BETWEEN 1999 and 2015, hundreds of subpostmasters were subjected to prosecutions and financial misconduct convictions based on inaccurate data generated by Horizon, a software program produced by Japanese company Fujitsu.
The Prime Minister has rightly made moves to exonerate and compensate those who have been victims of this injustice. Not due to any desire for justice, but rather a desire to not look bad.
This scandal has been rumbling on for more than 10 years, with innocent people serving time in prison for a crime they did not commit. Convictions caused by faulty software. Yet it takes a four-part docudrama series on ITV to get the Government to act.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office has shone a light on the scandal, generating renewed and widespread public outrage in a way that has made the UK Government have to show that they are at least taking some sort of action now.
I truly commend everyone involved in the TV drama as it has clearly worked in highlighting this terrible injustice and is giving back some integrity to the people it has impacted over the years.
I was also pleased to hear First Minister Humza Yousaf say he will also now work constructively with the UK Government to right the wrongs that have taken place in Scotland over this issue.
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While I am pleased to see this action being taken to bring justice to thousands of families, I echo the sentiments of SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn.
It should not take the public outcry from an ITV drama for the UK establishment to act on a matter that has been on their agenda for a very long time.
The Post Office is owned by the UK Government. Consecutive Westminster governments have overseen the Post Office scandal, and this exposes the failure to act.
It highlights the shortcomings of the system of government in the UK that simply does not work for the people it is supposed to serve.
How many Early Day Motions, debates, reports, committees, letters to ministers, parliamentary receptions, and actual scrutiny from members of parliament have taken place on this issue alone over the past decade?
I know my colleague Marion Fellows (below) has championed this cause for a number of years on behalf of the SNP and it has fallen on the deaf ears of the UK Government time after time.
I have watched over the years as injustices and horrific circumstances and events that are presented to this government are brushed under the carpet and moved along through the mundane processes of the UK Parliament.
Processes that lack the available tools to realistically scrutinise or to actually bring about any sort of justice or change for the people that we as Members of Parliament are supposed to represent in this place.
Campaigners on a variety of issues I have met over the years have fallen to the sword of an arrogant and ignorant UK Government and the scrutiny process of Westminster.
The injustices that have been felt, for example, by the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women who have been robbed of their pension. Do we really need WASPI: The Movie to force Westminster to rethink its stance on this injustice?
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Do we need a Netflix documentary on the infected blood scandal or the Primodos scandal for people to see the lengths the UK Government will go to make it as hard as possible for victims and campaigners to right the wrongs forced upon them?
Perhaps we can all hold out in the hope that Steven Spielberg decides to do his next blockbuster on PPE contracts if that is the logic of how Westminster conducts its business.
The reality is that we are governed by a broken, warped and dated system of government in the UK – and the unimaginable situation faced by the subpostmasters across the country is just another example of this right in front of our eyes.
The UK Government will always do little to nothing for the victims of injustice if it can get away with it. It is only when the public outcry is such that they have nowhere else to turn that we ever see the Government act.
Just ask the families and victims of the Hillsborough disaster or Grenfell Tower. People need justice much quicker than Westminster is ever willing to hand it out.
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