here's the Guardian's guide to what might happen when/if Daniel Křetínský's buys the Post Office.
The key point is the sunset clause on commitments like union recognition & universal service provision - in five years time, he (and his company) can do what they want with the post office...
Prepare to enjoy the last five years of postal services as you know it... in 2029 things may start to look very different!
Final thought for the day…there is a women ordained as a priest who tonight must think her prayers have been answered in that she hasn’t been all over the evening news nor will she be on tomorrow’s front pages. A washed up PM took her spot.
And that is wrong.
The breathtaking incompetence, lies and faux naivety Paula Vennells exhibited at today’s #PostOffice public enquiry needs to be etched into our memories.
Noticed the #mortgage payment wasn't coming out of my bank account. We mailed it April 26th. Mortgage company got it today, May 14, said it was postmarked April 30, waived late fee.
#PostOffice said it went from here & got shipped to another postal center & processed then sent to another center & finally back to the local post office
Our mortgage payment was late because the #USPS is screwed up
Let me explain. The Secret Post Office is what we call the post office which is hidden away between Flinders Lane and Collins Street. The signage is as minimal as possible (see below) and I suspect the staff like it that way. It's our special secret.
Except that now Australia Post has closed the much more obvious post office near the GPO building, the SPO has become much busier! Sad AP staff. :(
Let us not forget that the Lib Dems in their desire for ministerial cars were active in the privatisation of the post office and the lack of oversight during 5 years of this debacle. Vince Cable, where are you now?
"A look of panic began to cross [Tory MP] Gullis’s face as he realised he had been stitched up by Kemi. That she had been less than truthful with him and others. Who would have guessed? So unlike her. Gullis wasn’t the first to regret sticking up for the business secretary. Nor would he be the last. Gullis began to hastily backtrack."
You'll be unsurprised to learn that the latest #gigeconomy legal action concerns Parcelforce drivers classified as #selfemployed who regard themselves as #PostOffice#workers & whose employment conditions are tightly constrained.
Similar constraints (about the shape of the working day) led to the successful case against #Uber & now IWGB are taking ParcleForce to court in a similar action.
I'm sympathetic to blanket exonerations via legislation for #PostOffice#Horizon erroneous prosecutions, but I'm a little queasy about a Govt. legislating to quash convictions en-masse.
The Govt. will say that 'this will not create a precedent' in the very act of creating a precedent - Its not hard to see a temptation to do it again in a less clear-cut case.
it would be better for the #ruleoflaw, as the judiciary suggested, to have been fast-tracked batched appeals through the court system!
Unusually we called past a friend who had ‘Politics Live’ on the BBC as we came back from a run
Bowie was on. Grudging respect. He obfuscated, avoided and then lied when neither worked. And all without breaking into a sweat or looking embarrassed.
#UK#PostOffice#CyberSecurity#Fujitsu: "David Cameron's government knew the Post Office had ditched a secret investigation that might have helped wrongly accused postmasters prove their innocence, the BBC can reveal.
The 2016 investigation trawled 17 years of records to find out how often, and why, cash accounts on the Horizon IT system had been tampered with remotely.
Ministers were told an investigation was happening.
But after postmasters began legal action, it was suddenly stopped.
The secret investigation adds to evidence that the Post Office knew Horizon's creator, Fujitsu, could remotely fiddle with sub-postmaster's cash accounts - even as it argued in court, two years later, that it was impossible.
The revelations have prompted an accusation that the Post Office may have broken the law - and the government did nothing to prevent it. Paul Marshall, a barrister who represented some sub-postmasters, said: "On the face of it, it discloses a conspiracy by the Post Office to pervert the course of justice.""