This was a Post Office TV drama sequel with out the necessity for actors

You won’t belief the Post Office along with your parcels however one factor it appears the disgraced organisation can nonetheless ship is drama.

After ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office did what a decade of investigative journalism couldn’t – and made the general public and politicians give a rattling about wrongly convicted postmasters – we had a Westminster sequel.

Staged by the enterprise and commerce choose committee and starring a number of the real-life characters behind the tv model, it noticed present and former administrators of the Post Office shred one another’s reputations whereas Alan Bates and his friends regarded on.

Call it Henry Staunton vs Nick Read, Kemi Badenoch, and Anyone Else Who Fancies It, anybody who sat by way of all 5 hours might have discovered themselves as gripped and disgusted as they had been by the unique.

Officially, the proof classes had been billed ‘Post Office and Horizon: Compensation – observe up‘, an opportunity for MPs to listen to from these delivering the monetary redress the federal government says it’s lastly prioritising.

We heard from Mr Bates and two of his friends, Tim Brentnall and Tony Downey, in addition to a phalanx of attorneys and officers from the division for enterprise, however the star flip was at all times going to be former chairman Mr Staunton, scheduled final on the invoice.

The boardroom veteran had responded to being sacked by Ms Badenoch by claiming he had been advised to “go-slow” on compensation, a poisonous allegation for a authorities and enterprise secretary altering the legislation to ship precisely that.

Nick Read, chief govt since 2019, categorically denied that anybody had ever instructed him or his group to carry again compensation.

Not solely was Mr Staunton unsuitable concerning the go-slow, he additionally confronted damaging allegations about his personal conduct.

Carl Cresswell, a director of each the Department for Business and Trade and the Post Office, stated he’d obtained complaints about Mr Staunton’s conduct. The former chairman had tried to cease a whistle-blower investigation into his personal conduct and subvert the appointment of an impartial director, it was claimed.

Ben Tidswell, the Post Office’s senior impartial director and efficient chair, corroborated this, including that he additionally had considerations about Mr Staunton’s behaviour. “He became erratic after he learned of the investigation,” he stated.

Ms Badenoch was unable to be there in particular person, busy at a World Trade Organisation ministers’ assembly in Abu Dhabi, however her group circulated transcripts of those exchanges to journalists lest the purpose had been missed.

If all of them anticipated Mr Staunton to fold just like the perpetrator within the fifth act of a potboiler, they underestimated their mark, who might have picked up a factor or two throughout his time chairing ITV.

First he stood by his allegations concerning the go-slow order and the tradition of distrust of sub-postmasters he says nonetheless infects senior Post Office administration. While the Badenoch sub-plot went no additional, a brand new twist was coming.

Challenged about his personal conduct, Mr Staunton countered with a exceptional collection of claims. Describing what got here earlier than as a “smear campaign”, he conceded he was being investigated, however solely as a consequence of a wider inquiry into Mr Read.

The chief govt, he stated, had fallen out together with his HR director who had compiled an 80-page file, which featured a single paragraph alleging politically incorrect language by the previous chairman, which he strenuously denied.

For dramatic impact he brandished the redacted doc. “Was this not made clear to you?” he requested with a glance of pained innocence.

There was extra. Mr Read, he stated, was depressing as a consequence, struggling together with his well being and his household, and advised him on a minimum of 4 events he was contemplating resigning.

Read extra:
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Among the complaints recorded by the HR director, Mr Staunton added, was that Mr Read was not paid sufficient.

The chairman had even helpfully raised the problem with former enterprise secretary Grant Shapps, who advised him “not to waste the price of a stamp.”

It was an excessive amount of for Tory MP Jonathan Gullis, who stated it had blown his thoughts.

It definitely blew aside the united entrance of an organisation claiming to be wholly targeted on righting the shameful injustice completed to a whole bunch of sub-postmasters throughout virtually 20 years of lies, deceit, obfuscation and numbing forms.

In Classical Greek drama the Chorus offered context and ethical compass, providing commentary on the mortal sins of frail protagonists. In the Post Office saga, Mr Bates and greater than 9,000 of his colleagues play that function, and his proof at the beginning of a dispiriting day sounded prophetic by the tip.

“The problem with the Post Office culture is that it’s always been Post Office,” he stated. “It won’t change and you may’t change it. It is a lifeless duck and has been for years. It is a cash pit for taxpayers and at all times shall be. I might promote it to Amazon for a pound.”