A week since ITV’s Mr Bates vs the Post Office aired, and can you hear that sound? Can you feel the gathering thunder of politicians’ hooves, as the herd suddenly migrates towards the great plains of looking busy, of seeming outraged, of suddenly giving a toss?
“Everyone has been shocked by watching what they have done over the past few days,” declared Rishi Sunak on Sunday, acting for all the world like he had found out about the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history from a TV programme. Which he didn’t. Of the pursuit of more than 900 innocent subpostmasters, some of whom were jailed, and the ruined lives of many more, the prime minister explained: “Obviously it’s something that happened in the 90s.” Which it isn’t. Prosecutions of innocent postmasters happened up until 2015, with the coalition government in place for the years in which the Post Office allegedly mounted a full-scale cover-up of the injustice it continued to mete out. Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells was awarded a CBE in 2019. Which is also not in the 90s. And, just as I was writing this, she’s only gone and handed it back.
