Better inquiries

SIR – There are several public inquiries happening at the moment – into the Post Office, Covid and the Grenfell Tower fire, to name but a few. They are all characterised by drawn-out submissions and lengthy deliberations.

The gold standard must be Lord Cullen’s inquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster – in which 167 people lost their lives – in 1988. It occurred on July 6 and the inquiry started in November of the same year. Lord Cullen reported 13 months later, and major changes occurred within the oil industry.

Mike Salter

Banchory, Aberdeenshire

SIR – A sage once observed that a fish rots from the head down. So does a society, as our own has tragically demonstrated over these past 30 years.

From Covid to the Horizon scandal – in all cases we see one blithering incompetent after another elevated to high office, often enjoying honours, a title and a wealthy retirement. The useless prefer and promote each other because the arrival of a human dynamo would prove too embarrassing a contrast.

The only way to reverse this trend would be the institution of a campaign dedicated to the pursuit of excellence deriving from the highest authority – Downing Street. But that would require a ruthless driving force in No 10. Unfortunately we do not have that either.

Frederick Forsyth

Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

SIR – I was a sub-postmaster for several years. Wednesday was always a nervy day, when you completed your weekly balance.

Prior to the introduction of Horizon, we did this using two enormous blue sheets on which all transactions were entered manually in pencil. If it balanced to within a couple of pounds, you would ink it in and sign it. Naturally, you added the shortfall.

After the arrival of Horizon, the shortages increased dramatically – some weeks it was £150, in others more than £200. I was certainly not the only sub-postmaster to make up the shortages out of my own pocket.

My question is: how can the Post Office ever repay these shortfalls that we made up? Christopher Price Highfield, Hampshire

SIR – The proper approach of the Government to the miscarriages of justice in the Post Office is not legislation.

The Attorney General should have all the convictions listed before the Court of Appeal, and state that the evidence on which they were founded is unreliable, and as such they are all unsafe.

The court can then exonerate every individual concerned.

Tim Devlin PPS to Attorney General, 1992-4 London EC4