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British Post Office Scandal

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Re: British Post Office Scandal

#31

Post by mjburgess »

ChrisKnott wrote: post #28
mjburgess wrote: post #19

In middle of this it's obscene how the media neglects to mention who did most of the actual investigative journalism: https://www.private-eye.co.uk/ -- for years on end, whilst the issue was ignored by the rest of the press. They all now jump in on it and elide the years of work put in by the PE. This is a common tactic in media outlets, esp. here, for the major sources to try to "own" issues with nearly zero work pu…

I think that Computer Weekly were at the forefront of it

There were lots including, iirc, https://www.theregister.com/

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#32

Post by cpach »

pmx wrote: post #2

My wife was watching the ITV drama on this last night and I had to leave the room. It was making me so incredibly angry that such huge injustices can be allowed to take place. I recommend the show to anyone with better control of their emotions that me!

Sounds horrible.

Link, if anyone is curious about the production: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Bates_vs_The_Post_Office

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#33

Post by xarope »

pmx wrote: post #2

My wife was watching the ITV drama on this last night and I had to leave the room. It was making me so incredibly angry that such huge injustices can be allowed to take place. I recommend the show to anyone with better control of their emotions that me!

Is this Mr Bates vs the Post Office? Worth watching? I am just finishing up the latest season of The Crown, and was looking for some other british docudrama to watch (sometimes it's nice to watch a show without a mandated sex scene, car chase, etc)

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#34

Post by foldr »

hashtag-til wrote: post #7
walthamstow wrote: post #6

Britons - this is your reminder that Private Eye is available for subscription at the very low price of £45 for an issue in your letterbox fortnightly.

Honestly curious: can you expand a bit on why subscribe? I live in the UK, but never heard about Private Eye before?

Easiest option is just to buy a single issue in a supermarket or newsagent and see if you like it. The subscription works out cheaper, but it's not expensive anyway. There's a website (https://www.private-eye.co.uk), but for the most part that only publishes the more lighthearted content. The serious stuff is only in the print edition.

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#35

Post by walthamstow »

foldr wrote: post #34
hashtag-til wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly curious: can you expand a bit on why subscribe? I live in the UK, but never heard about Private Eye before?

Easiest option is just to buy a single issue in a supermarket or newsagent and see if you like it. The subscription works out cheaper, but it's not expensive anyway. There's a website ( https://www.private-eye.co.uk ), but for the most part that only publishes the more lighthearted content. The serious stuff is only in the print edition.

Yes, good point, I should have said that myself. It's a much lower barrier to entry to pay £2-something in the newsagents.

That said, part of the great value I get from Private Eye is seeing things unfold over multiple issues or even multiple years as is the case of the Post Office/Fujitsu thing.

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#36

Post by prof-dr-ir »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #26

BBC explains why it’s hard to overturn the convictions: The scale of the Post Office scandal means that there are no easy and quick solutions for the government. Ministers could advise the King to grant Royal Pardons, once reserved for the condemned as they faced the gallows. But these would be largely symbolic acts because the government can't, at the stroke of a pen, quash a conviction. That’s because the courts ar…

This explanation may be correct but happens to also fit the pattern of the BBC carrying, perhaps unintentionally, the water for the government.

The more important factoid is that, until the renewed outrage this week, no one in the current UK government was seriously pushing to fix anything whatsoever.

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#37

Post by planede »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #26

BBC explains why it’s hard to overturn the convictions: The scale of the Post Office scandal means that there are no easy and quick solutions for the government. Ministers could advise the King to grant Royal Pardons, once reserved for the condemned as they faced the gallows. But these would be largely symbolic acts because the government can't, at the stroke of a pen, quash a conviction. That’s because the courts ar…

Couldn't the parliament pass some generic law that could make the work easier? It's clear that many people are convicted on the basis of evidence coming from the same faulty source, yet the convictions need to be reviewed case-by-case. The goal could be to reduce this friction for similar scenarios, not just for the Horizon convictions.

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#38

Post by IshKebab »

pmx wrote: post #2

My wife was watching the ITV drama on this last night and I had to leave the room. It was making me so incredibly angry that such huge injustices can be allowed to take place. I recommend the show to anyone with better control of their emotions that me!

The other annoying thing about this is that it took an ITV drama to give this any attention.

All the mainstream press reported "MET opens investigation!" as if it was a new thing, and then in the article "the invitation was opened in 2020 and has interviewed 2 people". Great.

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#39

Post by shrikant »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #26

BBC explains why it’s hard to overturn the convictions: The scale of the Post Office scandal means that there are no easy and quick solutions for the government. Ministers could advise the King to grant Royal Pardons, once reserved for the condemned as they faced the gallows. But these would be largely symbolic acts because the government can't, at the stroke of a pen, quash a conviction. That’s because the courts ar…

If the government could find a way to make it work for the homosexual activity convictions, I'm sure they can find a way for this miscarriage of justice as well. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/past-convictio...

Re: British Post Office Scandal

#40

Post by drumhead »

mjburgess wrote: post #19

In middle of this it's obscene how the media neglects to mention who did most of the actual investigative journalism: https://www.private-eye.co.uk/ -- for years on end, whilst the issue was ignored by the rest of the press. They all now jump in on it and elide the years of work put in by the PE. This is a common tactic in media outlets, esp. here, for the major sources to try to "own" issues with nearly zero work pu…

I learnt about the story from Private Eye, they'd been following it for years, there were other sources as well though, but none of them were the national press or the BBC or ITV.

This story wasnt glamourous for them and they only swooped in when well after the court cases when it looked like there would be political dimension. Its sad that proper investigative journalism is only found in the smaller publications these days.

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