The Post Office scandal is an injustice beyond fiction

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Inquiries like those around the Post Office scandal often place the victims at the back of the queue (BBC Breakfast)

It is constantly frustrating that when there is an obvious injustice within our society, it takes years and a lot of money for our legal system to reach a resolution.

Hillsborough, Grenfell, the Aberdeen rail crash and the Covid inquiry are just a few examples. These inquiries too often place the victims at the back of the queue when it comes to any terms of compensation, while our adversarial justice system rakes in millions of pounds to apparently engage in the conquest of “true justice”.

The Post Office scandal is an injustice beyond fiction. It shows that inquiries must be confined to a time limit when determining cause and culpability, and delivering either compensation or appropriate punishment. Until now, there has clearly been overwhelming complacency in drawing any conclusions or enabling any sort of justice.

Stephen Woods

Address Supplied

This abuse of power needs retribution

The person(s) within Westminster who recommended Paula Vennells for a CBE ought to be made to raise their hand and acknowledge that they made a huge error of judgement.

Was pressure exerted to keep Ms Vennells quiet? Who in the government knew of the system failure? What part did Fujitsu play in the deceit and obfuscation? There are now many unasked questions which need answering. The net of intrigue is far-reaching.

Because of what happened, innocent people have died, been imprisoned, lost their homes, lost their businesses, been reviled in their communities and lost all hope in the UK’s judicial system.

Can there be a more blatant episode in the history of Britain that perfectly demonstrates the crass villainy that our government and big business will stoop to? It’s understandable that now there is a whirlwind of action to rectify the great wrong done to these innocent people. But why the disgraceful delay in the first place?

Surely the powers-that-be must have realised, early on in this debacle, that the truth will eventually come out? All inquiries must ensure a full and frank explanation of the facts and retribution for the innocent. Otherwise it will be yet another impotent, false ending to a blatant abuse of power and the law.

Keith Poole                 

Basingstoke

Cost of cruelty

We now know that Tory infighting over the Rwanda bill resumes next week. A group led by Robert Jenrick are supporting amendments to the government’s flagship bill along with Miriam Cates, Iain Duncan Smith, Suella Braverman, Jacob Rees Mogg and Danny Kruger.

Yet the government still won’t come clean about how much of our money has been paid to Rwanda already. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper estimates that the government has pledged almost £400m to Rwanda, with additional payments of around £200,000 per person sent there. What’s more, migration minister Tom Pursglove has refused to contradict the figures. Surely, this underlines how this government is so unfit for office.

Geoffrey Brooking

Havant

We are failing special needs students in school

Both the government and Labour have set out their plans this week for tackling soaring school absence rates. But missing from the debate as usual are those missing children with special educational needs.

The number of autistic pupils persistently absent from school has more than doubled in the last five years – to more than 50,000. We need to tackle the reasons for this – namely the lack of appropriate SEND support in schools. If we don’t improve the special educational needs system, we won’t improve attendance rates.

Jolanta Lasota

Chief executive at Ambitious about Autism

Children’s online safety needs to change

The report from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) showing that more children are committing sexual abuse offences against other children is a damning indictment of the state of internet safety today. With the growth in user-generated content (UGC), our children are being exposed to more adult, extreme and illegal images than ever before, accessed with a tap on a smartphone. The impact of this material on children’s views of sex and what is appropriate behaviour is profoundly damaging.

Today, too many legitimate adult sites and social platforms are operating without rigorous age assurance (age verification or age estimation) in place, leaving them open to children. Likewise, reactive content moderation takes place after the damage is done and also isn’t able to keep up with the growing deluge of extreme and illegal content that has no place on the internet.

The recently passed Online Safety Act is designed to mandate long overdue change, but these developments need to be expedited. This means Ofcom working to enact their new enforcement powers quickly, robustly and equitably and ensuring companies are incentivised to comply. Likewise, the onus is on content and tech firms to put in place rules and tools to ensure extreme and illegal content never makes it onto their platforms and to transparently report on how they are tackling this often invisible problem.

Inaction and delay in tackling online safety is letting our children down. The time for change is now.

Michal Karnibad

Address supplied

Haley is proving herself a valid contender

Conservatives question Nikki Haley’s credentials as a US presidential frontrunner. Yet the former governor of South Carolina is expected to outperform Trump in the second Republican primary.

The Washington Post explained the dilemma in Haley as liberals see it: “A big win for Trump in Iowa and then New Hampshire would effectively seal up the nomination for him. But a narrow victory or surprise defeat could change the dynamic with a long lull until the big contest.”

No such “trap” exists, however.

If the hyper-conservative Washington Times is right, Trump has reason to worry about Haley. She could be the last gambit before a head-on collision between Trump and Biden.

Either way, Haley is proving herself a valid contender and plausible rival. At least her efforts could bring down headliner Trump a notch before the regular election season gets under way, following this primary season’s contentious voting.

Angus West

Address supplied