... it's business as usual:

[1]What’s really going on with the Subpostmaster compensation schemes

Article by Nick Wallis, who's been following this since 2009.

[1] https://www.postofficescandal.uk/post/whats-really-going-on-with-the-subpostmaster-compensation-schemes/

If Fujitsu actually cared (presumably this is true in a parallel universe, just not this one) then they would cough up the cash direct to the subpostmasters that reaped the whirlwind of excrement otherwise known as Horizon.

Any fool can apologise but it's utterly meaningless in this case unless there's significant cash to follow. If there's no direct and serious monetary hit to Fujitsu then there's no moral hazard for them.

> it's utterly meaningless in this case

That is the very point of it though: Apologizing is cheap, compensating on the other hand damages your quarterly earnings statements, and thus your bonuses. Since they won't compensate, they apologize so they can say they did something .

You say Fujitsu but I think the system was created by ICL and then Fujitsu bought ICL and thus inherited this mess.

So, the key question for me is how much did Fujitsu know (and would have been reasonable for them to know) and what did they do when they got this knowledge.

Some people lost their careers, their income, credibility and Fujitsu only had to do pump out some pathetic corporate statement of sorry.

In my book that doesn't balance.

Especially after Fujitsu personally insisted on the prosecutions, good job that nobody from the Post Office, the Government or the DPP was to blame

It's a strange thing (but maybe not so strange really) that in numerous languages many of the words used to apologise literally mean "let me off the hook" (e.g. "forgive me"). Real penitence is demonstrated by action.

Former Fujitsu UK CEO (between May 2014 and June 2015) Michael Keegan resigned from his role at the Cabinet Office last week:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68106040

Another MP's partner/relative with their snout in the government trough. Keegan was a "Crown Representative", which as far as I can see is a pretend appointment that entails 1-2 days work a week (less 20 days holiday a year) in return for about £40k plus all your expenses. From the job advert: "Successful candidates will have a track record of delivering effective change at the most senior levels." Well, that's Keegan for you.

Whilst I know nothing of the facts, my expectation is that he only went when he was told that it would be for the good of the party, but that the pain of his loss would be appeased by a nice generous pay off, or that he'll pop up in one or more other minister-awarded sinecures in a few months time, such as non-exec director on one of the many hundreds of arms-length bodies that the past thirty years of government have created. Scroll down the link below past the government departments, until you get to the long, long list of "agencies and other public bodies", you decide where's a nice safe place for him to keep milking the public teat:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations

"The UK prime minister has promised to speed up the legal process to quash convictions and compensation for those wrongfully accused."

He fucking hasn't though, has he. And he won't; until voters tell him that it's an issue that must be resolved before the election comes around.

The balance of public opinion is clearer on this than for any issue I can every recall in my life (and I'm no spring chicken), but the lack of progress shows that Sunak thinks it's enough to make a sweeping, supportive generalisation and that's enough. But why would the exceptionally lazy fuckers of this government speed things up? It doesn't affect them, and they already know the outcome of the next election, so they're just clinging to power purely in order to take what they can in the remaining months, for example by doubling their "loss of office payments".

"...the lack of progress shows that Sunak thinks it's enough to make a sweeping, supportive generalisation and that's enough"

That much is clear. "I made the promise, what more do you want from me?"

Following through would be nice. But you're a politician on the way out, so I have basically zero hopes this will ever get beyond the 'promise' stage.

Sunak, in my opinion, also has no incentive to sour relationship between Fujitsu and his family businesses.

I don't think he is unwilling to do it, I think he is just incapable of doing his job. Look at his flagship new bills, banning disposable vapes, this is the sort of thing that is normally done by backbenchers with private member bills.

AFAICS the only action needed is to get a full list of all the convictions where Horizon was invlovled, including those where there was a plea , take it to the court of appeal and say "We believe all these convictions were unsafe and should be overturned". Faffing about with special legislation seems to be more a case of political theatre than anything else. Trying to look for and exclude possible real frauds is pointless as the evidence is tainted.

Fujitsu finance chief says sorry for company's role in Post Office Horizon scandal - after 20 years of protest and investigations of varying thoroughness, all he does is say "oops, sorry".

So where's the submission to the inquiry where Fujitsu acknowledges that it's software was shit. The admission that Fujitsu knew about it from the start. The admission that Fujitsu has perjured itself claiming the software wasn't shit. The admission that Fujitsu personnel frequently made "corrections" and "adjustments" which weren't documented as rigourously as accounting practices require - if at all - and shouldn't have been necessary in the first place.

Where is the offer of meaningful compensation to the surviving victims and into the estates of those sadly no longer with us.

So far all we have is empty, meaningless words. It makes a mockery of the traditional view of the Japanese culture of honour.

Which just continues the insult and is, in many ways making Fujitsu even more offensive.

Why isn't the Post Office and Fujitsu boards, past and present, already doing time?

Evil, evil, evil people.

"Why isn't the Post Office and Fujitsu boards, past and present, already doing time?"

That is a depressingly easy one to answer.

The enquiry was set up in such a way that any criminal prosecutions are delayed until it's completed and the PO has succeeded in dragging it out indefinitely. Witnesses' appearances have been put off because documents were unavailable or because new documents were found at the last minute and time had to be allowed to examine them. Many of these last minute documents have turned out to have been duplicates of those already in evidence. It's a great pity that these tactics weren't treated as contempt of court early on.

Horizon is an EPOS.... Did you actually manage to type that with a straight face? I couldn't.

The UK prime minister has promised to speed up the legal process to quash convictions and compensation for those wrongfully accused. And punish the actual wrongdoers instead of those they wrongfully accused, right? You/they seem to have left that part off.

Oopsie daisy. Are you all okay? Apols again.

Don't worry we care about it and we treat it seriously. Pinky promise!!!

Phew that was easy.

Given that all governments are implicated in this and nobody wants to do time for this nor have their assets seized, expect more platitudes and assurances until the problem goes cold and public forgets about it.

Give it maybe three months.

The PR teams are probably already looking how to spin it so that the public gets tired of it and then to paint victims as greedy, but tread carefully as it is better if it just naturally dies.

So... need to make sure it doesn't naturally die.

What else is Fujitsu implicated with? Could this be happening elsewhere?

I'd press that button until "Fujitsu" is seen as a sort of swear word in common parlance.

the naming of names begin? Without human accountability, this is reduced to a matter of writing checks.

Never mind the apologies, show us the money.