The Post Office has a death wish

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

This week, of all weeks, when there is huge outrage at the way the Post Office has behaved towards subpostmasters over the Horizon scandal, thanks to the excellent ITV dramatisation Mr Bates vs The Post Office - on X/Twitter someone whose bio makes it abundantly clear she's a lesbian tweeted about a patronising and offensive tweet from the Post Office last summer about the word 'queer'. Instead of apologising, or deleting the tweet, or even just ignoring it, some blue-hairded genderist with the password for their social media has doubled down. It's not going down well, I'm pleased to report.

Cross post there! @puncheur seems to know a lot about this. I don't. I went into my local sub post office for the first time in ages to post my Mum's Christmas present. It may be months before I have to go there again. I doubt I'm typical but it's sooooo much easier to do things online if you're OK with the internet. My Mum, who's 91 and utterly technophobic, still relies heavily on paper forms and so on, so it's a blow that her local sub post office is closing soon. No word yet on what the Post Office will do to provide a replacement service.

We're straying a bit from my OP, but this has other links to FWR as so many sub post offices have been run by families and a great many women seem to have been caught up in this horrific scandal. Seema Misra who was sent to prison for theft while pregnant with her second child is a particularly awful example. I know this is a Sun link but for once The Sun is doing actual journalism here. https://www.thesun.co.uk/tv/25094579/post-office-scandal-itv-mr-bates-seema-misra/

'Allow us to educate.'
Just fuck off.

@OldCrone I stand corrected!

And no excuses as I've been following it for years in Private Eye...

Or she's a cat that identifies as human - a reverse furry?

Fifty new potential victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal have contacted lawyers after ITV broadcast a drama about the case this week.

Neil Hudgell, a lawyer acting for claimants, told the BBC that the new enquiries include former sub-postmasters who were given convictions.

Am I missing something here? Surely we are long past the point when a body with enforcement powers should have got the management of Post Office by the scruff of the neck and told them "you will make your very best efforts to track down everyone you have convicted or otherwise hassled over Horizon and let them know that they could well have a claim against the organisation".

Although I'd expect in the first instance Post Office would say that they don't have complete records of the people whose lives they set out to destroy.

Welsh Government has been digging its heels in in a similar way, insisting that because the tiny cohort of metropolitan LGB and T people it consults with wants to include the Q in policy documents the fact that others find it offensive doesn't matter.

I don't know what the stats are for the rest of the UK but Stonewall Cymru's own report and graphics state that only 500 people in Wales identified as 'queer' in the 2021 Census. I doubt whether it's a chosen descriptor for many LGB or T people in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland either.

People can call themselves what they like of course, but foisting it on others and denying that it's offensive isn't on. Imagine insisting that the N- word was OK and should be used in government policy documents or public service marketing just because a small minority of black people have reclaimed it and use it within some in-groups!

Although I'd expect in the first instance Post Office would say that they don't have complete records of the people whose lives they set out to destroy.

I also don't get the 'redaction' thing. How does that even fly? How can it be considered acceptable that you can't deny somebody the relevant information that they are requiring, but you can give them pages and pages of black lines that tell you nothing more than receiving nothing would have done?

I understand the principle that the odd word/line or two might be sensitive or identify an innocent third party and thus have to be obscured, but what justification can people possibly give for hiding the entire lot and still claiming that they have complied with the request?

It's the equivalent of responding to all the judge's questions by singing the Mr Blobby song over and over again - and then claiming that you have answered all of the questions, just because something audible did come out of your mouth at the appropriate times. Sheer contempt.

Thank you @puncheur and @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . The things you learn on this board 😂 And yes I'm old enough to remember Family Allowance

It's awful that a pregnant woman gets locked up for a money crime but men can rape without fear of punishment, even when that rape/bestility kills farm animals and the farmer loses his investments/money (yes, you read that right). Actually it's not awful, it's sickening 😡

The Mail had a story in one of those sent to prison. A woman aged 19 at the time. 19!!

Tracy Felstead breaks silence after being wrongfully jailed
mol.im/a/12927845

And one of the other victims is urging people to write to their MPs. Worth noting here as we are no strangers to doing just that:

x.com/castletonlee/status/1743307126288646412?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

It appears that the dodgy leader of the Lib Dems, Ed Davey, who refused to get involved with this scandal when he was postal minister for the coalition government, subsequently went on to accept a well paid consultancy for the law firm HSFLegal that prosecuted all the post masters. An enlightening twitter thread showing what looks on the face of it to be more corruption with this story, especially given the "nothing to see here" interviews Davey's given in the last few days, And of course, the Lib Dem's history of being bought by companies looking for political influence (puberty blockers) :

https://twitter.com/chrish9070/status/1742904982439936474

"Allow us to educate"

Well after your tremendous fuck up POL I'll allow you to fuck off!

Wow MrsOvertonsWindow. Not only was Davey the Minister and refused to meet Mr Bates but then he worked to advise HSF on policy and political issues, when they were working for the Post Office! (The LDs say when he was hired by HSF he didn't know of their work for the PO, but say nothing of whether he came to know about it). And Jo SwanSong took over as Minister covering the Post Office.

As far as I can tell the word “queer” is used by two groups of people.

1. Weird quirky young people who are terrified of admitting they’re just boring heterosexuals so express an interest in “still exploring” their sexuality and

2. Young lesbians who have been scared out of using the word lesbian because of trans activism.

I don’t know of a single famous person under the age of 40 who describes themselves as a lesbian.

So to me, Jess, the word “queer” hasn’t been reclaimed as a positive at all, it’s a word of fear.

Allow us to educate

1. Patronising twonkery of the highest order.
2. Which reads very badly...

When I was a kid, the word 'queer' was often followed by 'bashing'. It wasn't a nice word, though was sometimes used ironically by gay men.

According to someone on that twitter thread Davey’s brother, Henry, was a partner at HSF until just six weeks before Davey joined them. Ed Davey declared these interests in 2012 so he knew exactly who HSF were.

Doesn't this show how corruption runs through our political system like a stick of rock.

@NotBadConsidering a lot of young women footballers have used the 'L' word to describe themselves. Megan Rapinoe, Jill Scott, Jess Carter etc. I think there are half a dozen in the England squad alone.

Oh no! Not Sir Ed Davey. He is as pure as the driven snow. I know this because he has told us.

The Times' new top story:

Horizon scandal: Police investigate Post Office ‘potential fraud’

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/091281c1-c51f-48c4-bca1-088256305f4c?shareToken=aa9511ac349b84a7db075824b8e17c93

Can’t find any quotes from those three examples where they use the word “lesbian”, sadly.

Zeugma · Yesterday 13:14

I'd also strongly recommend a reading of this excellent special report by Private Eye, which has been following the Horizon scandal for many years. It’s long and very detailed but extremely good.

Thanks, that was a long, hard read. I not that it mentioned the possibility of malicious prosecution against the PO, which I had wondered about some time ago. I think that there would be a very strong case, there is a large amount of documentary evidence, showing that various bigwigs had ordered the problems to be kept quiet, hidden from the courts and defence lawyers.

I long since came to the conclusion that the last person to enter parliament with honest intentions was one Guido Fawkes.

I'm with tractor girly stick to delivering post

Ridiculously snotty reply but I was of the belief that a lot of gay people embrace the term 'queer'? As in 'queer feminism'.

And a lot don't. More to the point, it doesn't really matter either way, as the only people who get to reclaim a slur are the groups that it has been used against, and companies such as the Post Office don't fit into that category.

They do indeed, and appear regularly at Let Women Speak events where they’re stewards and record footage.

Jess would do well to educate herself on Aja! I saw the tweet, and the subsequent pile on, so hopefully Jess is smarting a little.

Am I the only one that thinks Jess’ birth name is Jessica, she’s upper middle class and identifies as they/them?