If you’ve ever been in a legal battle, you know: no pay-out can ever give back your time, undo trauma, or erase damage to your mental health.Watching the PostOfficeScandal victims on BBCNews this morning📺 and for these:
⛓️ No cheque takes away nights spent in prison wrongly accused.
💸 No compensation erases bankruptcy.
🏠 No £ restores the career you built or returns your home.
💔 Nothing reverses the heartbreak of a divorce — the social isolation; who could really understand unless you’re literally walking the same road? 🚶♂️🚶♀️
The problem: you won’t meet those ‘new friends’ for another two decades ⏳. So buckle in, toughen up — it's a long journey you have to travel alone.
3,700 people are still waiting for redress 🐢. The Horizon system was introduced in 1999. Imagine reliving this for decades & still being stuck halfway through ⏸️. To discuss this over & over. Psychologically, have you really moved on? Can you, without seeing this through?
It must feel so controlling & at this point, it doesn’t just feel like it’s designed to wear people down — it is.
In a legal process, you see the tactics: waiting 'til the last deadline to ask for forms & evidence, more info & explanations, until you’re too fatigued to fight anymore. Responding is anger-inducing, painful & swearing at the post won’t help, so you bury yourself in more proof, searching for answers for your truth. They drain your energy, your WILL to go on 😞.
13 suicides linked to this scandal 💔, over 350 people have passed away without seeing justice, most suffering declining health caused by stress. Some never live long enough to see or enjoy their compensation, which is outrageous.
Life doesn’t move on so some have accepted half of what they’re due, just to put an end to this. But that’s a compromise too far ❌. They’ll never truly feel closure. Bullied into settling leaves them with an even deeper sense of injustice. No accountability. No apology. Is that really closure?
Living in constant fight-or-flight takes a toll 💥.
Public outrage ignited earlier last year when Mr Bates vs. The Post Office (TV Series) was released in Jan. 🎥 With around 14 million viewers, it forced the government to announce legislation to exonerate & compensate victims. 18 months later, it’s still going on.
With all the money spent on legal fees, couldn’t this have been settled long ago? It shouldn’t take 14 million viewers and a TV show to right a wrong.
It feels a bit like clapping for nurses on the doorstep in 2020 👏, followed by criticism just a few years later. Where’s their support now? 💔
To all the #subpostmasters and their families: you deserve better 🙏.
Thanks, BBC, for giving these people a platform to vent, a place to be heard & validated. Who else watched this morning? What are your thoughts? 👉 Does anyone really win in a system that drags on this long?