Guardian opinion piece...Kemi Badenoch v the Post Office:
...The Post Office’s cooperation with the inquiry has been sporadic, at best. It failed to disclose (or disclose on time) more than 400,000 documents, and caused repeated delays. Lawyers representing the victims have accused it of using “malevolent” tactics to conceal the extent of its wrongdoing. Nick Read, the Post Office’s CEO, told the business and trade select committee he was “delivering great things for the Post Office”, but victims reported the opposite. Last year Read and other senior staff were paid bonuses for cooperating with the inquiry (Reid agreed to return his bonus after news of it became public). In January this year he wrote to the secretary of state for justice, saying that the Post Office would be “bound to oppose” overturning convictions of 369 out of the 900 victims of the scandal. This sounds like Staunton’s description of an institution that continues to insist on the guilt of the victims. Before the select committee, Read changed his tune, claiming that only “one or two” of the 900 are guilty.
Staunton has been right in his view that the government has no interest in dealing with the long-term issues. Before ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office pushed the scandal to the top of the political agenda in January, the current government devoted parliamentary time to it on just three occasions in two years. Meanwhile, ministers delayed exonerations by maintaining real terms cuts of 60% to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (the body which deals with wrongful convictions). Since Mr Bates, the government’s response has been largely performative. Its “exoneration bill” looks like decisive action, but it is really the opposite...
And ICYMI...Ex-Post Office chair gives new details of 'stitch up':
The former Post Office chair Henry Staunton has revived his claim that Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, and others have spread false claims about him to justify her decision to sack him in January.
In a letter to the Commons business committee, he gave his fullest account yet of the misconduct allegation about him that was used by Badenoch to part-justify her decision to dismiss him...