Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => Politics & Current Affairs => Topic started by: Nearly Sane on April 23, 2021, 01:16:01 PM

Title: Convicted Post Office workers have names cleared
Post by: Nearly Sane on April 23, 2021, 01:16:01 PM

Good, that it's taken this long is scandalous. One can only hope that compensation happens relatively quickly

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56859357
Title: Re: Convicted Post Office workers have names cleared
Post by: Udayana on April 23, 2021, 02:16:37 PM
This is pretty damning...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/23/post-office-aggressive-pursuit-of-staff-ex-boss-paula-vennells

I feel quite strongly that those that accused the sub-postmasters and had them convicted without any evidence of misdeed should be held accountable for the damages and make reparations. As should the Fujitsu (ICL) staff that would have been lying about the Horizon system/software since problems were first reported on deployment in 2000.

Apart from this (huge) case .. I am quite concerned that large projects, commercial or government, have been, or could be, deployed without adequate scrutiny and and could cause long term damage - directly to those having to deal with it or environmentally.
Title: Re: Convicted Post Office workers have names cleared
Post by: Nearly Sane on April 23, 2021, 02:27:03 PM
Quote from: Udayana on April 23, 2021, 02:16:37 PM
This is pretty damning...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/23/post-office-aggressive-pursuit-of-staff-ex-boss-paula-vennells

I feel quite strongly that those that accused the sub-postmasters and had them convicted without any evidence of misdeed should be held accountable for the damages and make reparations. As should the Fujitsu (ICL) staff that would have been lying about the Horizon system/software since problems were first reported on deployment in 2000.

Apart from this (huge) case .. I am quite concerned that large projects, commercial or government, have been, or could be, deployed without adequate scrutiny and and could cause long term damage - directly to those having to deal with it or environmentally.
Mistakes will happen but the lying here after the mistakes are what is damning. It should increase the compensation but also should lead to criminal charges.
Title: Re: Convicted Post Office workers have names cleared
Post by: Harrowby Hall on April 23, 2021, 04:04:44 PM
Quote from: Nearly Sane on April 23, 2021, 02:27:03 PM
...  but also should lead to criminal charges.

Indeed.  There must clearly have been some kind of conspiracy here. The relevant group in Royal Mail's management would have quite quickly realised that there must be a system fault as more and more sub-postmasters/postmistresses came to their attention. But they kept telling the victims that they were alone. And the decision to prosecute must have been taken at the highest levels.

At the time, apparently, the Post Office had the power to conduct its own prosecutions. Perversion of the course of justice?
Title: Re: Convicted Post Office workers have names cleared
Post by: jeremyp on April 23, 2021, 04:22:09 PM
Quote from: Nearly Sane on April 23, 2021, 01:16:01 PM
Good, that it's taken this long is scandalous. One can only hope that compensation happens relatively quickly

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56859357

It's too late for some, unfortunately. I think there have been suicides as a result of this.