Nick Wallis

Alex Salmond

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 23:21:00 +0000

Alex Salmond has died. I met him twice - in 2024 and 1997.

In 1997 Salmond was the leader of Scottish National Party. At the time I was chair of the Student Radio Association. Then, as now, I had no political affiliation, but I was hoping to make it in the media.

In early '97 the National Union of Students asked me to conduct a series of interviews at the House of Commons with the major political party leaders. All but John Major - then Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party - agreed.

The idea was that I would record the interviews on minidisc, which would be transcribed for the NUS magazine and circulated to all the student radio stations to use as they wished.

I was not a very good interviewer, but it was fascinating to see how the leaders of the different parties dealt with me. Dafydd Wigley was benign and unimpressive. Paddy Ashdown was terrible at communicating and kept using my name, as if that conferred familiarity. Tony Blair was charismatic and convincing. He also took time after the interview to ask me about my situation and ambitions, which threw me somewhat. He made it seem like he was genuinely interested.

One thing that struck me about Alex Salmond was the way he held himself. It was very different from the other leaders. He had the demeanour of an exiled general, held semi-captive at the court of a hostile foreign power. He was present, but his mind was elsewhere. Plotting, perhaps.

All the interviews took place on different days. On each occasion I was accompanied by an NUS photographer. During my interview with Salmond he seemed cheerful and appeared happy to entertain the basic questions I lobbed his way.

After it was over, we stood up in preparation for the souvenir photograph.

"What did you say your surname was again?" he asked.

"Wallis", I replied.

"Ah, okay" he said. "Come with me. I've know where we can take the photograph."

We walked along various intimidating corridors until he brought me out into Westminster Hall. We descended the steps to the second landing. Salmond showed me a plaque on the floor. It read:

'Near this spot, at the Kings Bench at the South end of the Hall, took place the trial of Sir William Wallace the Scottish Patriot on Monday, 23rd August 1305.'

Wallace was convicted of treason and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. His head was tarred, and put on a spike on London Bridge.

We both looked at the plaque for a second. Salmond said: "That's one of your ancestors". He turned to the photographer. "Let's have the photo here".

I stood on the plaque next to Alex Salmond as the photographer readied himself. As he did so, Salmond leaned confidentially towards my ear and said with the perfect amount of conspiratorial bonhomie:

"Never forget whose side you're on."

And then he turned to face the photographer.

Mark Hollis

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 13:34:00 +0000

Yesterday at 2.40pm, I got on a train out of Waterloo heading South West. I'd finished an edit and had just walked through central London, soaking up the glorious but unsettling weather. The sight of people in the sunshine, having lunch with smiles on their faces was enough to put me in a good mood.

I use music for many things - to motivate, help me think, send me to sleep, as a barrier to the outside world or as an aid to interpreting it.

Sitting on the train yesterday, I needed something which could help me concentrate on what I was writing which also matched a strange disjointed sensation of mild euphoria.

I reached for an old friend - Talk Talk's "Spirit of Eden". I've written on this blog before about Talk Talk and the effect they had on me growing up. They were a band I loved, but they consciously kept themselves away from the sort of personality cults other artists encouraged. The imagery, in particular, was poor and unwelcoming. As such, I never became a Talk Talk "fan", but the music was enough to keep me devoted to the songs for the best part of four decades.

I felt a physical pang of sorrow when I found out last night that Mark Hollis had apparently died at the age of 64. The idea someone so gifted should have his life stolen away so young seems wrong.

He was, by all accounts, an awkward bugger. Professionally, at least. It seems his main motivation for retiring in his early forties was to be a better father to his children. He was a tortured artist, too, which must have taken its toll - constantly pushing himself to change, achieve and create, despite having no formal training, dazzling voice or obvious musical talent.

Hollis knew he had something, though, and he was sufficiently motivated to make it as a lead singer of a synthesizer band signed to EMI in the early 80s. He collaborated with brilliant people, who could deliver his vision. At first it was downbeat but catchy pop songs, which by turn became gradually deeper, more complex and enriching.

Talk Talk's discography is worth exploring chronologically. The band's first album "The Party's Over" sounds dated, full of cheap synths and cheap dramatics. But every song is stunningly written. Have You Heard The News, about the guilt and depression brought on witnessing someone's death, is full of the unusual chord progressions and melodic twists which quickly set the band apart. The ability to do this within a synth-pop straightjacket made what Hollis was attempting even more impressive.

"It's My Life" was the album which gave Talk Talk their first proper hit. It was tonally slightly more uplifting than The Party's Over and it came with a sense of a songwriter really beginning to stretch his wings. The songs were still pop songs, but they sounded bigger, more epic.

"The Colour Of Spring" and "Spirit of Eden" are two sides of the same coin, to me at least. Years ago I started writing a list of my top ten albums (click here to find out what they are - full disclosure - I grew up in the 80s). "Spirit of Eden" and "The Colour of Spring" were going to be my number one and two. I just hadn't worked out which one would be which.

"The Colour of Spring" needs very little introduction. Pick it out of spotify and you'll be away.

"Spirit of Eden" requires more patience. Obtuse, but undeniably special. If you're not in the right frame of mind it takes a little effort, but it is extremely rewarding, especially the wonderful single "I Believe in You". I've embedded the video at the top of this post.

Then there's the final Talk Talk album "Laughing Stock", which is far more insular. As I said, you're better off starting at the beginning and working your way through.

Thanks for reading this far, and thanks, Mark, for the hours and hours and hours of my life you and your band soundtracked.

I wish you had come out of retirement and done the big set-piece interviews where you dissect and explain your motivations and techniques with the wisdom of years.

I wish you had gone on a series of tours, playing in venues with great acoustics and atmospheres. It would have given your audience a chance to say thank you.

But I suppose we were less important than your music and your family. And maybe that's the way it should be.

I can't believe you're gone already, though. I guess we're all getting old.

*********************

Quantative Easing

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 00:30:00 +0000

Got home on Thursday night to discover what looked a bit like pretend money sitting by the pile of loose change I keep near the kitchen radio. I thought this might be a noble gesture by Amy to help ease our way through the credit crunch. But on enquiring, Mrs Wallis told me Amy had finished the chocolate money she had in the fridge and was worried that I hadn't had any, so she decided to make me some pretend chocolate money. She put it by for me when I got in, asking "Do you think he will get it mixed up with his real money?". Today we took the pretend chocolate money to the shops with a view to seeing if we could pretend to buy anything, but while we were out we forgot about it. She might not make it as a forger, but her heart's in the right place.

Criminals: Caught on Camera, Series 5

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 07:52:00 +0000

I am delighted to have signed up to a fifth series of Criminals Caught on Camera for 5Spike.

Filming starts in a couple of weeks.

Expect some moody TX cards later this year.

Top Ten Albums - The Head on the Door

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 21:37:00 +0000

I had intended to nominate The Cure's first singles compilation "Standing on a Beach" as my next top ten album. I found it through the pages of Smash Hits magazine and the JHQ Rheindahlen record library. From the rudimentary Killing an Arab to the accomplished performance of In Between Days, there was a strong and obvious strain of genius running through every song. In 1986, and for the next five years, I had found my New Favourite Band.

The joy of getting into the Cure just after the release of Standing on a Beach was that, until "The Head on the Door", Bob Smith had resolutely refused to release more than one single off any album. Punk, y'see.

This meant that on a compilation of 13 classics, there was a rich back catalogue of albums waiting to be excavated: "Three Imaginary Boys", "Seventeen Seconds", "Faith", "Pornography", "Japanese Whispers" (itself a sort-of compilation), "The Top" and The Head on the Door. All lined up and good to go.

So, for me, Standing on a Beach was the gateway drug to The Cure, and a world of adolescent hero worship which made Robert Smith the only person I've avoided saying hello to (when given the chance at the 1997 Xfm launch party).

Having devoured Standing on a Beach (and the legacy videos from "Staring at the Sea"), I started working backwards - first stop: The Head on The Door.

This is the best Cure album, the best goth pop album and, in my indie-tainted eyes, one of the best albums ever made. The opener, In Between Days, is as joyous a song as you'll ever hear despite lyrics which begin "Yesterday I got so old, I felt like I could die..."

Close to Me is a finger-clicking, swinging pop tune about what appears to be an awkward drug comedown and A Night Like This is genuinely epic. Easily the best thing on the album despite never being released as a single in the UK.

There's more - Push is the distilled sound of indie-guitar exuberance and Sinking, which ends the The Head on The Door, contains recurring Smith themes - existential angst, aging and drowning (cf La Ment, Disintegration, Faith, The Same Deep Water As You and, er, The Drowning Man), but deals with them in a very matter of fact, confessional style. The fillers (Kyoto Song, The Baby Screams, Screw) are all perfectly performed/produced pop turns.

It is a great album from a band whose time was just about to come. The Head on The Door's brilliance pushed me further back into The Top, "Concert", Japanese Whispers, Pornography, Faith, Seventeen Seconds, Three Imaginary Boys and then forwards into "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" and "Disintegration". And two excellent concerts on the Kiss Me and Disintegration tours in Köln and London respectively. And, very briefly, hair like this:

On a side note, last year I was trying to write a script and ended up initiating a facebook discussion about the best Cure album. I fought THotD's corner whilst battling many Disintegration all-comers. In the end a friend of mine whose knowledge of the Cure is far deeper than mine suggested I might have made him think again, and as he was involved with Bestival, which happened to have the Cure headlining that August, would I care to avail myself of a pair of complimentary tickets to watch Bob in action one more time. Yessir I would. I took a dear friend, met up with my old friend and watched a band winging its way through its fifth decade in style. Thanks to all involved.

The Head on The Door is the album I've chosen to represent my 31 year love affair with The Cure, and I'm pleased to do it on the 32nd anniversary of its release*. Thank you, Bob. I hope if we ever do meet, I won't mess it up.

***************************

Other top ten albums added so far:

Radiohead - The Bends
Love - The Cult

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
The Waterboys - This is the Sea
Floodland - Sisters of Mercy
Duran Duran - Rio

The rationale for doing this.
Further rationale at the bottom of the This is the Sea entry.

* Thanks to Matt for reminding me.

Top Ten Albums: The Bends

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 05:49:00 +0000

Two years after writing up my last top ten album, here is my next. If you want to read about the others, please have a look at the links at the bottom of the page. At this rate I might just finish by the end of the decade.

The Bends is too huge an album to sensibly review. You’d have to be pretty obtuse not to like it. You could call it slightly over-produced if you were being picky, or you could take issue with the angst threaded all the way through it. But The Bends’ angst is tempered by some incredibly tender moments and is nothing compared to the whiny, hectoring angst present on several subsequent Radiohead albums.

All of the songs on The Bends (bar one - “Just” - which I’ve never liked) are phenomenal. That’s 11 out of 12 phenomenal songs.

You don’t get a hit rate like it nowadays. You didn’t get a hit rate like it then. The main criticism of The Bends as far as I can tell is that it seems to be too perfect, too well-engineered/arranged/produced with just the right amount of emotion, wigging-out and on-the-money songwriting to matter.

Yeah, but… what a record. Its release passed me by, for some reason. I think I was listening to a lot of Nick Cave at the time, and, er, Mansun*. Radiohead were there, on the peripheries of my consciousness, but so were Mudhoney. No one thought Radiohead were capable of pulling something as extraordinary as The Bends out of the hat, so when they did, no one really noticed.

Over the course of 1995, The Bends caught on by word of mouth. It was not a radio record so you didn’t hear it much on the radio. It wasn’t an indie nightclub banger, and it wasn’t really the sort of album you’d put on when you had people round. This was more or less pre-internet, so The Bends got heard because friends started telling their friends about it. And that process was not instantaneous.

Which makes sense. I cannot imagine listening to The Bends in company. Although you could hardly call it a naked or personal album, the range of emotion Thom Yorke produces from that weird, shrieking falsetto and the quality of songwriting and musicianship is transfixing.

By the middle of 1995, purely on the strength of The Bends (I’d never liked ‘Creep’), Radiohead were well on the way to becoming my New Favourite Band.

Then in September 'Lucky', a song the band recorded in five hours, appeared out of nowhere. It was the lead track on the War Child HELP EP and was one of the best things I’d ever heard. Mysteriously, it completely flopped.

Two years later Radiohead put out OK Computer and became one of the biggest bands on the planet. I still think The Bends is better. But that’s just me.

If you've never heard The Bends or any of the tracks off it (really?), click on the spotify link which you can hopefully see directly below. There's no bad place to start.

*********************

Other top ten albums added so far:

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
The Waterboys - This is the Sea
Floodland - Sisters of Mercy
Duran Duran - Rio

Love - The Cult

The rationale for doing this.
Further rationale at the bottom of the This is the Sea entry.

* And Jane’s Addiction. And Britpop. Bloody Britpop.

1,000 Subpostmasters join legal action against Post Office

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 09:50:00 +0000

This press release came through today:

1,000 subpostmasters come forward to join legal action against Post Office

28 March 2017 – The Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (JFSA) announced today that the Group Litigation Order (GLO) against Post Office Ltd has now been approved by the President of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court, which means that the case will continue through the court as a group action. Post Office Ltd is defending the claim.

Over 1,000 subpostmasters from across the UK have applied to join the action.

While the grounds of the case may be subject to revision as the matter proceeds, the claim focuses on a number of areas – particularly the true nature of the contract between the subpostmasters and Post Office Ltd in terms of the Horizon operating system, and the way in which Post Office has dealt with alleged shortfalls.

The claim covers training and support, the proper recording of transactions, liability for claimants to pay alleged shortfalls of cash or stock and the processes for identifying, investigating and recovering shortfalls. The claim will also look at Post Office Ltd’s rights to terminate subpostmaster contracts and will examine issues of “good faith, fair dealing, transparency, co-operation and trust and confidence.”

Alan Bates of the JFSA said: “The case is now up and running and we have had over 1,000-plus candidates come forward so far. Subpostmasters now have until 26 July to join the action before the cut-off, which prevents new claimants joining the claim thereafter.

“Subpostmasters have brought the claim to force Post Office Ltd to accept responsibility for the flaws in its Horizon operating system, for its refusal properly to investigate accounting shortfalls and for its shoddy and careless treatment of postmasters who have lost their liberty, livelihood or savings because Post Office Ltd wrongly accused many of them of theft or fraud. As well as a court finding of responsibility, the claimant group will be seeking appropriate financial compensation in respect of loss and damage suffered.”

The claim also seeks to establish whether subpostmasters were placed under duress by Post Office Ltd when they signed off incorrect accounts or when they resigned.

Bates added: “We are looking to establish that Post Office Ltd acted ‘unconscionably’, in other words harshly, oppressively or beyond what would be considered normal commercial bargaining. If that was the case, we’ll seek to establish whether this has a bearing on either the signing of the accounts or forced resignations. We are also concerned that individuals may have been unlawfully harassed and also whether Post Office can be held liable for damages in terms of the stigma created around the affected subpostmasters, for their loss of reputation and the stress caused as a result of these serious breaches of legal obligations.”

Any subpostmaster who was in post since 1999 and experienced issues with Post Office Limited and its Horizon system including alleged shortfalls or discrepancies or other issues from using the system, may be eligible to join the case. Either go to the website, www.poclaims.co.uk, contact poclaim@freeths.co.uk or call 0800 304 7727.

ENDS

.

BBC Surrey Post Office investigation 7 Feb 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 11:45:00 +0000

This blog post contains a transcript of the BBC Surrey investigation into the Post Office Horizon computer system first broadcast on 7 Feb 2011. It complements the Inside Out South television piece which was broadcast on BBC1 South at 7.30pm the same day.

Jo Hamilton outside her former Post Office

I put up the Inside Out South piece pretty soon after it was broadcast (you can watch it here), but I've only just got round to transcribing the radio investigation. Six years (to the day) later, here it is. There is a lot of text, so I've broken it up with screen grabs from the Inside Out film.

The Post Office are currently being sued by way of class action at the High Court by nearly 200 Subpostmasters for what will likely end up being tens of millions of pounds. More on this later. For now, have a read of my first crack at this story.

7.05am 7 Feb 2011

[BBC Surrey Jingle: “BBC Surrey. With Nick Wallis.”]

NW: [live in studio] “Good morning. You’re about to hear a special investigation by BBC Surrey Breakfast. In November last year, a listener called Davinder came to me in a bad way. His wife Seema, who was a Postmistress in West Byfleet, had been sent to Bronzefield Prison in Ashford for stealing more than £70,000 from her own Post Office. In a very emotional phone call, Davinder told me his wife had never taken a penny from the business, but had fallen foul of a problem with the Post Office’s computerised accounting system. The system had showed her racking up progressively heavy losses which she would have to make good to balance the books. In order to keep the business functioning, Seema started falsifying her accounts.

NW: "Seema was pregnant when she was convicted of theft and sentenced to twelve months in jail on her son’s tenth birthday. I went to see Davinder Misra at his home in West Byfleet and asked him to tell me his and Seema’s story from the beginning…"

Davinder Misra in West Byfleet

[Pre-recorded audio - Davinder: “I used to live in London, then I moved from there to Luton and from there I bought one shop in Carrington which is nearby Luton. And I bought this shop with a flat upstairs, a freehold property.

“Then I saw one shop in West Byfleet, the Post Office, and the big huge shop and we started looking to take over the business, basically…”

NW: “And from the very first day, you started using the Post Office’s IT system, it was showing up that you were losing money?”

Davinder: “Yes. In front of trainer. He don’t have any answer and second time when the other trainer come, there is a £500 or something missing in there and I say like “what’s happening?”. Even he got no clue what’s happening.”

NW: “What was your wife saying about the money that was supposed to be going missing?”

Davinder: “When we, end of the day, when we do how much cash we have how much cheque we have, how much we sold from the system, it’s not matching at all. So it means… money’s gone somewhere. We call in… we call in ourselves “call the auditor. Find out what’s happening here”… and the auditor come… that’s the day when we started going towards disaster… [Davinder begins to cry]… they threat us: “it have to be right. Next time we’ll take the Post Office away…” [he sniffs and is very emotional] …. After that, things didn’t stop, they just kept going up and we just tried to… make it right… just going out of our minds… eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock we are sitting in the Post Office looking at paper like a mad people…” [there is a pause]

NW: “What has the last year done to you and Seema?”

Davinder: “We just… start doing fasting. Saying to our God every day… prove yourself. Now… I don’t believe any more in God… I always believed this country is unique. Because… this country… small country… it can rule all over the world. Unique. Law is so great. I used to think like this… [he cries] This is like a hell…”]

[Pre-recorded audio ends]

NW: [live in studio] “Davinder Misra there. Well I took Davinder’s story to my colleagues at the BBC South investigative journalism programme Inside Out. We found that other Subpostmasters and Subpostmistresses whose accounts haven’t matched up with the Post Office’s computerised system. Some have found themselves accused of false accounting, some have lost their life savings trying to repay this money. Some have lost their jobs, many have lost their reputations and a few, like Seema Misra, are prosecuted for theft.”

NW: “In every case we investigated, the Subpostmasters say their troubles began when the Post Office terminals installed at their branches started showing up inexplicable losses in their accounts. Losses for which they are contractually liable. The Post Office insists that their computerised accounting system, which is called Horizon is completely robust, serving 11,000 Post Offices around the country.”

Doing a piece to camera at the Misra's former flat in West Byfleet

NW: “But in the next few weeks, fifty-five Subpostmasters are planning to launch a civil action in the courts, claiming they didn’t take any money. Let’s speak to Issy Hogg who is a solicitor from Basingstoke who represented Seema in court. Morning Issy.”

Issy: “Good morning.”

NW: “We heard from Seema’s husband Davinder a moment ago. Tell me what Seema said to you when you first took up her case.”

Issy: “Well she was in trouble because she’d admitted false accounting, but she’d also been charged with theft and denied taking any money.”

NW: “So if she didn’t do anything wrong, why did she plead guilty to false accounting?”

Issy: “Well she was creating false accounts because as each debt came up she was trying to buy time to find out where this money was going. And also she was scared that the Post Office might dismiss her.”

NW: “But Subpostmasters aren’t left alone with these computer terminals are they? There’s a helpline, there’s advisors and trainers will come in to the post office to provide support. Did Seema try to make use of this?”

Issy: “Oh initially she did, but she was finding the advice she was given wasn’t solving her problems and she was also concerned about losing her contract.”

NW: “Yeah but if I handled cash for a living, and my employers said that I owed them thousands of pounds, I would dispute it. Why didn’t Seema dispute it, rather than try to hide it?”

Issy: “Well the Post Office contract enables the Post Office to recover losses however they’re caused and they can also terminate the contract. And also of course they can take away a business that you’ve invested thousands of pounds into. So clearly she was very scared - she couldn’t explain the losses and they were rising faster than she could handle them.”

NW: “But when Seema’s case came to court and she became your client, you couldn’t prove that there was a problem with the Post Office’s computer system.”

Issy: “That’s correct. We did as much investigation into the computer system as possible and couldn’t prove it was faulty but that’s when obviously we found out that there were a considerable number of people - other people - that have got similar problems.”

NW: “Well that’s the interesting thing isn’t it? But I have to ask the question - is it possible that you’re being duped by some very clever people who’ve been creaming off money from the Post Office?”

Issy: “Well I suppose that’s always a possibility. However I went to the first meeting of Subpostmasters and I don’t think anyone - not even a highly sceptical criminal lawyer of 26 years like myself could have left that meeting without thinking that something was just not right.”

NW: “ Seema was convicted of theft, unanimously, by jury at Guildford Crown Court and for them to do that, they had to be convinced, beyond all reasonable doubt, that she took the money.”

Issy: “Oh that’s absolutely true and obviously I respect the decision. But it doesn’t alter the fact that there are many out there with the same story.”

NW: “You saw Seema recently since she’s been in prison. How is she and how’s her baby?”

Issy: “She’s bearing up and the baby’s fine.”

[Break]

NW: [live in studio] “Good morning, you’re listening to a special investigation by BBC Surrey breakfast. Earlier we heard from Davinder Misra whose wife was the West Byfleet Postmistress before she was sent to prison convicted of stealing more than £70,000 from the Post Office....”

[Pre-record of Davinder] “Feel shame on this country. They put innocent… into prison. I am a good citizen. My wife… only good citizen - we are good people! She’s everything for me. They put a hammer into [indistinct]. You’re putting the whole family into prison.” NW [on tape] “Have you told your son about where your wife is? Davinder: She’s in hospital. She’s in hospital.”

[Pre-recorded audio ends]

NW: [live in studio] “Now legal action is expected to be taken against the Post Office on behalf of 55 Postmasters and Postmistresses who like Seema, claim they didn’t take a penny, but believe they are victims of a flawed computerised accounting system which the Post Office says is not remotely faulty. Now - Jo Hamilton is one of six test cases who is expected to go to court first. She used to run the Post Office in North East Hampshire’s South Warnborough until she was prosecuted for false accounting and told to repay £36,000 that she claims she never took. Good morning Jo… tell us your story.”

Jo: “Well it started a long time ago and I got to the end of one week when I was doing the balance…

NW: “How long ago was this then?”

Jo: “…. That was 2003. And I got to the end of the week and I was minus £2000 - that was give or take a few pounds and I rang the helpdesk like you’re supposed to do, and they told me to do - this, this, this, which I duly did. And it doubled, the amount of money I’d rung them about.”

NW: “So let’s try and get an idea of your situation. You’re behind the Post Office counter, you’re staring at the computer terminal and it flashes up when you’re doing your books at the end of the week that you owe it £2000. You owe the business £2000.”

Horizon touchscreen

Jo: “Yeah what you do is rollover. You do what they call a trial balance. You rollover and it tells you how much money you’re up or down and it said I was down £2000.”

NW: “So that comes up on the screen so the first thing that you do is call the helpline.”

Jo: “Well I looked back through what I’d done and I tried to see if there was anything obvious and then I phoned the helpdesk, which is always very busy at that time on a Wednesday, because everybody else is phoning up. So it took me a long time to get through and then, when I did get through they told me to do various things and it doubled, the amount of money that I’d rung them up about. So I was then minus £4,000.”

NW: “So by the end of the conversation with the helpdesk, you were now £4,000 down rather than £2,000.”

Jo: “Yeah.”

NW: “And just give us an idea - because many people might not have been to South Warnborough - how much money were you turning over a week?”

Jo working in South Warnborough Village Stores

Jo: “Well - probably a little bit more than that. It was a tiny sub-post office. We were doing about £2,000 worth of pensions a week, probably a thousand pounds worth of stamps.”

NW: “So this would represent a massive amount of money, compared to your overall takings, to go missing.”

Jo: “Yes.”

NW: “What happened when the money that you were told you owed, doubled to £4,000?”

Jo: “Well they got a supervisor on the line and they tried to sort it out but whatever we did - they told me to print off the last week’s transactions and the last month’s transactions… and I printed everything off, sent it to them, but they still couldn’t put it back to the £2,000 let alone the £4,000. And so then they asked me for the money which I didn’t have so they then took it out of my wages for the next ten months.”

NW: “And then, after you paid it back, your problems started again.”

Jo: “Yep. I had another £750 discrepancy, which they then took out of my wages again, which left me lacking in confidence.”

NW: “So what happened the next time?”

Jo: “Well, that’s when it started to climb again, and I knew I didn’t have the money, I knew I hadn’t taken it and I didn’t really know what to do because I knew if I phoned up a similar thing would happen. And the money wasn’t there in the business, but I knew I hadn’t taken it.”

NW: “But it’s not the job of the helpline to balance your books, is it?”

Jo: “No but I couldn’t explain where the monies were going. I knew I hadn’t had it and I didn’t know how to sort it out.”

NW: “So what did you start to do?”

Jo: “I started to pretend the money was there that wasn’t.”

Horizon terminal - keyboard and touchscreen

NW: “Which is a criminal offence - false accounting.”

Jo: “Yeah, yeah.”

NW: “How long did this go on for?”

Jo: “It went on for another… about 14 months.”

NW: “Until the losses had racked up to £36,000. And these losses would just keep racking up. You’d just keep seeing them. And you were absolutely certain that your books… internally…

Jo: “… yep…”

NW: “… you weren’t…. there wasn’t anyone else there who could have stolen the money?”

Jo: “Nope.”

NW: “What happened when it got to £36,000?”

Jo: “It got to £36,000 and they rang up and said “We’re concerned about the amount of cash you’re holding in the post office” and I thought well I’d better…”

NW: “… what because you said “I’ve got… this £36,000 I have got, you haven’t seen it yet, but it’s all okay, it’s all there” so they think that you’re holding it in a safe rather than not having it all?”

Jo: “Yeah.”

NW: “Right, okay.”

Jo: “And they ring up and say, she said “we’re concerned about the amount of cash you’re holding on the premises, so we need you to remit some back.” so I got in touch with the Federation of Subpostmasters and said “what shall I do?” and they said “well we’ll come and get them to audit you because you haven’t had an audit for several years” and they [the Post Office auditors] came out and told me how much was missing, which was the £36,000.”

NW: “Then what happened?”

Jo: “Then we went through all the legal processes and I pleaded guilty to false accounting. They charged me with theft and false accounting, but they dropped the theft if I paid the money back. So I paid the money back by remortgaging the house and going to the village for £6,000 and they then, um…”

NW: “Sorry, when you say - “go to the village” - what? You…?”

Jo: “We had a meeting in the village hall and explained to everyone what had happened and they stumped up the other £6,000 for me, bless them.”

NW: “What’s the process like of being prosecuted? What do you go through when you are effectively committing a criminal act for whatever reason and then being prosecuted as a result?”

Jo: “It’s absolutely terrifying. Really terrifying. If you’re a law-abiding citizen, it’s just terrifying.”

NW: “Well, let’s keep you here Jo if we can for the time being as I just want to explain what the Post Office have told us about it…. they are absolutely categorical in their support of the Horizon computer system. Unfortunately they wouldn’t be interviewed for this programme, but they did send us quite a detailed statement and our producer Jack Fiehn is here to tell us what they said. Jack.”

Jack: “Morning Nick. Well the Post Office have told us they’re fully confident of the Horizon computer system in its branches and all the accounting processes around it are absolutely accurate and reliable at all times. They say the system has been subjected to full, independently-assured, robust testing procedures. The Horizon information security processes meet the relevant industry standards which apply to such organisations as banks and building societies. Subpostmasters are given fully appropriate training and can also ring a dedicated helpline for advice. The Horizon system has operated succesfully for over ten years across the Post Office network, which currently stands at more than 11,500 branches.”

NW: “So the Post Office - robust in their defence of this system then?”

Odiham Post Office 2011

Jack: “Yes, and the Post Office go on to say the National Federation of Subpostmasters, which vigourously represents the views and interests of Subpostmasters around the entire country has gone on record on a number of occasions to express its full confidence in the accuracy and robustness of the Horizon system. The Horizon system provides detailed records of every transaction, no matter how small or large in any individual Post Office branch. Separate records of every keystroke in the system are stored in a tamper-proof way. Finally they say that the Post Office handles large sums of public money as well as the money entrusted to it by the twenty million people who visit the branches each week. The Post Office rightly makes every effort and takes all reasonable steps to protect the money in its care. Now - BBC Surrey has also approached the Postal Affairs Minister and Kingston and Surbiton Lib Dem MP Ed Davey - he also wouldn’t come on this morning but he made this comment, he said “I have recently met representatives from the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance to hear their concern, whilst this system is a matter for Post Office Ltd, I have however asked them to look into the matter and they’ve expressed their full confidence into it.”

NW: “Thanks Jack. Well Jo, I want you to have a listen to this because we’ve mentioned the National Federation of Subpostmasters, which is effectively the Subpostmistresses and Subpostmasters’ union. This is what Mark Baker, from that organisation had to say:”

[Pre-recorded audio - Mark Baker]: “If you cannot balance those accounts then you should just simply say to the Post Office - “I cannot balance my account and I do not wish to make good the money because I feel there are reasons why I should not, therefore this branch will not open until I can have a debate with you and get to the bottom as to whether or not I am responsible for the shortage, or indeed there’s another reason as to why the shortage has occurred.”

[Pre-recorded audio ends]

NW: [live in studio] “So was this an option for you, Jo?”

Jo: “No, well, I didn’t realise I could close it. I thought I was contractually bound to keep it open. And whilst it went on and they held the money in what they called a suspense account until they couldn’t sort it out and I had to pay the money back I didn’t realise that I could actually close, so I carried on trading whilst all this was happening.”

NW: “There are some interesting issues about training there as well, aren’t there? Jo’s lawyer Issy Hogg is still with us. Issy last October you actually went to see the Minister for Postal Affairs Ed Davey about all of this. What did he say?”

Issy: “Well he gave us a very sympathetic ear, listened to us for quite some time, but I have to say I’m not sure how it’s moved on since then.”

NW: “Mm okay well I understand a letter has been sent again, referring us back to the Post Office who say they have full confidence in the system, so at the moment he’s not getting involved. Issy Hogg and Jo Hamilton thank you very much for coming in this morning.

“After 8 o’clock this morning we’re going to hear what Jo’s MP James Arbuthnot has to say about her situation and we’ll be speaking to the Woking MP Jonathan Lord who’s taken a special interest in this story. Don’t forget you can watch all this if you live in the BBC South region tonight on BBC1 the Inside out programme starts at 7.30”

[The programme then continues, focusing on other matters until 8.05am and then we repeat, word for word, the introduction we broadcast at 7.05am into the Davinder Misra, pre-recorded audio. I pick up off the back with]:

NW: [live in studio] “Davinder Misra, who’s wife Seema has been jailed for theft. Well Issy Hogg is Seema’s lawyer. Earlier I asked her why Seema didn’t simply dispute the discrepancies which were coming up on her computer terminal.

Dave Bristow, former Odiham Subpostmaster

[Issy and NW audio recorded just after 7.05am: “The Post Office contract enables the Post Office to recover losses however they’re caused and they can also terminate the contract. And also of course they can take away a business that you’ve invested thousands of pounds into. So clearly she was very scared - she couldn’t explain the losses and they were rising faster than she could handle them.”

W: “But when Seema’s case came to court and she became your client, you couldn’t prove that there was a problem with the Post Office’s computer system.”

Issy: “That’s correct. We did as much investigation into the computer system as possible and couldn’t prove it was faulty but that’s when obviously we found out that there were a considerable number of people - other people - that have got similar problems.”

NW: “Well that’s the interesting thing isn’t it? But I have to ask the question - is it possible that you’re being duped by some very clever people who’ve been creaming off money from the Post Office?”

Issy: “Well I suppose that’s always a possibility. However I went to the first meeting of Subpostmasters and I don’t think anyone - not even a highly sceptical criminal lawyer of 26 years like myself could have left that meeting without thinking that something was just not right.”]

[Pre-recorded audio ends]

NW [live]: “And yet, Seema Misra was found guilty, unanimously, by a jury at Guildford Crown Court of theft, and sent to jail. However, in the next few weeks a civil action on behalf of 55 Subpostmasters is expected to be launched in the courts. They all claim they never took any money. Jo Hamilton is one of six test cases which is expected to go to court first. She used to run the post office in South Warnborough near Odiham until she pleaded guilty to false accounting and was told to repay £36,000 which again, she claims, she never stole. Here’s what she told me earlier…”

[Recorded audio with Jo from interview after 7.05am: “I couldn’t explain where the monies were going. I knew I hadn’t had it and I didn’t know how to sort it out.”

NW: “So what did you start to do?”

Jo: “I started to pretend the money was there that wasn’t.”

NW: “Which is a criminal offence - false accounting.”

Jo: “Yeah, yeah.”

NW: “How long did this go on for?”

Jo: “It went on for another… about 14 months.”]

[Pre-recorded audio ends]

NW [live]: “Well Jo Hamilton’s MP is James Arbuthnot.”

James, now Lord Arbuthnot

[Pre-recorded clip with James Arbuthnot from Inside Out South: “I find it very difficult to believe that all these Subpostmasters and Subpostmistresses are suddenly found to be dishonest if the alternative may be that it is a public-sector computer system which has gone wrong. We’ve heard of that before.”]

[Pre-recorded audio ends]

NW [live]: “Well listening to his parliamentary colleague and the story of Jo and Seema is Jonathan Lord, the MP for Woking whose constituency covers West Byfleet. Jonathan - good morning.”

JL: “Good morning.”

NW: “What do you think is going on here?”

JL: “Well it’s difficult to be entirely sure. Obviously some very sad stories with some very sad outcomes and I just want to make sure we get to the bottom of this, that there’s a full investigation and that systems are put in place where… that people think are fair and robust.”

NW: “We tried to get Mr Davey, who is the minister for postal affairs on the programme this morning. Sadly he was unavailable, but he did tell us this was an operational matter for the Post Office and that they have expressed to him full confidence in their computer system. Jonathan Lord - Ed Davey is a coalition partner of yours - is he right to be sitting on his hands here?”

JL: “Well the Post Office is ultimately responsible to the parliament and through parliament to the people, and I suspect there’s a little bit more going on behind the scenes than the minister is willing to let on. I hope that is the case because when you have constituents in these sorts of issues, you want to know that a publicly-owned and managed institution is treating people fairly.:

NW: “You say you want to see a full investigation. What form should that investigation take?”

JL: “Well I think we need absolutely independent, double-checking of the Horizon computer system, but the other aspect…

NW: “The Post Office have said “independently-assured” - I’m not quite sure myself what that means but they are saying that it is pretty robust.”

JL: “Well I would certainly like to hear more about that. But I think also the processes that is… that happens if discrepancies are shown up within a Subpostmasters’ systems. I think that needs looking into. I think our Postmasters need to be able to contact the Post Office in the knowledge that things will be looked at in a fair, balanced and compassionate way. Peoples’ livelihoods are on the line here. They might have… they almost certainly have invested thousands if not tens of thousands of pounds in their businesses, and if they don’t feel secure in going to the Post Office and saying “Look - there’s a discrepancy here. I need help”, rather than thinking the Post Office, because of the contract they’ve signed is going to pounce on them and potentially take them out of the business they’ve worked so hard to build up and put so much money into, then you can understand why they feel worried and why that side of things certainly needs looking at as far as I’m concerned.”

NW: “Seema, your constituent, is pregnant, she’s is jail, despite never having any convictions against her in the past. There is, apparently, the threat of deportation hanging over her because she has an Indian passport and then she has to repay the £74,000 she has been unanimously convicted of stealing, yet no one has ever found this money and Seema says it was she who alerted the Post Office to losses in her branch in the first place. Where do your sympathies lie?”

JL: “Well you played the audio of Mr Misra and I think it’s very difficult not to have sympathy with Mr and Mrs Misra. The law must run its course. Obviously, as their constituency MP I’m going to do everything that I can to help that family. Mrs Misra is pregnant, she has a ten year old son. I will be doing my duty for my constituents, but there is a wider issue here. This is one case, one tragedy, there are many others out there and I think we just have to be absolutely sure that the system is robust and that people if they get into difficulties because of what they believe are glitches in the system, that that is dealt with promptly, fairly and that they feel that they can go to the Post Office authorities and have it dealt with in a fair and proper way without feeling that their livelihood is immediately at risk and I think that is what some of them feel at the moment.”

NW: “From what you’ve heard and from what you know about this situation, do you think either with regard specifically to Seema or in the round with the number of cases that have come to our attention that there has been a miscarriage of justice somewhere along the way?”

JL: “Well let’s hope that this civil action gets to the bottom of most of the outstanding questions. But it does appear to me and one or two colleagues who have had constituents in a similar position - some of us feel that these are probably upstanding citizens and their cases need reviewing and that’s certainly how I feel about things.”

NW: “Jonathan Lord, MP for Woking, thank you. Unfortunately no one from the Post Office was available to be interviewed this morning, however it is worth reiterating that the Post Office says it has “complete faith” in its Horizon IT system and says there is “no evidence whatsoever pointing to any fault” with its technology. You’ve been listening to a special investigation by BBC Surrey Breakfast and you can see more on this story on the BBC South edition of Inside Out tonight at 7.30 on BBC1 - it will be available online to everyone who has broadband access to the BBC iplayer shortly afterwards. It’s twenty-one minutes past eight.”

[Ends]

For further information on the Post Office Horizon story, you can have a look at the Justice For Subpostmasters' Alliance website, and read some of the Post Office responses to various allegations on their corporate site.

Or you can click around this blog.

If you are a former Subpostmaster, Subpostmaster's Assistant (ie Sub Post Office employee) or an employee of a Crown Post Office and wish to join the class action against the Post Office, you can find out more here. You've got until 26 July 2017 to sign up.

.

The Best Guitar Solo Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 01:58:00 +0000

It's late and I'm meant to be writing a script, but I'm listening to music and I'm being distracted by a song I've heard a thousand times. It contains the greatest guitar solo ever and it's called Out There by Dinosaur Jr.

Out There is on an unimpressive studio album called Where You Been.

I got into Dinosaur Jr in 1988 because I was told to by the Melody Maker. I bought Bug and loved Freak Scene.

The guitar noise was visceral and mixed to be very loud, and J Mascis' tuneless drawl was ace.

After Bug, Dinosaur Jr recorded and released a cover of The Cure's Just Like Heaven. I have no idea why, but it raised their profile.

I read a few interviews with J Mascis and got the impression he was not the greatest talker. Fine. I knew I liked Dinosaur Jr, but I didn't love them.

When Where You Been came out in 1993, I bought it. My life is plagued by albums I have bought with One Good Song on them. Where You Been is in that category, but it was that One Good Song which made me fall in love with Dinosaur Jr.

Out There is a towering piece of music. It starts with a scratchy rhythm guitar riff, which is great. Before you've come to understand how good it really is, a blistering crash bangs it out of the way and a lead guitar line takes you up to the opening vocal. It's already so loud it hurts.

Out There is in a minor key and has a sombre edge. After years of listening to it, I was made aware it was about J's departed father, but I can't find any corroboration for that on google. Nonetheless it helped me make sense of the refrain:

I know you're out there
I know you're gone
You can't say that's fair
Can't you be wrong?

... which comes in at 1m11s. It lets the song subtly change up a gear. The riff disappears, J's voice picks up the melody, the drums go into fills and the tune and the rhythm and lead guitar lines start banging against each other.

After the first chorus, the riff resets and we embark on verse 2.

So far so normal.

After chorus 2, something weird happens. The lead guitar just pings off and, seemingly at will, induces a middle eight key change, which J's voice (flat and weak at the best of times), patently can't handle. J goes for it anyway. It's strangely affecting. One of the guitar parts starts chiming sevenths, like bells. It's haunting.

The middle eight finishes. In the final bar the lead guitar climbs down into the original key. The riff returns, but now it doesn't sound so scratchy - it's bounding along, almost swinging, straight into verse 3. Verse 3 is sonically the same as verses 1 and 2, but feels different. We've gone through something together. We're now there, ready for anything.

Verse 3 finishes. At 3m38s, the Greatest Guitar Solo Ever begins.

Imagine having such supernatural control of an inanimate object you could make it come alive with your bare hands. That is what J Mascis is doing with his guitar in this solo. It is lyrical and soulful and electrifying and loud and poignant and tuneful and beautiful and clear and fuzzy and spontaneous and you can't help but think: "This is quite good."

After transporting you with its brilliance for a full minute, it remembers it has to prepare the ground for a second middle eight. And this is what makes it the Best Guitar Solo Ever. Instead of stopping at the point the second middle eight starts, the solo just ploughs on through. The chiming overdub comes back, the vocal returns - stretched, flat, but somehow triumphant, and underneath, the solo keeps going, pulling down the stars. It's dazzling. A technical skill allied to a noise very few people on the planet are capable of making.

The final 1m14s of Out There is a collision of terrible vocals, awe-inspiring technical skills and a thumping climax to an already draining near six minute epic.

Try it. You might like it.

Julian Wilson

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 21:38:00 +0000

Julian Wilson 1949 - 2016

I only met Julian a couple of times. I spoke to him quite a bit on the phone and got to know something of his life over the course of the last five years.

He was, I suppose, what we journalists call a contact. But his gentle manner, generous spirit and calm good humour made me think of him as more than that.

Julian Wilson was a Subpostmaster and one of the founding members of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance. He and his wife Karen had their lives turned upside down by problems with the Horizon computer system in their Post Office.

Julian was prosecuted by the Post Office for false accounting, pleaded guilty and went to his grave a near-bankrupt convicted criminal. Julian was one of the many former Subpostmasters accepted onto the mediation scheme launched in 2013, only to be told, more than a year later, that as a convicted criminal, the Post Office would not mediate with him.

When he died, Julian’s conviction was one of the twenty being considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He was also one of the dozens of former Subpostmasters currently suing the Post Office at the High Court for the damage done to their reputations and lives.

Julian found out he had terminal cancer towards the end of last year. This summer he deteriorated rapidly.

I never made a film specifically about Julian. I just used to call him for a chat, to get an alternative perspective on what was happening with the Horizon story and get his opinion of how things were going.

“Hello Nick…” he’d say every time I called up. “What can I do for you?”

That was Julian in a nutshell. It was all about what he could do for me. He never once asked me to do anything for him. Not once. He would always take the call and always help where he could. Then he would ask after my kids and my work and always end the conversation by saying “Call me anytime, Nick. Any time you like.”

When I was told Julian had cancer I didn’t immediately pick up the phone. I got round to it in April. He was fresh out of surgery and preparing for another bout of chemotherapy. I’d heard things were touch and go, but his voice sounded strong and he was cheery as ever.

“Don’t worry.” he told me “I’m on the mend. I'm feeling better. Things are going to be alright.”

We spoke about his determination to see his name cleared and the latest on the various legal obstacles he and the JFSA were facing. There was never a trace of bitterness about Julian. He accepted things with great patience even though he was still in danger of losing his house because of the Post Office’s pursuit of him.

Given that activists have been campaigning against the Post Office for more than a decade, I felt Julian’s situation could be used to highlight how long everything was taking and that, for some, time may be running out. Julian agreed it made sense. He had no qualms about appearing on camera, even though he might not be looking his best.

I remember interviewing Julian in December 2014 alongside his wife Karen in a village hall in Fenny Compton, where the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance met for the first time back in 2009. Karen stood there with tears streaming down her face as Julian explained in his measured, Hampshire burr how problems with the computer system at their Post Office in Astwood Bank had caused their lives to fall apart.

Julian and Karen's story will be told another day. For now I just want to say goodbye to a lovely man whose company and time I enjoyed very much. It is a crying shame he had to dedicate the latter years of his life to fighting penury and trying to clear his name.

He was a kind-hearted and genuine human being.

I feel like I’ve lost a friend.

.

The superlification of language

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Mon, 23 May 2016 10:03:00 +0000

Unless someone has already done so, I'd like to claim the term "superlification" as a process, specifically the superlification of language.

We used to say "right" or "good" or "thanks". We graduated to "great" and "brilliant", and now it's "awesome!" or "perfect!" (seemingly interchangeable terms despite having wholly different meanings).

There's more, of course. "Epic" still seems popular among my teenage relatives and half decent albums by average bands are routinely (and rather desperately) described as "iconic".

A hotel receptionist recently called my completed registration form (or perhaps the competence with which I completed the registration form) "perfect". I thought I could have done better.

Likewise I am always delighted when someone thinks my agreement with or willingness to do something is "awesome", but it's not really, is it? It's usually the minimum expectation given the circumstances.

"Awesome" tends to exist more in speech. "Perfect" seems to be proliferating wildly in both emails and speech.

I have no real problem with any of this, language and meaning always changing etc, but I do wonder now we've hit "perfect" where the superlification of language can go next. Will it create a problem that superlification cannot overcome, so we leave that element of our exchanges behind? Maybe emojis and gifs in emails are already doing that.

Anyway. Whatever.

Have an amazing day.

******************
I've just remembered I have form on this. Here's something from 2010 called Have a Lovely Day.

New website, new agent

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 21:52:00 +0000

I have hooked up with Seamus Lyte, from Seamus Lyte Management. He politely suggested that whilst this blog was fine, I needed something a bit more professional looking. So I have built a new website. It has lots of photos of me - like this one...

.... my TV and radio credits, my showreel and a short biog. If you dialled www.nickwallis.com it used to bring you here. Now it takes you to my proper website. I hope you like it.

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Meeting David Jones in Bromley, a long time ago.

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 19:53:00 +0000

My wife's uncle Jonathan has a David Bowie reminiscence. He once shared it with me over lunch...

Bromley, the summer holidays of 1958. Jonathan was twelve. He was told by his parents to stop knocking around the house, so he wandered down to the local park, King's Meadow, off Burnt Ash Lane, to play on the swing.

The swing was a big one ("what they used to call a 'Long Lizzie'") which could accommodate several children.

The park was deserted save for a younger boy already sitting on the swing. Jonathan joined him and they got talking.

"He asked me which school I went to and I said Bromley Tech. He became quite animated and said 'I'm starting there this September.'"

Jonathan doesn't remember much more about what they said or did, other than sit idly and chat, watching the trains go past.

"We finished our conversation and I thought no more about it until the first day of school in September. This boy came bouncing up and said, 'Hello do you remember me? I'm David Jones... you know, we met...' And I vaguely remembered, so I said 'Oh yes. Hello.'"

"And that was it, really. It wasn't particularly politic to mix with the first years, so I didn't."

Jonathan kept tabs on David because they had a mutual friend in George Underwood, who Jonathan knew from primary school. George was responsible for giving David his famous eye condition whilst at Bromley Tech when they fell out over a girl.

Jonathan remembers David chose to make a guitar in his woodwork class, which he played in the school band he formed with George.

I don't know why I found this story so affecting when I first heard it, and I don't know why I find it affecting now. Perhaps it's in the moment of humiliation for the guileless young Jones, bursting with enthusiasm on his first day at school, being snubbed by someone he thought might be a friend.

Or it could be the image of that 1950s child, sitting alone in the park on the swing, passing time like any young schoolboy, unable even to conceive of the life he'd one day live.

.

Barrister criticises Post Office prosecution

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 05:33:00 +0000

Stephen Mason

Since 2011 I've been in contact with Stephen Mason, a barrister who is the author of a book on electronic evidence and the editor of a journal called the Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review.

Mr Mason has sought and received permission to publish the full transcript of Seema Misra's trial.

Seema Misra used to be a Subpostmaster at West Byfleet Post Office in Surrey. Despite being convicted of the theft of £75,000 from the Post Office by unanimous verdict at Guildford Crown Court in Nov 2010 (and subsequently sent to prison whilst pregnant), Seema has always protested her innocence. Her case is currently being considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Seema Misra

It was Seema's husband Davinder who made me aware of alleged problems with the Post Office Electronic Point of Sale and branch accounting system (Horizon) whilst Seema was still in prison. Seema was convicted on the strength of electronic evidence drawn from the Horizon system.

Since the BBC Inside Out South investigation in Feb 2011, alleged problems with the Horizon computer system and criticism over the way the Post Office suspended, sacked and prosecuted a number of its Subpostmasters has been the subject of a Select Committee Inquiry, two parliamentary debates (1 and 2), several more Inside Out investigations, two One Show pieces and a recent Panorama.

We know from the Panorama that the Post Office prosecuted one Subpostmaster for theft despite an internal investigator stating he could not find any evidence of theft. The Post Office says it cannot comment on individual cases due to confidentiality, but that a financial loss and false accounting together is often sufficient evidence for a theft charge. The Post Office maintains the Horizon system works fine and that it's never done anything wrong in any of the cases we've featured.

In his introduction to the Misra trial transcript, Mr Mason warns that the "the reader must take great care in reaching settled conclusions from the transcript of the trial, because the transcript is only one part of the entire record."

This does not stop Mr Mason from making considered, but repeated criticisms of the Post Office prosecution. Here he attacks a fundamental defence the Post Office have always made about the Horizon system - its "robust"-ness:

"To assert that a complex system, which the Horizon software appears to be, is ‘robust’, the prosecution ought to have produce [sic] evidence to establish what was meant by ‘robust’ and the truth of the claim.

"No evidence was produced to demonstrate that the system was ‘robust’, nor to establish the ‘quality’ of the system – none of the test [sic] set out in chapter 4 of Electronic Evidence seem to have been considered.

"The Post Office also failed to produce any evidence regarding the operation of the operating environment and the reconciliations, error rates, controls, and relevant internal audit processes used to ensure integrity, and to provide details of the various up- dates that fixed problems with the software."

He then goes on to address the issue of who actually controls the Horizon terminals in a Post Office:

"The comment that the defendant would have been aware of a defect in the software (excluding the specific defect discovered in a post office in Callendar Square in Falkirk) is manifestly incorrect.

"Neither observation was accurate, nor, it appears, sustained by any evidence produced at trial. Moreover, the observation (Day 1 Monday 11 October 2010, 23H – 24A) that Seema Misra was ‘the person responsible for the computer system at this office’ demonstrates the failure of the prosecutor to understand that end users of the Horizon system do not control the computer system: Fujitsu undertake this task."

Mr Mason then goes on to criticise the expert witness for the prosecution:

"Gareth Jenkins, the system architect for Fujitsu Services, was asked about the possibility that a problem that might arise between the systems [Horizon and Riposte], but he considered this was of no relevance, even though he did not know whether the problems encountered with the Riposte software might have affected the Horizon system (Day 4 Thursday 14 October 2010, 97 – 98).

"In effect, the prosecution did not present any witness for the defence to cross examine on this particular and important point, although it was admitted that the Escher software [Riposte] appeared to be the cause of the problem encountered at the post office in Callendar Square in Falkirk (examination in chief: Day 4, Thursday 14 October 2010, 46F – 50; cross examination: 88G – 111).

"Mr Jenkins relied on a great deal of hearsay in giving his evidence, he rarely obtained and submitted original data, and on occasions spoke to other people in Fujitsu Services to ascertain answers to technical questions – yet none of the people he spoke to were called to give evidence."

The assertion that it was only Seema Misra who was having problems with Horizon appears to have been contradicted during the trial:

"The previous owner of the post office run by Seema Misra claimed that they did not have any problems. It later transpired that this was not correct (Day 5, Friday 15 October 2010, 2 – 9).

"However, before the first owner of the post office made the additional admission, the prosecutor reached the false conclusion that because the first owner of the post office did not have any problems, it followed that there was no failure of the computer system at a later date (Day 1 Monday 11 October 2010, 50F)."

His conclusion:

"Arguably, the evidence of the software system was not sufficient for anybody to make a decision based on the evidence put forward in the trial [my italics], and it seems that all Professor McLachlan [expert witness for the defence] could do was highlight the fact that he had so little evidence to consider, that he was not able to offer any sensible or conclusive conclusions."

In summary, a barrister who specialises in the presentation of electronic evidence in court believes evidence presented by the Post Office during a criminal trial was "arguably" not sufficient for a jury (or indeed "anybody") to reach an informed decision. In Seema's case the Post Office didn't offer any other evidence as to her guilt of theft, a point noted by the judge in his summing up to the jury.

A barrister's opinion is just that, a barrister's opinion. But the evidence required to convict someone of a criminal offence must be beyond reasonable doubt. Mr Mason believes the prosecution's evidence was arguably insufficient. The jury, without the benefit of Mr Mason's expertise, disagreed.

I've asked the Post Office to respond to Mr Mason's comments and will post up their reply if I get one.

*********************

Further reading:

Ongoing Computer Weekly investigation into Horizon and timeline
Post Office Horizon primer written by me in 2013

Adur and Worthing Business Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:58:00 +0000

My thanks to the guests of the Adur and Worthing Business Awards on Friday night who were given the task of beating the previous year's Children in Need collection total of £380.

The dubious incentive involved being given the opportunity to watch the event's principal sponsor, James Stoner (pictured) hand over the Lifetime Achievement award wearing a Pudsey onesie.

Pitting one side of the room's collection bucket against the other and generally hassling and cajoling everyone into emptying their pockets raised £900. I've met people who have raised tens of thousands of pounds so I realise in the general scheme of things this isn't much, but I was taken aback by the spontaneous generosity.

It was great to work with James, Jeanette Hockley, Helen Tinner and all the JPSE team. It was a particular joy to spend my first night out in Worthing since 1988, especially as Rob West, who was my host 27 years ago was also there on Friday night.

This time round he was accompanied by his glamorous business partner and lovely wife Julie. In 1988 it was a different, pre-mobile phone story...

Nick Wallis: Showreel

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 16:53:00 +0000

Hopefully worth 2m54s of your time.

If you cannot see the embedded video file in this blog post, please watch it on youtube.

If you would like to check my availability or discuss potential opportunities, please use the contact form on every page of the desktop version of my blog: www.nickwallis.com, or you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter.

CV, biog, TV and radio credits can be found here.

Live event testimonials here.

My voiceover agent is Jordan at London Voiceover - jordan@londonvoiceover.co.uk
My public speaking/live event hosting agent is Abbee at Champion Speakers - ascott@championsukplc.com

Many thanks.

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Event hosting

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 11:22:00 +0000

This year I seem to be hosting a number of events and giving the odd talk. I like doing this, so if you want to have a chat about any forthcoming event you are holding, please get in touch.

Here is a testimonial from Susie Marshall at Johnston Press South Events about an awards ceremony I hosted in July this year:

"We hold a number of events throughout the year, many of which are prestigious black tie events. We are all too aware of how important it is to have a speaker who is not only engaging, charismatic and professional but is also able to create an atmosphere and maintain it. We hired Nick Wallis for some of our regional business awards and he was all of the above. Not only did the audience love him but he knew exactly how to keep everything going, moving things along when needed, giving people time when needed, he was an absolute pleasure and professional to work with. I felt completely relaxed leaving Nick to run the stage and would not hesitate to use him again in future."

I can also facilitate panel or audience debates, interview celebrities/politicians/business leaders etc as required.

By the way, I have received other testimonials for my work, but they are all before I took up the breakfast show at BBC Surrey and are therefore ancient.

If you want to know what I would have been like to hire 6+ years ago, have a look at this blog post, cunningly called Testimonials. I have put Susie's kind words into that post and will continue to update it so that it hopefully builds into a long and convincing litany of up-to-date recommendations.

Please share this (or that Testimonials) post around if you are so inclined.

Thanks.

Panorama tx card Mon 17 August

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 12:06:00 +0000

Here's the TX card for Monday's Panorama. If you can't read the writing, it says: "Has the Post Office been sending innocent postmasters to jail?"

It goes out at 7.30pm on BBC 1 (10.35pm in NI).

Joe Cooper is responsible for taking the shot you see above plus the whole of this and many other Panoramas. He is an immensely talented cameraman, who also shot a lot of the two One Show pieces we made on the subject of the Post Office before Christmas.

I'll be on the One Show sofa on Monday at 7pm discussing the Panorama piece with Matt and Alex. I do hope you can watch both programmes.

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Panorama - Trouble at the Post Office - 17 Aug 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 16:00:00 +0000

Trouble at the Post Office, 7.30pm Mon 17 August, BBC1

Sorry this blog has been so quiet of late. I've spent a few weeks working on the above programme as well as putting together the third series of Caught on Camera for Channel 5. It's been a bit hectic, to say the least.

This is what the Radio Times listing says:

"Dozens of sub-postmasters have been prosecuted after their computers showed that money had gone missing, but could there be other explanations for the cash shortfalls? John Sweeney meets a whistleblower who says there were problems with the IT system, and also investigates claims that the Post Office charged some with theft even when the evidence didn't stack up."

As you can see, I am not presenting this Panorama, but the story could not be in better hands.

I will update you with more information as we get closer to the transmission date.

For more Post Office related information, please click around this blog. I'll put up some links below shortly.

Post Office response to final Second Sight report

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 15:26:00 +0000

The Post Office have sent me a press statement dated Sunday 19 April. It deals with the final Second Sight report, which I posted here earlier. They have also sent over some additional information, which will be of interest.

At the bottom of this statement is a link to a far longer document published by the Post Office in March 2015 which comprehensively sets out their position on their Horizon IT system. It contrasts, often starkly, with the opinion of their independent investigators. Again, that will be of interest.

"Post Office Complaint Review and Mediation Scheme

Investigations over the past three years have confirmed that the Post Office’s Horizon computer system is operating as it should. It is used successfully by 78,000 people to process six million transactions every working day in communities throughout the UK.

Both the Post Office and independent forensic accountants Second Sight have found that the majority of the branch losses in complaints put forward to the mediation scheme were, in fact, caused by errors at the counter.

The Post Office is concerned that the report by Second Sight, recently made available to scheme applicants for mediation purposes, repeats complaints made by a very small number of former postmasters, as well as a number of assertions and opinions. Second Sight has been unable to demonstrate any evidence to support these.

To address this concern, the Post Office has produced a response to the Second Sight report which has also been provided to all the remaining applicants in the scheme.

A Post Office spokesman said: “Over the past three years there have been exhaustive investigations which have not found any evidence of systemic problems with the Horizon system. The mediation scheme was set up to address individual complaints and that is what we have gone to great lengths to do – a number are now resolved. The complaints are considered on their facts and substance.”

Following the completion of its investigations, the Post Office announced last month that it will put forward all remaining cases to mediation, with the exception of those which have been subject to a previous court ruling. Those cases will continue to be considered individually on a case-by-case basis.

Additional information:

Fit for purpose : A tiny fraction of the overall 500,000 people who have used Horizon since it was introduced more than a decade ago have put forward complaints. That does not constitute evidence that the IT system is flawed or unfit for purpose; indeed, if anything, it demonstrates that the system is highly reliable. During nearly three years of investigation and review there is no evidence of system wide flaws. The investigations have found the majority of branch losses were caused by errors made at the counter.

Investigations and prosecutions: We naturally take any allegation of miscarriages of justice extremely seriously. In none of the Post Office’s own work, nor through any of Second Sight’s work, has any information emerged to suggest that a conviction is unsafe.

If the Post Office decides to prosecute a case, its conduct of the prosecution is scrutinised by defence lawyers and ultimately by the Courts themselves. The Post Office has to satisfy both stages of the Code for Crown Prosecutors to start a prosecution: the evidential stage requires us to be satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction, and the public interest stage which requires us to consider whether a prosecution is in the public interest.

We are duty bound to communicate with a defendant’s lawyers, and any decision by a defendant regarding their plea is made after he or she has had the opportunity to take private and confidential legal advice and consider, with lawyers, all the available evidence. The evidential requirements for proving the offences of theft or false accounting are a matter of law.

Post Office as a prosecutor has a continuing duty to disclose immediately any information that subsequently comes to light which might undermine its prosecution case or support the case of the defendant.

It is the duty of the defence lawyers to identify to the Court where there is insufficient evidence to sustain a charge, or to seek further information from the Post Office which might assist the defendant’s case. If the Court agrees, then the Judge must dismiss that charge. Thus a charge upon which there is no evidence will inevitably fail.

‘Remote access’ to Horizon: As we have always made clear, neither the Post Office nor Fujitsu can edit or delete transactions as recorded by branches.

We’ve provided extensive information about security and data integrity and no evidence at all has been put forward that demonstrates transactions as recorded by a branch can be, or indeed have been, altered through remote means. We have comprehensively addressed the allegation, made in one case, of Horizon being accessed remotely from a basement in Bracknell to alter branch accounts. There was no connection to any live data from what was a separate and secure test environment.

Notes:

The Post Office established a Complaint Review and Mediation Scheme in 2013 to provide an avenue for postmasters to raise their specific, individual concerns. This followed an independent review of the Horizon computer system which found no evidence of systemic problems but did point to areas where the Post Office could have done more, in some cases, in areas such as training and support.

Of the nearly 500,000 users of the system since it was introduced in 2001, there were 150 applications to the mediation scheme, covering events spanning over a decade. A number were resolved at an early stage.

The Post Office published a detailed report about the investigations and the scheme in March 2015. This is available on the Post Office website."

ENDS

Exclusive: Second Sight final report in full

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 06:02:00 +0000

This is a confidential document. I am publishing it in my capacity as a freelance journalist and blogger because I believe it is in the overwhelming public interest to do so.

The link directly to it is here [scribd] and here [google drive]. If you are reading this on a mobile device I would recommend using the link which goes to the document on google drive, as scribd makes you download their free app before letting you read it all. If you are reading this on a desktop you will be fine with scribd which is also slightly easier to navigate. Both links let you download the document, which you may want to do, or you might be able to do it from the embedded version of the document below.

The Post Office have written their own 83 page rebuttal to Second Sight's final report, which I have read. It vigourously contests many of the conclusions reached by Second Sight. I have sought permission from the Post Office to publish this rebuttal on my blog.

The Post Office have sent me a press statement with additional information which I have posted here.

As I noted yesterday, the Post Office have already published their own report about the Mediation Scheme in March. This is publicly available.

*********************

Further reading:

Select Committee inquiry written and oral evidence - Feb 2015
Private Eye pieces about the Select Committee inquiry
Full transcript of Adjournment Debate - Dec 2014
Private Eye piece about the adjournment debate
The One Show Commissions - Dec 2014
Legal fisking of the 2010 Seema Misra trial by Stephen Mason written in 2016
Second Sight interim report July 2013
My first BBC film on the subject in 2011
Transcript of my first BBC radio piece on the subject in 2011
Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance
Computer Weekly Timeline
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Exclusive: Is Horizon Fit For Purpose?

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 23:12:00 +0000

I'm just reading through the latest Second Sight report into the Post Office's Horizon computer system. I think I was the first journalist in the country to see a copy. And now I'm sharing bits of it with you. How nice.

The report cost millions of pounds and was written by people who know exactly what they are talking about. And it is damning. It really is.

First off - does Horizon work properly?

Independent forensic accountants spent more than two and half years looking at Horizon. This is their conclusion:

p42 21.23 “For the Horizon System to be considered fully ‘fit for purpose’ for all users, it would, in our opinion, need to accurately record and process, with a high degere of error repellency, the full range of products and services offered by Post Office, whilst providing a clear transactional audit trail allowing easy investigation of any problems and errors that arise. The cases that we have reviewed demonstrate that this design objective has not always been achieved.”

Hmm. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it? Not really an endorsement at all. It is, in fact refusing to say that Horizon is fit for purpose. So after two and a half years of looking at it, independent forensic accountants refuse to say Horizon is fit for purpose.

Everything else is great, right?

p46 25.1 “As a result of our investigations we have established that Post Office’s investigators have, in many cases, failed to identify the underlying root causes of shortfalls prior to the initiation of civil recovery action or criminal proceedings.”

Woah... so they would accuse people of theft before doing proper investigations? Read it again. There's no equivocation there. Second Sight has concluded ("established") that the Post Office called in the prosecutors and accused people of criminal acts without properly investigating why money was going missing? That's big stuff.

What about the integrity of the system? The idea that the Subpostmaster has responsibility for her (or his) accounts because s/he and only s/he can alter them. The Post Office has always said that the people at Fujitsu who run Horizon and the Post Office who manage it cannot alter branch accounts in any way. Second Sight say:

p5 2.12 “Our current, evidence-based opinion is that Fujitsu/Post Office, did have and may well still have the ability to directly alter branch records without the knowledge of the Subpostmaster”

Oh. Someone's fibbing? Why would they do that?

What about the contract the Subpostmasters have to sign before they sink their savings into owning the business? Is that any help when things go wrong?

p7 3.7 “There is no automatic entitlement to investigative support when problems arise. There is no automatic entitlement to be provided with data held by Post Office with the exception of the data routinely made available to the branch by Horizon.”

p7 3.8 “The contract places Subpostmasters in a difficult position in these circumstances. Post Office generally insists on losses being made good, but the Subpostmaster is not necessarily entitled to receive all of the information and explanations necessary to establish the cause of the loss. We regard this as unfair.”

So it's a fundamentally unfair contract. Oh.

There's more on the Post Office's interesting approach to investigating problems later:

p36 19.6 "The failure to always investigate and correct material discrepancies is perhaps unique to the Post Office's Business Model. Unlike commercial entities that do not operate on an agency basis, Post Office has, in our opinion, little commercial incentive to establish the root causes of discrepancies because the burden of cost (and risk) is being carried in most instances either by its Subpostmasters, in the case of shortfalls, or by its customers or its clients, in the case of surpluses."

That's not worrying at all.

The Post Office have issued a response to the Second Sight report. After their own internal investigations they've actually concluded things are pretty much fine. Yes there were some training issues, and yes they probably could communicate a bit better with their Subpostmasters, but generally everything's fine. Nothing to see here.

With regards to the individual Subpostmasters who have lost their businesses and reputations, been landed with criminal records and suffered ill-health during the immense stress this has put them under, the Post Office is confident it hasn't done anything wrong. Second Sight can't call it conclusively because the Post Office won't hand over the documents they need to draw a firm conclusion.

So have there been miscarriages of justice?

Several million pounds and nearly three years into this investigation, no one knows, because the Post Office have controlled this process from start to finish. It is a slight conflict of interest, in my view.

The Post Office have kindly put their response to the Second Sight report online. But they have not yet made the Second Sight report it's responding to so widely available.

So you'll just have to take their word for it. Everything's fine. EVERYTHING'S FINE! STOP LOOKING!

Several Subpostmasters, in the light of the Post Office's recent behaviour, have given up the ghost on the mediation scheme and approached the Criminal Cases Review Commission. Watch this space.

****************

CORRECTION 1.30pm Monday 20 April 2015: The Post Office have contacted me to point out that the link above takes you to the Post Office's own review into Horizon, published in March 2015. It was being pushed this morning by the Post Office's Director of Communications, among others, and I admit I got confused. The Post Office's point-by-point rebuttal of Second Sight's report (like the Second Sight report itself) has not yet been published. I am reading it now.

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Post Office - it's all about to go off

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 16:53:00 +0000

It's all about to go off. Monday, I reckon, possibly sooner. So whilst you are waiting, here are the last two Private Eye articles on the Post Office if you haven't seen them already. First, back in Feb, there was this:

Private Eye, issue 1386, 20 Feb 2015

Then, in March, there was this:

Private Eye, issue 1386, 20 March 2015

I always post up Private Eye stuff after the relevant issue is no longer available in newsagents. Please support investigative journalism by subscribing to the magazine.

The One Show

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 20:50:00 +0000

In November last year, alongside a fine young journalist called Tim Robinson, I pitched a story to The One Show, to be produced by the excellent team at Inside Out South. The One Show liked the story, commissioned it and said I could present it. It was scheduled to go out over two parts in January but events changed and both parts went out in December.

The One Show were pleased with what we did and asked me to present a couple more films. After that they offered me a contract. Whilst we were sorting out a contract they continued to put work my way. I signed the contract towards the end of March.

Sorry it's taken so long to mention this on this blog, but now you know. Obviously I am delighted to be part of the team.

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Top Ten Albums: Love

noreply@blogger.com (Nick Wallis) — Tue, 14 Apr 2015 22:06:00 +0000

You can always tell when I haven't got much work on. I'll be banging out one of these. So ten months after my last Top Ten album, here is another:

This record brought The Cult to the attention of Rick Rubin and sparked their ill-advised American heavy rock adventure. Two decades after its release Love merited being performed in its entirety, track by track, on a special tour. It's a good album. But let's deal with the downsides first:

Nick Cave apart, I seem drawn to appalling lyricists. Singer Ian Astbury is one of them. But you don't notice at first. Unlike Electric, the terrible follow-up, Love is so immersed in batshit symbolism and dazzling guitar-work, you are distracted from how bad a writer Astbury really is.

But, as appears to be a consistent theme in this Top Ten Albums series, when I first heard it I was 14 and didn't care. Love is a monster.

l-r Ian Astbury, Jamie Stewart, Billy Duffy

She Sells Sanctuary, tucked away as the second-to-last track, is the greatest goth rock anthem ever written. Billy Duffy's ludicrously accomplished guitar playing goes jangly poppy, muscles out a catchy little riff and we're away. Astbury has an affecting voice and his vocal tics serve him well. It's a great song. It reached number 15 in 1985 and in the nineties soundtracked a tampon advert, as well as every indie disco in the country for twenty years.

Nothing else here quite reaches She Sells Sanctuary's poppy heights - yet... almost every other track nearly does. In the old days it was quite common to buy an album on the strength of a stand-out single and spend a depressing 45 minutes becoming progressively disappointed with how much pocket money you have just wasted on a duff bet. Love does not disappoint.

The opener - Love - is solid. Astbury wailing about god knows what and Billy Duffy just tearing. shit. up. Essentially this is the band saying "We're good. We're really good. We can do this sort of thing standing on our heads."

Bearing in mind musicianship wasn't something the dark hordes of post-punk goth/indie ne'er do wells cared for, this band ticked all the aesthetic boxes, yet could evidently play. Made a nice change.

Second up is Big Neon Glitter. The title contains a reference to the "Glitter Beat", a drum rhythm popularised by the paedophile glam-rocker Gary Glitter (and most recently heard on Kanye West's opus Black Skinhead). The Glitter beat drives the track through a range of guitar and vocal sonics, perfectly produced.

Then comes the big rush: Nirvana. A proper singalongagoth anthem, which is still only the second best song on the A side and the fourth best song on the album.

"Goooooorrraaayeyaaahhh!" appears to be the opening line. The chorus? "Yeeeeeveryyyyday. Nirvana! Ooooowweeeessisssbrayy, yeah yeah yeah." Find it, try it, turn it up loud, and soon you too will be singing like Ian Astbury.

The next song, Rain, is a belter. Inadvertent Spinal Tap references notwithstanding ("Hot sticky scenes/You know what I mean..."), it's the track which comes along when you're thinking....

"This album more than alright. I've just heard three cracking numbers and we haven't even got to She Sells Sanctuary yet! Bargain!"

... and proceeds to blow you away. If I had one wish in life it would be to be able to play guitar like Billy Duffy. Or Johnny Marr. But for the purposes of this post, Billy Duffy. It's not just about songwriting or technical ability, it's about a sense of what you are doing within the song and in relation to the other musicians playing it. Duffy does it so well that when Astbury first heard him play he immediately sacked his band so he could build the rest of his career around the mad Manc axe-man. And he did.

I'm not going to go on about the second side of Love - listen to it yourself. Phoenix is awful. Hollow Man is cracking. SSS is amazing, Revolution is lovely and Brother Wolf, Sister Moon is a ballad, compulsory on every goth album in those strange, far-off days.

****************************

Other top ten albums added so far:

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
The Waterboys - This is the Sea
Floodland - Sisters of Mercy
Duran Duran - Rio

The rationale for doing this.
Further rationale at the bottom of the This is the Sea entry.