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Comment by pmx | Hacker News Reader

My wife was watching the ITV drama on this last night and I had to leave the room. It was making me so incredibly angry that such huge injustices can be allowed to take place. I recommend the show to anyone with better control of their emotions that me!

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I was just reading the other day that some MP was calling for those who were affected to have their names cleared. It's fucking astounding that this hasn't been a priority until the recent TV series on it has come out.

I understand this might look like complete b*llocks, but it seems they are not doing that because, despite the good aim in this specific case, would create a bad precedent.

The whole case, after so many years, is as ridiculous as it gets for a government scandal - I agree. At the same time, I kind of understand why this needs to be carefully thought as a legal manoeuvre.

This skandal is 6 years old. I find it hugely concerning that someone has to make a TV play that resonates with the public for politicians or anyone responsible really to show any interest in resolving this.

The current activities and proposals probably have to be seen as crowd management and might not be an honest attempt for a solution, again.

It's 25 years old!

The current interest will wane too, once journalists tire of mentioning that the two leaders of the opposition are tangentially involved (Davey arguably more than Starmer).

Is this Mr Bates vs the Post Office? Worth watching? I am just finishing up the latest season of The Crown, and was looking for some other british docudrama to watch (sometimes it's nice to watch a show without a mandated sex scene, car chase, etc)

Yes, I would recommend it and I had previously read the "The Great Post Office Scandal" book (which I would also recommend).

Edit: My wife who is a pretty hard nosed commercial litigation lawyer was thoroughly shocked by it - so much so that she actually went off and read the court judgements to get more details.

Can wholeheartedly add my recommendation for the book. In fact I think it should be required reading for anyone in the business of software. While I felt it was a bit over-long it is incredibly thorough and well told and covers multiple different aspects of the scandal while making the human cost obvious in a way that aggregate facts and figures don't.

The other annoying thing about this is that it took an ITV drama to give this any attention.

All the mainstream press reported "MET opens investigation!" as if it was a new thing, and then in the article "the invitation was opened in 2020 and has interviewed 2 people". Great.

Sounds horrible.

Link, if anyone is curious about the production: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Bates_vs_The_Post_Office

It is horrible! You should really visit the Justice For Subpostmaster Alliance web site for the nitty-gritty https://www.jfsa.org.uk - there are some very interesting reports to view/download.

> Outside the UK?

> Due to our broadcast and content licences, you can only watch ITVX in the UK.

I really wanted to pay and see it. Oh, well, I'm going to be a pirate again...

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