Thank you for this, Michael. It's a really interesting article, and this was the central point, I think: Vennells "apologised for what happened to the victims, not for what she or the Post Office or anyone else did to cause that to happen:" in other words a classic example of the non-apology apology. And this: "Victims scoffed at the repeated gaps in her memory – and the apparently detailed recall of undocumented conversations that seemed to alleviate blame."
There's another interesting piece, in the Times today, describing what has happened to the real-life people who were portrayed in the ITV drama that was so effective in exposing this scandal to the wider world (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mr-bates-post-office-cast-paula-vennells-inquiry-vrxv55659 - paywall).
It's shocking to read that "around 400 of the original 555 postmasters who defeated the Post Office in the High Court, including [Alan] Bates himself, are yet to receive final compensation." |