08/01/2024
It's not often I post messages on here unless I have something relevant to say.
I'd like to start by wishing you all a belated Happy New Year. I hope it is, though what I am about to announce doesn't really get it off to a good start.
I'll begin with the news about the change of hours at the Beehive. Due to the quiet time of the year, the shop will open as usual at 8 a.m. and close earlier at 2 p.m.
I plan to go back to longer hours just prior to Easter.
More importantly is the news that I have given my notice to leave to the Post Office and will no longer be a sub-postmaster come July 4th, I'll be joining the whole of the USA celebrating independence day.
For those of you who haven't seen the ITV screening of Mr Bates versus the Post Office, I urge you to do so before you cast judgement on my decision. I have given this careful thought, but my conscience over-rides the fact that I will be throwing a spanner in the works. My Post Office area manager understands the situation as does Tim Farron, who has given his word that he will no longer try to twist my arm to reverse my decision, following a couple of lengthy emails where I divulged some rather personal details of what I (and Fokel) have been through, so please don't bombard Tim with a campaign. Both aforementioned will put their thinking caps on in an attempt to relocate the Post Office in Staveley, but it definitely will not be on my premises. If anyone has any wise ideas, then please care to share them.
For the record and to save my jaw from repeating itself, I took on the Post Office in 2009. For the first six months, I balanced perfectly (or to within a few pence) every day. My first shortfalls occurred in 2010 and continued in a random pattern through to 2015 totalling a few thousand pounds. I was lied to and was told that I was the only one, just like everyone else, even when I asked whether there were any faults in the network. There was no response to my enquiries, just told that it was a branch error and I was responsible for my losses, for which I had to reimburse the Post Office. Whilst other local offices were hit by much larger amounts and consequently shut down, I considered myself lucky that I was able to absorb mine (reluctantly) and continued to serve the village, but the worry that something catastrophic might happen always lingered in the back of my mind.
When I watched the screening on ItvX, I was reduced to tears in parts and was disgusted by the bullying tactics used by those that sat up in their ivory towers and the lengths they went to in order to save the face of the Post Office at the expense of the common man, hence my newly devised acronym for POL is "P**s On Littluns".
I hope that I am not the only sub-postmaster that has a strong conscience and that others review their position and do the same.
I would like to thank Alan Bates for his dogged persistence over two decades without whom the doors for other victims would have never been opened for the likes of me to claim compensation in this gigantic scandal. Hats off to him for turning down a gong for his achievement, whilst Paula Vennells clings on to hers.
As for the great debate over whether she should hand back her CBE, I haven't signed the petition and don't intend to, she took over the captaincy of a sinking ship and didn't have a big enough bailing bucket. She jumped ship just as it was descending beneath the water. The gong round her neck will feel like wearing lead boots soon, if she keeps them on, she'll disappear to the ocean floor. I hope her God hears her prayers for forgiveness better than her apologies that were broadcast with little sentiment to the thousands afflicted.
As for the others involved, watch your backs, the witch hunt has barely begun!
