DAVID STEWART: How could Post Office bosses get this so wrong, asks the former Highlands and Islands MSP

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https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/new ... on-266473/

My father worked for the Post Office for 43 years, retiring at the sprightly age of 60 in 1988.

For my family, the Post Office was not just an employer, it was a benevolent, caring institution. As a kid, it held the best Christmas parties – at the top floor of the telephone exchange in Inverness. In the spring, the best picnics, held at Rosemarkie beach.

Throughout the Highlands, the chain of sub Post Offices in towns and villages was the heart of the community, run by hard-working, dedicated people who kept their communities ticking over, as informal community hubs.

So I was appalled that over 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses (SPMs) have been prosecuted, based on what appears to be faulty information from the Horizon IT system. This is a first-class scandal.

In December 2019, a High Court judge ruled that there was a “material risk” that the alleged shortfalls in sub Post Office accounts were caused by the Horizon system, not by the SPMs.

Since then, this scandal has ruined lives, leading to prison sentences, convictions and stigma, all taking a terrible toll on SPMs. Some have attempted suicide, marriages have ended, finances have been devastated, and some made homeless.


This has been the consequence of senior management incompetence following the instalment of the Horizon system.

Thankfully, dozens of SPMs have now had their convictions overturned. An independent inquiry is investigating the scandal.

How do you compensate for lost reputations, broken homes and mental health problems? Sub Post Offices are the lifeblood of our local communities, along with schools and hospitals. How could Post Office bosses get this so wrong?

Politics is very similar to day-to-day life – if you decide in haste, you repent in leisure! This takes me to the Scottish Government. As Michael Glackin reported in the Sunday Times last week: “The shipwreck that is the Scottish Government owned Ferguson Marine has sprung another leak. Taxpayers have so far wasted well over


£300 million on Ferguson – a figure that will rise again over the latest debacle.”

Add in the woes of Prestwick Airport and numerous pointless consultant reports, it could easily top £1 billion of mismanagement, Mr Glackin has argued.

My solution? Keeping the Scottish Government in check. I bow to no man or woman in my commitment to devolution – I voted for the Devolution Bill as a young MP and served as an MSP for 14 years.


However, we need a stronger committee structure to keep the government (whatever their political colours) in check. Directly-elected committee conveners, free from party political ties, are key.

A second revising chamber is a thorny and complex problem but is now required in my view. Since devolution in 1999, Holyrood has gained new powers and responsibilities, like social security, but the quality of scrutiny has been reduced – mostly because of the volume of legislation facing committees and parliament. Where is the post-legislative scrutiny? Have we the systems in place to check the Green Party veto on road building and freeports?

Donald Dewar said that devolution was a process, not an event. Time for a revising chamber in the process of devolution!

* David Stewart is a former Highlands and Islands Labour MSP and Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber MP.