Post Office scandal is reminder that a healthy free Press is vital to hold powerful to account
The daily Post
“WHY are we only hearing about the Post Office scandal now?” It’s a constant refrain from those who think they’re smart shunning the “mainstream media” and getting their “news” from TikTok.
Their problem is self-evident.
This story was broken in 2008 by Rebecca Thomson, an admirably diligent Computer Weekly magazine reporter who sifted reams of dry evidence and gave whistleblower Alan Bates a voice.
For years it was then covered extensively by The Sun and every major news outlet, along with magazines, TV and radio. Thousands of stories in all.
ITV’s superb condensing of this complex and vast miscarriage of justice into a digestible drama finally lit a fire under Westminster. But it was unearthed and kept alive by old-fashioned journalism (and championed by a few dogged MPs).
A reminder that a healthy free Press is vital to hold the powerful to account.
Without it, the inevitable next massive public sector scandal would pass unnoticed. It would not be broken, or investigated, by Instagram influencers.
And the crooks and incompetents would get away with it.
Clear them all
JUDGES are clearing the scandal’s innocent victims at a snail’s pace. It is intolerable.
Just 93 wrongful convictions have been reversed, of 700-plus.
Think of all those still-tainted lives. Consider the dire impact it had on Hasmukh Shingadia, despite support from Princess Kate and her family in Bucklebury, in the ten years it took to clear him.
Given the proven flaws in Fujitsu’s Horizon system, no testimony against Post Office staff can now be trusted. It may displease stuffy, bewigged appeal judges — but the Government must pass a new law pronto and clear the lot.
Why should they wait a moment longer for justice and life-changing compensation? And if the public inquiry this year finds Fujitsu to blame, it must fork out hundreds of millions of its own.
We’re glad disgraced Paula Vennells handed back her CBE. What took her?
When will ex-minister and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey pay a price for HIS blunders?
Bridget too far
OUR minds boggle at Labour complaining about the damage lockdowns did to kids.
Covid shutdowns, says Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, triggered an ongoing absenteeism crisis. It “broke the sense of belonging in school that children have for themselves and parents have for their children”.
You don’t say, Bridget . . . the very lockdowns Labour and its teaching union chums clamoured for! Remember how they stoked panic — and went berserk if anyone said schools should stay open to avoid exactly such harm?
Labour’s leader is nicknamed Captain Hindsight. Now his education chief’s at it.