Britain's deranged Post Office scandal, wherein hundreds of postal workers were falsely accused of stealing money because of a faulty computer accounting system and in many cases imprisoned, is finally exploding in the wake of "new revelations": even though there's no question they are innocent, only a handful have been exonerated and many are still on the hook.
Only 93 convictions have been overturned since it emerged the system was defective. An ITV drama about the scandal which finished last week has prompted fresh political pressure as well as calls for Paula Vennells, a former Post Office chief executive, to lose her CBE. The Sunday Times reported that Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, is examining whether all sub-postmasters affected should have their convictions quashed, and if the Crown Prosecutions Service (CPS) should take over the appeals process from the Post Office.
They're "examining" it! To them, it's optional.
To recap: mindless compliance with computers by jobsworths, succeeding incompetence from the police, prosecutors and judges, postmasters being punished for pointing out the problems, officials destroying evidence, the money being missing only in accounting software but not from bank accounts, a system so insecure anyone with any level of access could change any data in it, officials lying blithely until under oath, and to top it all those convicted of crimes were disproportionately ethnic minorities.
The contemptuous rigmarole of "yes they're innocent, but keeping them unexonerated and uncompensated is important because we haven't finished deciding how bad it looks" seems super-British. You can't say it's the only place where civility is the true cage (something something Shame Cultures) but my God would one of you pick up a pitchfork and do something.
