The fact that there was invisibilised third party access to the accounts used as the basis for prosecutions is important in and of itself. But I’m not seeing much about the underlying reasons for it.

Fujitsu knew that Horizon didn’t work properly before it was rolled out to the Post Office. They were told by their own engineers that parts of it had to be rewitten because they were so shoddy. They chose, instead, to have a team of people correcting errors in the background, without disclosing this to subpostmasters or, apparently, the Post Office.

The concern is not that Fujitsu’s trouble-shooters might be deliberately falsifying accounts, there is no obvious motive for them to do so. But it does make it clear that the ramshackle system did not work properly, that Fujitsu knew that it did not work properly, and that the only errors which could be corrected were the ones that got picked up centrally, with the process for correcting them creating the potential for more human error.

Fujitsu bosses knew about Post Office Horizon IT flaws, says insider

There’s an interesting report on the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance site also: Origins of a disaster (and long form version).

It is well-documented that the Post Office’s Legacy Horizon was a reconfigured version of a disastrously flawed parent project, the Benefits Payment Card. The impression given by three Secretaries of State to a Parliamentary Select Committee in July 1999 was that, once the BPC was thought to be irredeemably faulty by autumn 1998, all efforts were then focused on the reconfiguration into the Horizon project as we know it. But their evidence was far from complete. In late 1998 the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who had been warned of the system’s instability, was asked to decide the future of Horizon. The No.10 Policy Unit had advised on cancelling the BPC and the Law Officers had given a clear view on how the public sector might terminate the project. Blair’s steer, however, paid no heed.

Many extremely well-paid heads need to roll.

Thank you! Surprised the report didn’t mention that (I was too lazy to do a search).

The subhead misses out the worst stuff. How on earth?

Criminal charges still in the works, I would hope.

In primary school?

He actually made that demand before they illegally demolished it, when the facade was still mostly intact. I don’t think it would have been very practical but still, they absolutely cannot allow the developers to profit from this vandalism.

They should build a mining museum on the site, with a modern but still wonky design (and coins rolling uphill). And force the crooked developers to donate the site as part of a plea deal. It may have been impossible to prove they were behind the arson but a piece of piss to prove that they were behind the illegal demolition.

Rebuilding this would be impossible, I think. But listing the ruins to ensure they are preserved rather than redeveloped would be fitting, as would prosecuting the fuck out of these arseholes.

Neither will happen, of course. As a semi-local, I hope the locals find ways to make sure any redevelopment is a loss-making disaster for the new owners.

Their advertising works, huh?

Thank fuck for that. Great news.

It’s more of a f sound (as in rough, enough).

Close. Two random employees, neither of them drivers:

The new onboard announcements are being recorded by Peter Corley and Laura Palmer, two of Northern’s employees, who were chosen for having “nice voices”. Corley is a conductor based in York with a ripe Yorkshire accent. Palmer is also based in York as Northern’s cybersecurity and compliance manager, but, more controversially, is actually from Essex. “That makes her a northerner by choice, which is always nice,” said a Northern Trains PR person

It wasn’t even 100% funded by the council, nowhere near. Subeditor looking for clicks.

Council-funded = £300k over 18 successful years. The scandal!

Please don’t speculate on names. Apart from the legal risks to the poster of the name, and possibly the platform/mods, it’s not right to cast aspersions without evidence on something this serious.

Names that are clearly in the clear are all good, of course. As is solid evidence, which will likely come soon enough.

This is a very good reason to get an air-fryer. Makes brilliant bacon, from the same pack that would boil if done in a pan.