The All New Megathread

[redtrummy]

I hope a good few of you watched The P O vs Mr Bates, I found it compulsive viewing but I do have a friend that was a sub postmaster that was caught up in the whole mess. If you have not watched it I can say its worth catching up with and then signing the following petition to get the then CEO stripped of her CBE (please sign and circulate) https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitio...=mailing_43897.

[Luckypants]

I've been abreast of the story for years and am appalled by the way the PO have been allowed to get away with this. Someone is being paid off somewhere.

Petition signed.

[admin]

Also signed. I was very aware of this before the TV series.

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[garynortheast]

Interesting that Adam Crozier who was CEO of Royal Mail at the time, is not portrayed in the series. Could it have anything to do with the fact that he went on to become the chief executive of ITV and a director of ITV Studios, the production company behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office, staying for seven years?

[admin]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Interesting that Adam Crozier who was CEO of Royal Mail at the time, is not portrayed in the series. Could it have anything to do with the fact that he went on to become the chief executive of ITV and a director of ITV Studios, the production company behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office, staying for seven years?

I wouldn't be surprised Gary.

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[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

Interesting that Adam Crozier who was CEO of Royal Mail at the time, is not portrayed in the series. Could it have anything to do with the fact that he went on to become the chief executive of ITV and a director of ITV Studios, the production company behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office, staying for seven years?

I thought Post Office and Royal Mail are wholly separate businesses from a legal and administrative perspective, aren't they? (They just happen to work closely for handling mail.)

As I understand it, this scandal has nothing to do with the Royal Mail. (But I do need to update my awareness of it.)

[admin]

Originally Posted by Ruffy

I thought Post Office and Royal Mail are wholly separate businesses from a legal and administrative perspective, aren't they? (They just happen to work closely for handling mail.)

As I understand it, this scandal has nothing to do with the Royal Mail. (But I do need to update my awareness of it.)

you might be right. Post Office Counters is a separate company I think.

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[Sir Trev]

Very separate entities. Couple of old friends were posties and they very firmly corrected anyone that said they worked for The Post Office.

Just finished watching the last episode of the TV dramatisation - very good telling of the story and quite harrowing in places. Back in the mists of time I worked for a large IT firm that partnered with Fujitsu in a consortium setting up Oyster for TfL. Cannot say much in writing but I would never trust them!

It's high time this got such a high profile outing. I was well aware of the IT side of the situation as I used to be in the trade, but the delays and obfuscation by the PO leadership over so many years is a national disgrace.

[garynortheast]

I seem to recall (possibly incorrectly) that Fujitsu were also involved in the failed NHS IT system of the first decade of the 2000s.

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

I seem to recall (possibly incorrectly) that Fujitsu were also involved in the failed NHS IT system of the first decade of the 2000s.

Quite possibly, but I have managed to blot most of that side of my past life out as it was frankly often very stressful.

One thing I willsay though is setting up a major bespoke IT system is incredibly hard and time consuming. It needs a very structured approach and a firm brief from the client before you get to the design phase, let alone build anything. Changes to scope always pop up as you progress, they're inevitable in a big system build as limitations come to life, but the skill is to put a good control process around it. When the client is in any way political however they become very "slippery" in terms keeping to their side of the contract, leading to scope creep and pressure to add features late in the day that add a lot of time and so cost. And the developer is always blamed... Basically, we found to our reputational cost that government departments can be terrible customers.

Testing should isolate any issues before you go live but if something does go wrong once up and running a reputable developer will step up and make sure things are rectified, in partnership with the client. We heard in the trial scene in the show that Fujitsu were battling some of the issues but how much was never highlighted, and the PO certainly seemed to be the worst element by constantly lying and blaming the users. Glad I'm out of that industry!