PO Scandal

[Tedx]

Fujitsu admits it has a 'moral obligation' to compensate Post Office victims

How refreshing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67993493

[stewamax]

Fujitsu admits it has a 'moral obligation' to compensate Post Office victims

To do so implies that Fujitsu is indeed moral.
Is seppuku still common in Japan for leaders who fail?

[UncleEbenezer]

Fujitsu admits it has a 'moral obligation' to compensate Post Office victims

To do so implies that Fujitsu is indeed moral.
Is seppuku still common in Japan for leaders who fail?

This is specifically Fujitsu UK. The vanity company formerly known as ICL. Fujitsu were sold a dud (and the UK tech community knew that all along).

[Oggy]

I can see all of this turning into a giant lawyer fest with them raking in far more £ than those deserving of compensation.

[Gerry557]

I can see all of this turning into a giant lawyer fest with them raking in far more £ than those deserving of compensation.

Can we put a tax on all that and pass it on.

[UncleEbenezer]

I can see all of this turning into a giant lawyer fest with them raking in far more £ than those deserving of compensation.

That was the trial leading to the big judgement in 2019. Well-covered by all the news outlets that have taken an interest in the case.

[Oggy]

That was the trial leading to the big judgement in 2019. Well-covered by all the news outlets that have taken an interest in the case.

Ah yes, 58 million awarded, but after legal fees, claimants got just 12. Trebles all round at the bar for my learned friends.....

[Redmires]

That was the trial leading to the big judgement in 2019. Well-covered by all the news outlets that have taken an interest in the case.

Ah yes, 58 million awarded, but after legal fees, claimants got just 12. Trebles all round at the bar for my learned friends.....

It was a 'no win no fee' case and if it wasn't for that, the case would never have come to court. We should be thankful really.

[UncleEbenezer]

Ah yes, 58 million awarded, but after legal fees, claimants got just 12. Trebles all round at the bar for my learned friends.....

It was a 'no win no fee' case and if it wasn't for that, the case would never have come to court. We should be thankful really.

Insofar as you accept our preposterous judicial system - itself one of the major blights on the wronged postmasters' lives - yes it was a least-bad outcome.

But perhaps a comparison should be the press coverage. The postmasters got enormously valuable support from journalists like Richard Brooks and Nick Wallis and their editors, going right back to Rebecca Thomson's original article. That'll doubtless have cost them some significant effort to convince the journos there was a good story to cover, but no money.

[Leothebear]

Yip. But Fujitsu (parent business) went into it with an open chequebook knowing that it was the only way to buy into UK government computer contracts which were awarded to ICL, ICL and ... ICL - a never-ending stream of uncompetitive State business stretching out to the heat-death of the universe.

Once 'in' they could never be removed, as PO know when they negotiate Horizon's lucrative maintenance and enhancement contracts.

No competition? Then treble the price because the PO is not only on the hook but there is only one angler.

Contrast: HP's sorry history of bizarre acquisitions.

The one that's had headlines was Autonomy, 'cos of the lawsuits. But a few years earlier they had acquired EDS, which was a bigger player even than ICL/Fujitsu in failing UK government contracts with ever-spiralling costs.

Autonomy was acquired in the wake of Oracle's acquisition of Sun and consequently a hardware capability to rival IBM's across-the-enterprise offering. HP - a strong hardware player but without the enterprise software and support to rival the really-big two - bought Autonomy in a spectacularly ill-judged me-too attempt. Everyone knew that they massively overpaid, and even two members of their own board are on record as having warned of the fact. It turned out they not merely overpaid, but failed spectacularly to make anything of it, and ended up suing for fraud in the purchase.

I can't help thinking that Fujitsu should have had a stronger case to sue over ICL, had it chosen that path.

And I can't help thinking the sub postmasters do not give a toss about Fujitsu's unwise acquisition.

[Leothebear]

Pretty soon the guilty will have nowhere left to crawl to as each lie is found out.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68079300

[csearle]

Moderator Message:
The tangential discussions (Private Eye, ICL, HP, EDS, BT) continue here. - Chris

[Nimrod103]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68222915

Sir Ed Davey was advised as postal minister in 2010 to meet Post Office campaigner Alan Bates to avoid bad publicity over the Horizon scandal, the BBC has discovered. Sir Ed, now Lib Dem leader, has faced questions in recent weeks over why he initially refused to do so. He did meet the campaigner five months later, and has said he regrets not doing so sooner. Documents show he was advised to meet Mr Bates for "presentational reasons".
Officials at the business department, which is responsible for the Post Office, warned about possible headlines such as "government minister refusing to meet victims".

[RockRabbit]

So, more evidence is emerging that the government may have been complicit in the PO scandal and that the Post Office conspired to pervert the course of justice.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68146054

[GoSeigen]

To do so implies that Fujitsu is indeed moral.
Is seppuku still common in Japan for leaders who fail?

This is specifically Fujitsu UK. The vanity company formerly known as ICL. Fujitsu were sold a dud (and the UK tech community knew that all along).

An ICL mainframe was the second computer I ever programmed, as a spotty 13-year-old. Even at that young age and relative inexperience the company felt like a dinosaur being ridden by managers out of Monty Python. The chap who kindly "let me have a go" used to drive round in one of those Rovers with the headlights that flipped up and down as I recall. Or maybe it was a TR7? Flash git. My old man had an Acclaim. LOL


GS

[Redmires]

This is specifically Fujitsu UK. The vanity company formerly known as ICL. Fujitsu were sold a dud (and the UK tech community knew that all along).

An ICL mainframe was the second computer I ever programmed, as a spotty 13-year-old. Even at that young age and relative inexperience the company felt like a dinosaur being ridden by managers out of Monty Python.
GS

I wouldn't go to Bletchley Museum then otherwise you'll have nightmares

https://flickr.com/photos/jalapenokitten/4089775020

[XFool]

I wouldn't go to Bletchley Museum then otherwise you'll have nightmares

https://flickr.com/photos/jalapenokitten/4089775020

I spy an Avometer!

[stewamax]

The chap who kindly "let me have a go" used to drive round in one of those Rovers with the headlights that flipped up and down as I recall. Or maybe it was a TR7? Flash git.

It appears that the Horizon code had much in common with the flipping headlights TR7: the latter looked fine and well-made from the front but in reality was absolute garbage with terrible build and reliability. It was made to sell in the US but the US didn't want it. It was made in the Speke (Liverpool) number 2 plant that came rock bottom of the BL plant league for productivity and absenteeism. Temporary CEO Michael Edwardes had one look and simply shut the place down. Quite right too.
But having watched much of the Inquiry on Youtube, the Fujitsu people and back-office PO people seem reasonable chaps and chapesses. My ire is reserved for the PO Investigators and senior management, some of whom are dishonest bullies who have clearly perjured themselves. Hard labour at Dartmoor for the lot of them.

[didds]

Hard labour at Dartmoor Rwanda for the lot of them.

FTFY

[Redmires]

Radio 4 program from last week - 'Law in Action'

Did Post Office lawyers act unethically by failing to disclose evidence that might have helped the people they were prosecuting? Might they face criminal proceedings for attempting to pervert the course of justice?


Not listened to it yet but should be interesting

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001wxnv