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Remember the De Lorean fiasco? To provide jobs in Northern Ireland, the Tory government paid a balding car designer to set up a factory there. It collapsed a few years later due to lost money and fraud. Arthur Andersen, the auditor, who admitted there were no obvious signs of fraud, was banned from government work and prosecuted. Only when Blair won was the AA ban lifted and a risible settlement agreed. (Coincidentally, the AA has been giving free advice to Labor in opposition. A “scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back“The approach to favors is never limited to one party.)
Fast forward a quarter of a century. Fujitsu, whose Horizon accounting system is used by the Post Office, responsible for the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history, has not suffered the same punishment. Indeed, there is no punishment. Far from it. It has been rewarded with more lucrative government contracts; has not paid compensation; no corporate officer is responsible.
Why? Well, one answer is the failure of AA to destroy the government. As for Fujitsu and the Post Office, it is only at the expense of some sub-posts and mistresses. A cynical take. But that’s accurate. The brutal reality is that being publicly owned or a public service does not mean that an organization is doing well. Worse, it often means that while causing harm to others, their primary interest is self-protection – even at the expense of others. This is not new. See how Aberfan families have been treated in the decades since they lost their children. Or victims of the blood contamination scandal or many other NHS scandals or Windrush.
This story shows the state – and many of its main functions: the Post Office, owned by the state, the criminal justice system, managed by the state, and responsible Ministers and civil servants – to be evil, incompetent, indifferent to destruction. causing, defensive and determined (behind all the paraphernalia of questions, reviews, assessments) to delay the allocation of responsibilities, effective consequences for those responsible and precise, punctual compensation for the injured. There is no consolation – or anything to be proud of – some judges, some lawyers, some persistent journalists and 1 MP – James Arbuthnot – have fought and are still fighting to ensure justice.
There have been books, podcasts, documentaries of the terrifying Panorama. The Times has written some scathing editorials. The investigation continues, lawyers argue about different compensation schemes, a police investigation into possible forgery by Fujitsu personnel has been announced. But nothing happened. Meanwhile, more postmasters have died – 59 so far. Is that the plan? To wait until everyone is dead, then quietly bury any reports that are made while those responsible get away and continue to make money? It turns out so.
It’s cruel. It adds another injustice to the original. It shows contempt for those who have suffered and are still suffering. It shows indifference to the human consequences of people’s actions and omissions, something that is all too easily forgotten among the masses of patient wrongs unearthed by courts and inquiries. These atrocities include reacting to promises of compensation while making the acquisition process long, complicated and difficult. Meanwhile, those responsible, both for injustice and delays, do not suffer anything, withhold evidence from the inquiry and / or, grotesquely, give bonuses and lie about it. On the Post Office website it says it wants “to remain one of the most admired institutions in the public sector“. “permanent“? “Most admired“? Both are delusional and arrogant.
Why is this scandal not taken more seriously?
- The nature of the tragedy was so widespread over two decades. Many individual stories, all heartbreaking. But there is no event or place to focus on. There are no pictures. No buried schools or fans trapped in football pens or burned towers. No anniversary. It is easy to get lost in the complex background, related to accounting and IT and law. No one will sing their hearts out for that. No Royal will visit and lay flowers.
- Worse – this is not the only person wrongly convicted of a crime. There is no crime. It is difficult to grasp the fact that hundreds of people are being investigated, tried and convicted for crimes that never happened. How can it be?
- The people it happens to come from all backgrounds, all over the country, from all ages. It makes it worse but it also means that he has no clear representative to speak for him, no one – together – matters.
- No political party pursues its goals. All the major parties have had Ministers responsible for the Post Office who failed to ensure they did it competently and then, when the scandal erupted, failed to ensure it was dealt with properly. So they hide their sad claim that they were not briefed or they didn’t know or they were assigned or they assumed that someone else was doing their job and they were surprised and surprised and oh … blah blah .. and sorry, etc. What is the use of these junior Ministers if all they can do is avoid responsibility?
- Too many groups are doing bad things. What makes this difficult to understand is the sheer scale of it. Look at all those responsible: Fujitsu, who developed, monitored and sold Horizon, Post Office management at all levels, internal investigators, internal lawyers, external lawyers, IT staff, who knew something was wrong but said nothing, the Minister , a civil servant who advises, a prosecutor, a judge’s ruling that computer evidence should be trusted (one of the most stupid court rulings). All these, through actions and omissions, are responsible; many continue to be responsible for delays in providing adequate compensation to victims while they are still alive. It’s easier to forget or not participate at all.
Among all these failures, two deserve close scrutiny.
The lawyers
There is a clear problem with the Post Office being the prosecutor himself, the confusion between the role of the investigator and the prosecutor, the failure of the investigators, the lack of clarity about the duties to be paid and for whom the lawyer in house, failed to create. proper disclosure, withholding of key evidence, failure to speak, conflict of interest for lawyers advising on compensation schemes, lack of honesty, failure to understand or challenge accounting and technical evidence (an ongoing problem for the legal system – see the Sally Clark Case) and others. Frankly, the Post Office is harming innocent people by lying, deceiving and undermining the UK justice system for their own commercial gain. The lawyer took center stage. Many of those involved should be ashamed of – and deserve to be reprimanded for – their unprofessionalism and behaviour.
Approaches to technical evidence (in this case, computers).
There is a tendency (not only in the Post Office) to believe that there is one technological system that will provide the answer to a problem; and believe only what the technology tells you. Both are stupid, dangerous impulses. (A lesson for us on the cusp of a new technological revolution.) When combined with rework from the desired conclusion (“we will find fraud with shiny new toys”), miscarriages of justice all but necessary. (Something Holyrood should consider before proceeding with a judge-only rape trial pilot designed to increase confidence.)
What now?
3 people: PM, Chancellor, Business Secretary should stop hiding endless questions and legal to-ing and fro-ing and make it a top priority to get compensation as soon as possible.
- Lawmakers who are trying to help their constituents have to harass them until they are done.
- The question of responsibility must be uncoupled from the assessment and payment of compensation.
- Fujitsu should not be awarded government contracts until compensation is paid.
- Post Office senior management should be replaced with honest people. A public explanation is needed as to why he offered a bonus scheme to comply with an inquiry set up to investigate his own wrongdoing and why he lied in public accounts.
Meanwhile, remember the words of Desmond Ackner QC, Counsel for the Aberfan family, to the official question. They apply as easily to Horizon as a slag heap.
This is a man-made threat that is slowly creeping in, because of the indifference of those who never allow it. That is the horror of this disaster. There is no bitter reminder of the truth and wisdom of George Bernard Shaw’s judgment –
“The worst sin for our fellow man is not to hate them. It is to be indifferent to them. Because that is the essence of inhumanity.
Cycle free
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