Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈<p>Hold out until you can be bought off by the State with some baubles like that previous guy.....</p><p>"Will Mellor played me in a TV show and all I got was bankruptcy" </p><p>See how Britain works, see how it grinds you down, see how it lies to you and says "things are sorted now, look, everyone is talking" and how that usually leads to nowhere as the State can wait...</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/19/ex-subpostmaster-lee-castleton-horizon-it-victim-first-legal-action-post-office-fujitsu" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/m</span><span class="invisible">ar/19/ex-subpostmaster-lee-castleton-horizon-it-victim-first-legal-action-post-office-fujitsu</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/PostOfficeScandal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PostOfficeScandal</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/UKPOL" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UKPOL</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Ukpolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Ukpolitics</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Fujitsu" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fujitsu</span></a></p>
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#HorizonIT
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>Hmmm.... a glimmer of hope that after the Post Office Horizon IT scandal & persecution/prosecution of innocent post-masters, there may be some criminal prosecutions of the mangers who perpetrated this injustice... lets hope so; these callous people need to brought down & punished....</p><p>However, justice delayed is justice denied, and for many of those affected by these bogus court cases, justice may have come too late, much too late!</p><p><a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/PostOffice" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PostOffice</span></a> <br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/11/police-criminal-inquiry-post-office-horizon-scandal-persons-of-interest" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/d</span><span class="invisible">ec/11/police-criminal-inquiry-post-office-horizon-scandal-persons-of-interest</span></a></p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>In a further twist of the knife, its now been revealed that the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/PostOffice" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PostOffice</span></a> wrote to the Govt (after the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> TV drama stoked outrage) to say they would oppose appeals by around half the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/subpostmasters" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>subpostmasters</span></a> convicted (erroneously) fo 'theft'.</p><p>If you wanted an indication of how deeply the PO is in detail about their culpability in the affair this would be it!</p><p>It just makes me even more sure that the PO executives concerned need to be held fully to account and punished as the innocents were!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>As if the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/PostOffice" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PostOffice</span></a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal was not awful enough, it transpires that PO lawyers used non-disclosure agreements to try to stifle & limit knowledge of the extent of the actions against sub-postmasters. </p><p>NDAs have been widely & corrosively used in higher education & other sectors to stifle criticism of senior management, but here they were used to hide the effects of fraudulent actions against sub postmasters & families </p><p>The legal profession needs to take a good look at itself!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p><a href="https://zirk.us/tags/WesStreeting" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>WesStreeting</span></a> thinks <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/technology" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>technology</span></a> (by which he seems to mean digital technologies) will make the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/NHS" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>NHS</span></a> more efficient & means we can stop pouring money into a 'leaky bucket'.</p><p>Quite apart the vacuity of such techno-boosterism, you would have thought in the wake of the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Fujitsu" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fujitsu</span></a> disaster, anyone thinking deploying technology is the answer, might want to be more careful.</p><p>Many people are watching Mr Streeting & are getting worried about how he thinks about NHS reform!</p><p>I'm one of them!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>As John Naughton (I think rightly) argues, if we treat the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal as a scandal then the likelihood of rectifying the underlying problems its exemplifies are limited... its only if we recognise it as a crisis that we might see some change... although he then goes on to explore why (related to <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Fujitsu" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fujitsu</span></a> ) that's unlikely.</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/20/horizon-post-office-story-scandal-crisis-fujitsu" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/commentisfree/</span><span class="invisible">2024/jan/20/horizon-post-office-story-scandal-crisis-fujitsu</span></a></p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>Anyone who thinks the route to a just resolution to the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> crisis lies with a massive fine & compensation paid by <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Fujitsu" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fujitsu</span></a> is letting the UK's political class & legal system off the hook.</p><p>Certainly, making Fujitsu pay is a necessary element to a just resolution but it is hardly sufficient.</p><p>The political class' scramble for cover will be masked if we focus primarily on the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/software" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>software</span></a> itself.</p><p>There were/are plenty of people who need to be held to account & only a minority are IT folk!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>If you've only (relatively) recently become fully aware of the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal, <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/ComputerWeekly" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ComputerWeekly</span></a> have done (for years) some great investigative work to set out the problems & the injustice, fraud & criminal activity perpetrated on the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/postmasters" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>postmasters</span></a>. </p><p>Here is their guide to the scandal & a great (click-through) list of the ground-breaking journalism on the subject.</p><p>[Students, if you're thinking of a dissertation on this, this is a great resource for you]</p><p><a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Post-Office-Horizon-scandal-explained-everything-you-need-to-know" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">computerweekly.com/feature/Pos</span><span class="invisible">t-Office-Horizon-scandal-explained-everything-you-need-to-know</span></a></p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>There's been lots of commentary on the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal, but as <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.world/@kenanmalik" class="u-url mention">@<span>kenanmalik</span></a></span> points out, at its most basic its a question of who gets listened to, and as scandal after scandal demonstrate our governing class just doesn't listen to ordinary people... unless they featured in a TV drama of course.....</p><p>It comes down to a class-based contempt for the 'little people'... our governing class are just callous!</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/14/post-office-grenfell-windrush-scandals-contempt-lives-destroyed" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/commentisfree/</span><span class="invisible">2024/jan/14/post-office-grenfell-windrush-scandals-contempt-lives-destroyed</span></a></p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>In every story of injustice perpetrated by powerful organisations, there comes a moment when the whistleblowers are transformed from pesky annoyances who must be crushed to national heroes who must be lauded & recognised;</p><p>sometimes that happens in years, sometimes in decades & in some case only posthumously.</p><p>The <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/horizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>horizonIT</span></a> scandal is crossing that rubicon right now with <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/AlanBates" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AlanBates</span></a> its hero, but there are so many other scandals that have not reached this point.</p><p>Its a sad indictment of the UK</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>In the fast developing media landscape of the commentariat, already a classic which do you prefer Q. is gaining traction:</p><p>Alan Bates (of the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal) or <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/MichelleMone" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>MichelleMone</span></a> (of <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/PPE" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PPE</span></a> and <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/SLAPP" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SLAPP</span></a> fame)?</p><p>Perhaps most clearly this is a Q. for the legal system that has facilitated & aided Mone in her attempts to avoid scrutiny of he profiteering from <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Covid" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Covid</span></a>, while getting in the way of Bates seeking (and now starting to gain) justice.</p><p>the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/RuleofLaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RuleofLaw</span></a> is not so shiny right now...</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>Here's <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.green/@davidallengreen" class="u-url mention">@<span>davidallengreen</span></a></span> on the legal context of the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal, focussing on a number of key issues from the presumption of computer evidence's veracity, to the problem with private prosecutions.... </p><p>This is an excellent (and as always well-informed) digest of how the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/PostOffice" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PostOffice</span></a> used (and was mostly advantaged) by a legal system that it used to hound & prosecute those it actually knew were not at fault.</p><p><a href="https://emptycity.substack.com/p/how-the-legal-system-made-it-so-easy?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">emptycity.substack.com/p/how-t</span><span class="invisible">he-legal-system-made-it-so-easy?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2</span></a></p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>So <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/RishiSunak" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RishiSunak</span></a> is rushing through emergency legislation to quash the remaining convictions in the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal....</p><p>Its pretty clear that this has been prompted not by the years of campaigning, not by the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/publicinquiry" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>publicinquiry</span></a> (although that has helped), but by a TV drama.</p><p>What this tells you is this isn't about 'recognising' the massive suffering among those wrongly convicted & fraudulently robbed of money by the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/postoffice" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>postoffice</span></a> </p><p>No, like so much UK <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>politics</span></a>, its all about the 'optics'!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>The warnings on <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> were already there in 2003!</p><p>But, the reports were investigated not by independent analysts but by PO & <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Fujitsu" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fujitsu</span></a> employees. And as we know 'marking your own homework' seldom produces a proper account of problems!</p><p>Twenty years later & countless lives ruined, the early concerns have been confirmed.</p><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-67921974" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lanc</span><span class="invisible">ashire-67921974</span></a></p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>Over six years after the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/GrenfellTowerfire" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>GrenfellTowerfire</span></a> the remediation of faulty & dangerous <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/building" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>building</span></a> materials remains desperately slow, with building contractors dragging their feet, and Govt. slow to act.</p><p>However, when compared with the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> & <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/infectedblood" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>infectedblood</span></a> scandals, it reinforces the picture of UK <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/political" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>political</span></a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/inequality" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>inequality</span></a>;</p><p>when normal people are effected the socio-legal systems of sanction & restitution are slow to move & usually incomplete!</p><p>Powerlessness is fatal!</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/09/life-critical-fire-issues-found-in-56-of-grenfell-cladders-residential-blocks" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/j</span><span class="invisible">an/09/life-critical-fire-issues-found-in-56-of-grenfell-cladders-residential-blocks</span></a></p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>Well, well, well, someone does have a shred of shame over the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/PostOffice" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PostOffice</span></a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal... it seems Paula Vennells is handing back her CBE.</p><p>Its a small (if significant) step in the right direction.... now the convictions must be quashed & the victims exonerated & compensated, before the criminals & fraudsters in the PO & at <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Fujitsu" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fujitsu</span></a> are properly punished.</p><p>Only then can we say justice (belatedly) has been done!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>The FT is right, alongside the injustice of the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal, its likely to have a significant negative impact on the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/RuleofLaw" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RuleofLaw</span></a> in this courtney:</p><p>'The human suffering caused by the Horizon scandal has dented citizens’ belief that the courts & public authorities will protect them from abuse by those in authority. Speeding up action to provide redress is vital to rebuild that confidence — and to deter other organisations, public or private, from ever behaving in similar fashion again'!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p><a href="https://zirk.us/tags/RishiSunak" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>RishiSunak</span></a> has now backed a review of <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/PaulaVennells" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PaulaVennells</span></a> CBE after the growing publicity & anger at the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal & the role of senior Post Office management in the miscarriage(s) of justice...</p><p>Well, that's one petition I've signed that has had a relatively quick result!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p>So after a <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/publicinquiry" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>publicinquiry</span></a>, a much watched TV series & years of campaigning, a blanket exoneration is being explored by the Govt. this week as a major move on the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/PostOffice" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PostOffice</span></a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal.</p><p>For those of us following this case for years, the key Q. is why has it taken so ling for the mendacity of the PO & <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/Fujitsu" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Fujitsu</span></a> to be fully unmasked.... </p><p>this scandal is all too emblematic of what happens when normal individuals come up against the power of the state, its managers & large <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/corporations" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>corporations</span></a>!</p>
Emeritus Prof Christopher May<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.green/@davidallengreen" class="u-url mention">@<span>davidallengreen</span></a></span> has started a series of posts on the legalities of the <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/postoffice" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>postoffice</span></a> <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/HorizonIT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>HorizonIT</span></a> scandal; the first includes an interesting observation.</p><p>In 1982 Sect.69 of PACE set out that: 'it was for the prosecution to show that the computer was operating correctly & not for the defendant to show that computer was not operating correctly'!</p><p>But, section 69 was repealed in 1999... but think how the PO case against <a href="https://zirk.us/tags/postmasters" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>postmasters</span></a> might have gone if hadn't been repealed?</p><p><a href="https://davidallengreen.com/2023/09/computer-says-guilty-an-introduction-to-the-evidential-presumption-that-computers-are-operating-correctly/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">davidallengreen.com/2023/09/co</span><span class="invisible">mputer-says-guilty-an-introduction-to-the-evidential-presumption-that-computers-are-operating-correctly/</span></a></p>
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