Absolute shower

We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end.

There’s an old saying: Power corrupts, and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. It’s a phrase that gained traction towards the end of the 19^th century when Lord Acton wrote to Bishop Creighton a series of letters arguing about the issues of writing history about the Spanish Inquisition (this is relevant, I promise). His argument was that all men, regardless of whether they were Popes or Kings, should be expected to hold to the same moral standards, especially since “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  Apologies for the history lesson but, hey, every day’s a school day.

His phrase is one that keeps running round my head every time I read more about the Post Office Scandal, of the prosecution of sub postmasters for crimes of theft and false accounting, crimes that they did not commit.

The Post Office’s investigation team conducted the prosecutions of the sub postmasters because it could. It is the oldest investigation force in the world, pre-dating even the Bow Street Runners, and was originally formed to tackle highwaymen, holding up the mail coaches on the Great North Road. It struck me that, deep down, throughout the whole sorry state of affairs that started over 20 years ago, the Post Office still believed – possibly still does – that the sub postmasters were modern day highwaymen. Richard Taylor, the Post Office Director of Communications was suspended just this week when secret recordings of his saying more-or-less exactly that came to light. (Though he has since apologised).

For years, the Post Office maintained its stance that no-one could get into branch accounts apart from the sub postmasters themselves, ergo, all problems must have been caused by them, intentionally or otherwise. They stuck to that story rigidly, even after it was revealed in BBC’s 2015 Panorama (now back on iPlayer and I urge you to watch it, and the two subsequent programmes) that Horizon accounts could be altered remotely, without the sub postmasters’ knowledge.

Every day there are more revelations, every day more people ask the simple question – how did it get to this stage? I believe it got to this stage because the Post Office had so much power that it believed itself to be invincible. It was the crusading force, protecting the Public’s Money from those who, it believed deep down, even without proper solid evidence, were out to embezzle it. Like the Spanish Inquisitors (see, I told you) the Post Office damned people because it was so caught up in its own ideology that it couldn’t, or wouldn’t, conceive of anything that opposed that ideology.

Finally, though, this morning (January 16^th), someone put their hand up and admitted some culpability and, yes, shame. The corporate PR machine may have been behind it, but Paul Patterson, Fujitsu’s European chief, did say to MPs, within earshot of many of the wronged sub postmasters, that he apologised to the postmasters, and that the firm has a moral obligation to contribute to the £1billion compensation bill. What that will mean in actual numbers, or when it happens, is by no means certain, but it is a start. It’s something. He looked a damn sight more contrite than Paula Vennells has ever done, that’s for sure.

The sub postmasters put their trust in their employer, believing that the auditors, the helpline and the technical bods would sort out the Horizon glitches, balance the books and stop money disappearing from the accounts with every key stroke. Instead, when they decried the system’s new clothes, they were systematically belittled, ignored, gas-lit and bullied, dragged into a Jarndycean court case where the main aim was to ensure the plaintiffs ran out of money. They just wanted a computer system that worked. They neither expected nor deserved the Spanish Inquisition.

via GIPHY