61–70 of 153 posts
Is there any actual technical report of what's wrong with the Horizon system? This feels like a weirdly long Wikipedia article that only touches on legal points and that somewhat lacks in real substance.
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 the…
I'll tell you more: it's only being pushed now, after the tv production, because it tangentially involves the two leaders of the opposition.
It's scandalous that a £billion computer system had basic accounting errors.
It's scandalous that Fujitsu pressured the government to accept the system, and scandalous that the government gave in to this pressure.
It's scandalous how the private prosecution hid evidence.
It's scandalous how long it takes the courts to rectify miscarriages of justice.
It's scandalous that it took a popular TV show to get the government's attention.
Is there any actual technical report of what's wrong with the Horizon system? This feels like a weirdly long Wikipedia article that only touches on legal points and that somewhat lacks in real substance.
https://www.jfsa.org.uk/uploads/5/4/3/1/54312921/technical_a...
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…
Ian hislop mentioned yesterday that computer weekly ran it in 2009. He implied private eye picked it up after that. I've been reading about probably once every two years in the guardian. The thing that is so upsetting about all of this is that it's been pretty much ignored by government since 2009, the post office systematically lied and covered this up while knowing it was destroying innocent people. And the only re…
Horizon cost £2.4bn and was apparently developed by a team of eight, three of whom were described by the team lead as "incompetent."
Fujitsu also screwed up an IT system for the NHS. £10bn was wasted on "the biggest IT failure ever seen."
But Fujitsu still keep getting government contracts.
Which is an even bigger scandal. There's a real stench of corruption around these deals, and of government procurement in general in the UK.
See also HS2, PPE procurement, Test and Trace, and others.
The case management software now used within the justice system itself is deeply flawed and poses a risk to large numbers of cases including child protection, benefit appeals, divorce and probate.
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...
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.
They also have overseas subscriptions, I have been receiving Private Eye here in Denmark for £90 per year (26 issues).
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…
It wasn't ignored by the rest of the press. Private eye was one of many outlets, an important one granted, but the story was repeatedly reported on and investigated over the years by the local papers, Computer Weekly, TheRegister, the BBC, ITV, The Guardian, etc. Indeed Nick Wallis, an independent journalist, has covered it very closely for a very long time (including a special in an issue of PE): https://www.postoff…
There is talk of legislation to quash all of the convictions, which is nice, but it's unlikely most sub-postmasters will see any real compensation.
And the people who made a fortune off this will almost certainly keep it.
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…
It happens to be even worse. Because we have no way to detect all the cases. A lot of the cases were handled in the "Post Office courts" (I don't remember the correct name, not a British), and there are more or less no records of them. So you need to ask people affected to come up and find ways to validate them, then create a case for quashing it. It is a total FUBAR mess.