I am ashamed by the POL-Fujitsu scandal.
My shame stems mainly from thinking this is not how we do things in Blighty. I naively believed we – by which I mean our leaders – would not allow that to happen to people for eighteen months, let alone thirteen years. But my other emotion is of impotent rage because, thanks to my Private Eye subscription, I knew something was wrong a few years ago and again assumed others did too and that it would be “dealt with.” Instead, every person with the power and authority to deal with this quickly did nothing but watch and go “tsk”.
This link [HERE] will allow you to download the Private Eye Horizon report “Justice Lost In The Post”, which I urge you to read and weep.
Simultaneously, I have become appalled by the swathes of grandstanding political Yahoos of every hue, daily demanding action – and inevitably, their numbers far outweigh the very short list of MPs who recognised the stink of corruption and connivance that was taking place and tried to do something about it.
The endless disregard of the Lib Dems, Tories, The Home Office, The CPS, and The Justice Ministry to categorically state their best intentions, their desire to see justice done and yet … “we must await the outcome of the Inquiry in order to deliver the most effective…” Why?
They will do anything except their duty, which is primarily to work in the service of the public and to do it with alacrity. Why?
This Horizon Inquiry started relatively recently, in May 2021 – a mere 2½ years ago, and it sits within a long list of such Inquiries, all seemingly designed to support vast swathes of KCs for whom this is big business. That list (and there are, I think, three more pending) shows: (Inquiry – Called By – Presiding – Started)
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Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry – Scottish Government – Lady Smith – 17/12/2014
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Undercover Policing Inquiry – Home Office – Sir John Mitting – 12/03/2015
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Grenfell Tower Inquiry – Office of Prime Minister – Sir Martin Moore-Bick – 15/6/2017
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Infected Blood Inquiry – Cabinet Office – Sir Brian Langstaff – 03/11/2017
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Brook House Inquiry – Home Office – Kate Eves – 05/11/2019
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Sheku Bayoh Inquiry – Scottish Government – Lord Bracadale – 12/11/2019
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Scottish Hospitals Inquiry – Scottish Government – Lord Brodie – 03/08/2020
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Muckamore Abbey Hospital Inquiry – Northern Ireland Executive – Tom Kark KC – 08/09/2020
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UK Covid-19 Inquiry – Office of Prime Minister – Baroness Hallett – 12/05/2021
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Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry – BEIS – Sir Wyn Williams – 19/05/2021
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Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry – Scottish Government – Lady Poole – 24/08/2021
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Dawn Sturgess Inquiry – Home Office – Lord Hughes of Ombersley – 18/11/2021
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Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry – DHSC – Geraldine Strathdee – 04/02/2022
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Omagh Bombing Inquiry – Northern Ireland Office – Lord Turnbull – 09/02/2023
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Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan – Ministry of Defence – Charles Haddon-Cave – 22/03/2023
And here’s the rub.
The very malaise being investigated in the Horizon Inquiry and Grenfell and Covid and Infected Blood Inquiries is depicted and enacted every day at every Inquiry. The key problems – replacing cladding, replacing computer programmes, and taking actions to protect the public- were either not done at all or done so slowly that the issues multiplied and then people died. At the Inquiries, the wrong questions are asked, the outcomes are spun out, the obfustications are endless and banal, and we learn nothing – achieve less – and we do it all so badly and uncaringly.
Britain can’t get anything done, and nobody cares. We can’t build a ship on time or on budget, nor a railway, or a plane. We can’t get a GP appointment, find a Tailor, a Soldier, a Sailor, a Doctor, a Train Driver, a solar panel installer, a fruit picker, or a restaurant waiter. We can’t produce, we can’t build, we can’t develop.
We can, however, take gap years in our thirties, demand work-life balances that require no work, and ride £3k Pelotons in the privacy of our homes because that way, we can stay in the safe cocoon of doing Feck All. We reward failure, we applaud the stupidity attached to celebrity, and we embrace the lowest common denominator. “Yay – finally we are all equal” thanks to some thirty years of the entirely indistinguishable Blair, Cameron, May and Sunak. We care about Gary Lineker’s views but don’t ask if the BBC works well. We support Junior Doctors getting £20ph but don’t question why we need a £150k pa Diversity Manager. People want to have their weekends free – but demand that someone is there to pour their drinks.
It was probably the giant pothole that nearly scuttled the charabanc in the floods, and the comment that we had last encountered roads this bad in the African bush in ’89, and suddenly, I wondered what the Civil Service is like in Rwanda.
I am reminded of the 1854 Northcote Trevelyan Report, which initiated the development of the apolitical UK civil service, recruiting and promoting on merit rather than as a result of patronage. This line still resonates today:
“Admission into the Civil Service is indeed eagerly sought after, but it is for the unambitious and the indolent or incapable that it is chiefly desired”.