Slow delivery of deserved justice
■ SO, Paula Vennells has bowed to pressure and reluctantly handed back the CBE she should never have had in the first place.
But reading her mealy-mouthed apology for the “devastation caused to sub-postmasters and their families” you would be forgiven for thinking that this situation just happened. It hasn’t. Vennells and others must have known, or should have found out, that Horizon wasn’t working, and instead of shutting it down, they continued persecuting innocent sub-postmasters and mistresses.
If she thinks just handing back her gong gets her off the hook she’s wrong. The woman is a disgrace – and to think she’s an ordained Anglican priest who nearly became Bishop of London beggars belief. John Lee, St Ives, Cambs
■ Along with the rest of the country, I’m so happy this miscarriage of justice is now being sorted and hopefully settled.
The bravery and dignity of all those sub-postmasters and postmistresses who have been pilloried is in stark contrast to the cowardice of the management who are hopefully quaking in their boots. They know who they are.
I just hope that when the exonerations are issued, probably as a group or mass judgement, each and every person is named individually so that they get their own personal justice. After all they have been through, it’s the least they deserve.
John Symonds, Wisbech, Cambs
■ Paula Vennells has rightly
handed back her CBE after unprecedented public pressure resulting from Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It would now be fitting for the show’s writer Gwyneth Hughes, who spent years interviewing victims, accumulating all the facts before spending three years putting it into a narrative, to receive an award.
The viewer response has been overwhelming and has prompted ministers to act at long last. RF Wills, Barnstaple, Devon
■ Paula Vennells has handed back her CBE, but what about her £389,000 bonus? It will cost the taxpayer many times this to put right what she presided over.
I, along with many others, also want to see Fujitsu pay back all the money the taxpayers will lose due to their faulty software, all legal and bankruptcy costs, and the funeral costs for the four people we know of who took their own lives.
Finally, strip the Post Office of the powers the Government gave them to investigate themselves and others as a matter of priority as they are obviously not impartial. Mandy Smith, Holbeach, Lincs
■ I watched the heart-rending ITV
Mr Bates vs The Post Office and I’m appalled at how former subpostmasters and postmistresses have been and continue to be treated, especially over the delays in compensation. It has been mentioned a number of them died without getting what they were due.
Compensation should go to their families who suffered too. I hope publicity speeds up the process. Mary Gazzard, Dudley, West Mids
■ It’s sickening to hear politicians expressing their outrage at the Post Office scandal from 20 years ago. Where were these voices at the time? Lib Dem leader Ed Davey, responsible for the PO then, is expressing his indignation now and says he was misled by the PO but it was his job to find out, rather than being silent when it was happening. All parties are culpable in this. Pat Byrne, West London
■ At last the public are behind the sub-postmasters after the brilliant ITV drama. It’s a disgrace that these people have suffered for so long and still no one has been held to account. Hopefully they will now get the justice they deserve.
Pat Martin, High Wycombe, Bucks
■ It’s great news that conservationists have evidence that pine martens are returning to parts of southern England (Mirror, January 8). The UK has become very wildlife depleted over the years, so this is a real cause for celebration.
Owen Hollifield Gilfach, Caerphilly