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.

I worked for a company that put out a tweet that got a LOT of heat around this sort of subject. When I went into the office the next day, I fully expected to find panic stations and meetings being set up to find out how the fuck it had happened and how it was going to be reversed on...no, what happened was a whole-company meeting put in so that the CEO (who had personally ok'd the strategy before the tweet was done) could educate us on the subject because the meanies piling on our tweet were bigots.

It's easy (and optimistic I suppose) for us to assume that Jess is young, junior, that the tweet was done without sign-off or intervention, but we know in reality there are a lot of people in management, making decisions, shifting working practices and policies, who hold these mindsets.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/05/post-office-criminal-investigation-potential-horizon-accounting-fraud

And the times, main front page

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/091281c1-c51f-48c4-bca1-088256305f4c?shareToken=401f8c0b9ea1c05c8ded651f9a61838c

'Allow us to educate' 😡

Does anyone else find this use of the word 'educate' a bit weird and non consensual? Like it's something they'll force on you whether you like it or not?

You can inform me, if you like. I will then decide what action I take with that information (which may be that I decide it is bollocks and ignore it). You don't have the right to re-educate me and demand I change my behavior because my opinion/ behavior/ language use differs from the current diktat.

This arrogance reminds me of another group often in the news at the moment, I wish I could put my finger on who...

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.

Not just redaction, but in the court cases, it emerged that the Head of Security had shredded documents. IMO, Nick Wallis’s story about Horizon is primarily shocking for just how many people in Fujitsu and the PO, from the coders to the lawyers to the board room, were prepared to send the little people to jail in order to protect themselves/the company.

The corporate reaction to the concerns raised about this tweet educating us? Absolutely no doubt the same response will occur in that those working for the PO, whether it’s Jess or the Board, will double down on their position. They are right. Everyone else is wrong. End of.

In fact, I’m surprised we haven’t had more of the same as all those people responding to Jess’s tweet clearly need educating. It is so depressing.

More in the Mail:

The gilded lives of the Post Office scandal bosses that prove penitence is only for the little people... A new ITV drama has enraged the nation. Wait until you read what happened

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12932027/post-office-scandal-itv-drama-gilded-lives.html

100%

It's smug, patronising lecturing of the highest order. It's basically a proclamation that the speaker Knows Best. That the Post Office decides to lecture gay and lesbian people who object to the term 'Queer' is absolutely gobsmackingly tone deaf.

Changed my username for the gazillionth time as I actually post on this forum a lot and this is more identifying.

I'm a social media manager for a large UK corporation. I'm also very much middle aged, and an adult human female.

I can't tell you the fallout I'd be going through if I posted this comment! For a start, we almost always run posts past other people, though replies often not so much - as we are expected to be responsible for conveying the 'tone of voice' and responsibility (and personality) of the corporation.

We are regularly part of courses and discussions in the comms department and wider company on our strategy, tone of voice and the risks around the company. There are documents circulating (that I am expected to be familiar with) that identify and manage risk from all sorts of events both internal and external.

I get alerts if a financial report is coming out, a senior person is interviewed, or even if someone mentions us or queries us negatively on all the social platforms (even if they are a new user with no followers). There's someone managing the socials all the time, and we report up the line if shit happens. If we're unsure how to answer a question we have people to ask.

Hell we even make sure to talk about it if another company clearly falls down on something like this ( I will be bringing this instance up)

We have a consumer duty to provide the best to our customers and that includes publicly.

Its inconceivable that we (a comparable company in size) wouldn't have a serious discussion behind the scenes if a major TV series and questions in parliament were happening regarding our reputation.

Plus, you know 'let me educate you' is just something I'd NEVER say, I mean we're talking newspeak there.

We have queer as a choice on a lot of our surveys at work
caused an outcry
There response was queer has been reclaimed by the lgbt and is no longer deem offensive

Patronising arseholes, I love Aja the Empress, she is awesome. She takes no prisoners.

The Post Office stuffing Christmas cards in hedges and lecturing a lesbian about homophobia... sounds about right for today's world. 🙃

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/22/christmas-cards-could-arrive-late-february-royal-mail/

My own, strictly personal view is that if Jess can remember the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, the outbreak of AIDS, Section 28 or the bombing of the Admiral Duncan then they have earned the right to educate.

If, on the other hand, Jess can barely recollect life before the Same Sex Couples Act then maybe they're the one who might benefit from a little listening and learning.

Fujitsu don't come out of this well either. Just watching the drama. The tech team allegedly avenged themselves on a man who challenged them by framing him for stealing £44k.

There needs to be convictions on multiple levels for all this.

What??????

It wasn't clear that if was the tech team that made the accusation. It could be the PO discovered he saw something potentially dangerous. But yeah, Fujitsu clearly know A LOT. There are numerous reports around, it's been going on 20 years so lots to piece together, not just the broad brush TV drama.

@HereForTheFreeLunch that’s Royal Mail, not the Post Office. Different company.

Ah okay. I thought they were the same.

Allow us to educate.

Ahhh, at least they provide good laughs.

There is something in the Telegraph today ‘Post Office defends homophobic slur..’ but the archive link I have isn’t working.

Not sure if this is somewhere else in this thread.

Here's the link. :)
https://archive.ph/tfnZy

@RainWithSunnySpells thanks!

It's a good article. For example:

Bev Jackson, the co-founder of LGB Alliance, told The Telegraph: “Many lesbians and gay men reject the word ‘queer’ as a slur, one often uttered before a vicious beating. Others reject it because it has been claimed by straight people as a fashionable identity.”

Last year, LGB Alliance released a report entitled Don’t Call Me Queer which found 90 per cent of those surveyed felt uncomfortable with the word.

Many thanks for that.

They're still defending their position, but have deleted the original tweet. Clueless.

A Post Office spokesman said: “We support Pride month and events every year and respond to questions about our support on our social media channels. We’re proud to have previously worked with the charity Queer Britain, the UK’s LGBTQ+ museum. They say that language changes and that whilst the term ‘queer’ has long been a term of abuse for LGBTQ+ people, it is being reclaimed by younger people especially who they say embrace it proudly as their identity. It was in this context that our response to a query on X (formerly Twitter) should be seen.”

The contrast between their approach and that outlined above by @Milliondoll is just astonishing.

I see on Twitter that biology denier and accepter of donations from puberty blocker pushers Ed Davey is getting caught up in the sub post master scandal as well.