• Re: Mr Bates Versus The Post Office

    From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.comp,comp.misc on Tue Apr 9 23:56:02 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 20:18:10 +1300, BungleBob wrote:

    There is also a proper documentary, "Mr Bates vs The Post Office: The
    Real Story", playing next weekend on TV One (8:30pm, Sunday, 7 April).

    I loved that. I thought the recreation of the Parliamentary hearing, where Vennells refused to give a straight answer as to whether she would
    cooperate with the accountant’s investigation, had been spiced up a bit
    for dramatic effect, but it was practically a word-for-word recreation of
    the actual scene.
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  • From John McCue@jmccue@neutron.jmcunx.com to comp.misc,nz.comp on Wed Apr 10 11:15:03 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    follow-ups trimmed to comp.misc

    In comp.misc Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    Ian Hart, who plays Rutherford (the forensic accountant), looks the
    spitting image of Paul Whitehouse.

    The saga is still ongoing. There were a massive number of wrongful prosecutions and convictions, and it will take years to overturn them all.

    It is a sad situation that it took a TV show to get justice
    for these people. Same is true here in the US these days :(

    I remember hearing about this ages ago, but the people affected
    were pretty much "screaming in the wind" back then. I then
    started seeing news everywhere and I heard it was due to a
    documentary aired on TV. Crazy times.
    --
    [t]csh(1) - "An elegant shell, for a more... civilized age."
    - Paraphrasing Star Wars
    --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
  • From BungleBob@bunglebob@thejungle.com to nz.comp,comp.misc on Thu Apr 11 10:25:52 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On 2024-04-10 11:15:03 +0000, John McCue said:

    follow-ups trimmed to comp.misc

    In comp.misc Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    Ian Hart, who plays Rutherford (the forensic accountant), looks the
    spitting image of Paul Whitehouse.

    The saga is still ongoing. There were a massive number of wrongful
    prosecutions and convictions, and it will take years to overturn them all.

    It is a sad situation that it took a TV show to get justice
    for these people. Same is true here in the US these days :(

    I remember hearing about this ages ago, but the people affected
    were pretty much "screaming in the wind" back then. I then
    started seeing news everywhere and I heard it was due to a
    documentary aired on TV. Crazy times.

    That often happens.

    The New Zealand TV show "Fair Go" is usually about some scum company
    (often a one-person tradesman) refusing to do anything about a
    complaint ... until the TV comes along, then all of a sudden they can't
    do enough to rectify it. :-\

    Unfortunately, "Fair Go", which first started in 1977, has just been
    stupidly cancelled, along with many other news and current events
    shows. Apparently the New Zealand TV networks prefer to waste their
    money on boring drivel soap opera "Shortland Street" and idiotic
    "reality TV" shows, rather than actually useful news shows. :-(

    --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
  • From Bruce Horrocks@07.013@scorecrow.com to comp.misc,nz.comp on Thu Apr 11 21:15:34 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On 01/04/2024 10:58, Bob Eager wrote:
    On Mon, 01 Apr 2024 09:50:35 +0000, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

    Ian Hart, who plays Rutherford (the forensic accountant), looks the
    spitting image of Paul Whitehouse.

    The saga is still ongoing. There were a massive number of wrongful
    prosecutions and convictions, and it will take years to overturn them
    all.

    Well, there is supposed to be an Act of Parliament to do most of them in
    one go.

    The Public Enquiry is still on-going and about to get interesting as the senior Post Office staff are now being called to give evidence.

    But since the TV drama went out several cases have emerged which show
    just how far-ranging the effects have been.

    A group of children of sub-postmasters are now seeking compensation. In
    once case a couple made bankrupt by the Post Office left the country
    taking their 11-year old with them. She was severely bullied at her new
    school because she couldn't speak the language. Others were bullied
    because of their parent's lost reputations. <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68543963>

    In another case a post office owner was accused of murdering his wife
    and staging a robbery to cover it up. There was no direct DNA evidence
    to link him to the actual killing but the prosecution alleged his motive
    was that she knew he'd been stealing and he killed her to silence her.
    It's by no means certain that he didn't kill her but what was once a
    small doubt is now a much larger one. It doesn't help that the police
    botched aspects of the investigation and lost evidence. <https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/13/post-office-owner-says-horizon-system-was-used-to-frame-him-for-wifes-murder>
    --
    Bruce Horrocks
    Surrey, England

    --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.comp,comp.misc on Fri Apr 12 08:59:49 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Tue, 9 Apr 2024 23:56:02 -0000 (UTC), I wrote:

    I thought the recreation of the Parliamentary hearing,
    where Vennells refused to give a straight answer as to whether she would cooperate with the accountant’s investigation, had been spiced up a bit
    for dramatic effect, but it was practically a word-for-word recreation
    of the actual scene.

    Going beyond that, something I found even more incredible: the guy playing
    MP Nadhim Zahawi, who was refusing to take crap from Vennells was ...
    Nadhim Zahawi.
    --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
  • From Adrian@bulleid@ku.gro.lioff to nz.comp,comp.misc on Fri Apr 12 13:03:53 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    In message <uvat65$28tt4$1@dont-email.me>, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes
    On Tue, 9 Apr 2024 23:56:02 -0000 (UTC), I wrote:

    I thought the recreation of the Parliamentary hearing,
    where Vennells refused to give a straight answer as to whether she would
    cooperate with the accountant’s investigation, had been spiced up a bit
    for dramatic effect, but it was practically a word-for-word recreation
    of the actual scene.

    Going beyond that, something I found even more incredible: the guy playing
    MP Nadhim Zahawi, who was refusing to take crap from Vennells was ...
    Nadhim Zahawi.

    Who was reported as donating his fee to charity.

    Adrian
    --
    To Reply :
    replace "bulleid" with "adrian" - all mail to bulleid is rejected
    Sorry for the rigmarole, If I want spam, I'll go to the shops
    Every time someone says "I don't believe in trolls", another one dies.
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  • From BungleBob@bunglebob@thejungle.com to nz.comp,comp.misc on Fri Apr 19 19:58:14 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc


    The problems were caused by Fujitsu's faulty Horizon software and interferrence by Fujitsu's employees, and yet stupidly everyone is
    solely blaming UK Post. Yes, the UK Post management were idiots and
    liars, but part of the blame also lies with Fujitsu. :-\



    Similarly, there are many *known* issues with Microsoft Excel's due to
    the way they chose to store numbers, which causes calculations to
    result in incorrect numbers, yet many companies blindly rely and trust
    on this faulty software. Microsoft should be next to face the courts.

    --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@ldo@nz.invalid to nz.comp,comp.misc on Fri Apr 19 09:23:36 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:58:14 +1200, BungleBob wrote:

    ... yet stupidly everyone is solely blaming UK Post.

    They were the ones prosecuting and jailing their own franchisees, ruining their lives and driving some to suicide, on what turned out to be a
    complete lie. Like claiming they had evidence of wrongdoing when they hadn’t.
    --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114
  • From BungleBob@bunglebob@thejungle.com to nz.comp,comp.misc on Sat Apr 20 09:56:40 2024
    From Newsgroup: comp.misc

    On 2024-04-19 09:23:36 +0000, Lawrence D'Oliveiro said:
    On Fri, 19 Apr 2024 19:58:14 +1200, BungleBob wrote:

    ... yet stupidly everyone is solely blaming UK Post.

    They were the ones prosecuting and jailing their own franchisees, ruining their lives and driving some to suicide, on what turned out to be a
    complete lie. Like claiming they had evidence of wrongdoing when they hadn’t.

    Yes, but where is the court case against Fujitsu by UK Post?? Or even
    the postmasters suing Fujitsu themselves since the issues with Horizon
    were the cause. *Both* UK Post and Fujitsu knew Horizon was a buggy
    system, and Fujitsu (an some UK Post management) knew the data was
    being interferred with.

    There are vague stories that Fujistu may be sued, may have to repay
    massive amounts of money, etc., but nothing is actually being done
    about it.

    --- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.114