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Fujitsu provided shoddy software that was inadequate for the job, then lied about it. The Post Office threw hundreds of subpostmasters under the bus, rather tha
by hermitcrab 3y ago
Fujitsu provided shoddy software that was inadequate for the job, then lied about it. The Post Office threw hundreds of subpostmasters under the bus, rather than admit the issues in the system. Senior management at both the Post Office and Fujitsu should be in the dock.
There has only been 1 Fujitsu whistleblower (as far I am aware). Surely hundreds of IT people must have known?
The mainstream print media mostly seem to have ignored this scandal, perferring instead to write about celebrity tittle tattle (with a few honourable exceptions, such as Computer Weekly and Private Eye).
This scandal has been known for years. But only the recent TV drama seems to have forced most politicians to care about it (with a few honourable exceptions, such as Lord Arbuthnot).
- anigbrowl 3y agoThe function of the mainstream media (particularly in the UK) is not to inform the public but to keep them in line. It's worth remembering that Rupert Murdoch owns 4 newspapers and a TV channel.
- hermitcrab 3y agoMurdoch has possibly done more damage to the UK than any other human being alive.
- ascorbic 3y agoThere have been literally hundreds of articles about this in the mainstream media for well over a decade. Yes, Computer Weekly and Private Eye deserve the biggest share of credit for persuing it, but it's simply not true to sat that the rest of media has ignored it. The real scandal is that even though it was widely reported, so little was done about it for years.
- hermitcrab 3y agoI would be interested to know the number of articles published on the scandal by mainstream papers, such as the independent, Guardian, Times and Telegraph.
- ascorbic 3y agoA quick search for ["post office" horizon] on The Times showed >700 articles. The Guardian and Independent both use Google, which show an improbable tens of thousands of results, but I'd imagine it's still similar to The Times.
- hermitcrab 3y agoRandomly selecting 2022, The Times seems to have published 5 articles substantially about the Horizons system. Its not nothing, but it is hardly a flood.
- alibarber 3y agoOne upshot of the current UK government being in such dire straits in terms of their popularity, and this scandal causing such a universal uproar in public opinion, is that they do seem to be bending to it and actually doing something. Enough? Probably not.
- adolph 3y agoWhile it is fair to say "Fujitsu," a more complete picture is a British company called International Computers Limited (ICL) acquired by Fujitsu after the Post Office job started. ICL seems like a British variant of IBM. The Horizon accounting system was developed by ICL Pathway, owned by the Japanese company Fujitsu. [0] International Computers Limited (ICL) was a British computer hardware, computer software and computer services company that operated from 1968 until 2002. [1] In May 1996, ICL Pathway Limited (later Fujitsu Services (Pathway) Limited) was awarded the private finance initiative contract to develop the Horizon IT system to modernize Post Office and Benefits Agency operations. [1] 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Computers_Limited https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Computers_Limite...
- alibarber 3y agoThe reference from that first wikipedia article, here: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/03011561/filing-history/OTM1OTYwNTZhZGlxemtjeA/document?format=pdf&download=0 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c..., dated 1996, states on the final page that the ultimate controller of ICL Pathway (who developed Horizon) was, at this time (1996), indeed Fujitsu. It wasn't like Fujitsu had bought the company and inherited the liability - they had in fact themselves bid for and won the project - via these intermediaries.