The astonishingly thick Minister for Common Sense Esther McVey – yes, yes, I know – says that former postmaster and all round hero Alan Bates should be given a knighthood “as soon as possible.” Compared to the political flunkeys and grifters recently handed gongs by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, I suppose he deserves an honour more than most. But here’s the thing. Bates has refused an OBE because his “job isn’t done yet” and maybe he will never accept an honour given that the despicable Paula Vennells got a CBE some years ago. The fact that she has now seen fit to return it changes nothing. Bates saw his life ruined by the likes of Vennells and many others. If the honours system wasn’t in major disrepute before her award, it is now.
McVey’s is the politics – because that’s what it is – of populism, of leaping on a bandwagon she feels may benefit her and the Tory party in terms of popularity. Despite Computer Weekly, Private Eye and the BBC banging on about the disastrous Horizon system for longer, much longer, than a decade, how strange that Sunak and McVey, who are part of a government that has been in charge for 14 years, haven’t picked up on the scandal until now? It couldn’t be an election year, could it?
As a Private Eye subscriber for as long as I can remember, I followed the Horizon story for something like 12 years. Fortnight by fortnight, the Eye has consistently exposed the scandal with almost no interest from the rest of the media. It seemed at times that maybe the Eye had got it wrong, just like people thought the Washington Post had got it wrong in the early days of Watergate, because no one else would touch the story. And then, ITV commissioned a series of programmes and the levee of obstruction,obfuscation and ultimately lies burst, virtually within a few hours. Now, the government which has literally done nothing about it since they have been in office, which is 2010, is falling over itself to tell the world how disgraceful it all is. Some of us, even a relatively no one like me, knew something was wrong for years. What’s your excuse, Sunak? I know the answer: you either didn’t care or weren’t curious enough to ask questions. Both are unacceptable states of mind.
My guess is that Alan Bates’s sole priority will be justice for his fellow postmasters and mistresses. And I would add to that, justice for himself, too. Nothing can sufficiently compensate those who have lost their livelihoods and even lives but let’s put it this way . If we can hand over £37 billion of our money to a bunch of Tory friendly businesses in order to run a Covid track and trace service which never worked, whatever it costs to reimburse the victims of Horizon, well we must pay it. Sunak is always fond saying he will “do whatever it takes” to right a wrong. There’s no bigger wrong than this to right, is there?
Even with a situation as serious as this, this government cannot help itself but to milk some political kudos from it. Stop the cheap populism, just for once, Sunak. People have died because of Horizon. Hopefully, the next death will be your political life. It couldn’t happen to a worse person.
