TV viewers across the country have been alerted to the farcical injustice suffered by hundreds of postal workers in the ‘Horizon’ scandal. ITV’s “Mr Bates vs The Post Office” has captured the attention of millions – and it’s bad news for Paula Vennells.
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What is the Horizon Post Office scandal?
The new ITV drama covers the events behind the Post Office scandal, which saw numerous postmasters wrongly prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 for theft, false accounting, and/or fraud after mysterious financial losses kept appearing in village post office tills.
However, it was the new Horizon computer system which was at fault for the accounting errors. Following the fresh publicity around the scandal, a petition to strip Vennells of her CBE has reached almost 900,000 signatures at the time of writing.
Petition to remove CBE from CEO gains rapid momentum
Although it was set up three years ago, and had only amassed 1,000 signatures in that time, support has swelled as a result of the programme. The growth has been exponential, and it’s expected that the one million mark will be breached soon.
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Who is Paula Vennells? Public pressure mounts on former Post Office supremo
Vennells served as CEO of The Post for seven years, up until 2019. In that time, scores of innocent workers were forced to take the fall for wider, systemic failings. Sadly, four of those prosecuted have since committed suicide.
This horrendous travesty is now back in the public consciousness, and viewers are enraged with how Vennells handled the situation. The wave of anger now threatens to cost her the honour bestowed upon her, during her time as CEO.