honest living 🤷🏻‍♀️

I really hope all those who knew /lied /hid the truth will be punished

Not holding my breath tbh
It's bound to be a huge cover up even now

Apparently shortfalls are still happening now! It’s still going on , post masters making up the discrepancies.

You can't make this up.

From The Telegraph:

>>
Former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells ‘nearly became Bishop of London’
Archbishop of Canterbury is believed to have supported application of boss who was ordained in 2006 and served on ethical investments group

Apparently Archie was thought to be favourable to her as she fitted the "businessification" (a word?) of the church he was pushing through.

Two questions.

Was this system only used in the subpostoffices?

What were the Crown Post Offices using?

Any problems there?

Fujitsu - anyone seen anyone appear publicly to be interviewed?

Beyond bland "moving forward - we are sorry for historical distress" statements I mean.

I've just been reading the article on the Beeb news app about how these poor people were advised by barristers to plead guilty to avoid going to jail (didn't always keep them out, either) - where's the accountability of the legal representation who allowed their clients to be convicted without evidence? I thought the whole point of a lawyer was that they would scrutinise the evidence to best defend their client?

Sadly agree @the80sweregreat

It was used in all offices. One of the early convictions was Tracy Felstead who worked in a Crown Office. If someone needed a break during a busy period, another counter clerk would take over their terminal without bothering to log off and log on. As a result, it was not possible to tell who had done what on each terminal.

She started getting discrepancies when she cashed up at the end of the week. At first, these were small. But they got bigger. Then she went on a big family holiday. When she returned, she was told to go on her till and cash up. It showed that she was over £11,500 short. In 2001, at the age of 19, she was convicted of stealing the money by a majority verdict and sent to prison. Her mental health was destroyed. She still suffers from problems.

Most of the victims were subpostmasters. There is a tendency to describe them all as subpostmasters, but some Crown Office staff were also victims.