OUT & ABOUT
24 ASIAN TRADER 17 OCTOBER 2025
The Empire strikes out
Over to the Houses of Parliament the other
evening – a bit baffled about exactly why, but
it was an invitation from the Post Office, who
had booked a (smallish) room with a river
view and appeared very keen to relaunch “the
brand” – shorn of any distasteful past associa
tions with things like imprisoning innocent
subpostmasters, then trying to cover it up for
decades until finally being caught – and then
blaming everybody else but themselves.
Lots of smiling, happy Post Office PR and
media people were energetically circulating
and grinning at us – until the main event,
which it transpired was a five-minute speech
from the new, squeaky-clean CEO Neil Brock
lehurst, who obviously had nothing to do
with the terrible, scandalous, unforgiveable (I
stress that word) conduct of the organisation
he now represents.
Your correspondent regarded all this with
a real stink-eye, sceptical and unfriendly
to the idea that all should now be forgiven
since we are all happy and smiling and pass
ing round the nibbles. Having followed the
scandal for years and knowing those who
have suffered, this little PR rebirth was not
convincing, despite Brocklehurst admitting
that the Horizon “IT scandal” (yes, folks he ac
tually used that neutral, buck-passing phrase)
has “exposed deep injustices which harm
postmasters [sic] and damage public trust in
the institution of the Post Office”.
Well, at least he got that right. The Post
Office is actively hated for what it’s done – and
unbelievably continues to do: just days after
their happy-clappy Westminster get-together,
social media was alive and outraged all over
again at the unforgiveable conduct of the
lawyers – slow-walking the subpostmaster
compensation scheme and now, apparently,
making more unforgiveable and derisory
offers.
It transpired that one subpostmaster, Janet
Skinner, whose life, career and reputation was
unjustly ruined by Mr Brocklehurst’s bunch,
had just been offered a mere fraction of her
compensation claim in final settlement.
“So let me get this straight,” wrote cam
paigner Alethea Bernard: “Victim of the Post
Office scandal Janet Skinner is offered
just 15% of her compensation claim.
Yet the disgraceful human that is
Paula Vennells walks away with £mil
lions in bonus payments. Disgusting.”
Another commentator, Mon
sieur Cholet, explained how “They
destroyed [Janet’s] life. Now they’re
dragging out justice. Janet Skinner
lost everything to the Post Office
Scandal. Her Health. Her business.
Her reputation. Years of her life. Now?
Government-appointed Lawyers are
stalling her compensation claim –
seemingly trying to pay out as little
as possible. Meanwhile, big City law
firms are extorting hundreds of millions in
legal fees. Your tax money. My tax money.”
At least it’s saving the Post Office’s face
(and coffers). They’d claim it’s government
lawyers not Post Office Lawyers who are doing
this, but that’s not true – the PO spent ages
trying to persuade victims to give up their
claims for a small amount of cash up-front
and then spent years stalling. It’s still happen
ing, and despite their apparent good inten
tions, I won’t reward the Post Office with an
answering smile until they sort their s*** out
and start being honest. Let’s see some heads
roll for starters.
It seems as if after all his hard and heroic
efforts, Sir Alan Bates will have to start all over
again to fight the evil empire on behalf of the
betrayed and abandoned Post Office employ
ees. Thankfully, he is a man who never gives
up, no matter how dumb, recalcitrant and
incorrigible the system.
A few days later I received an email from
the Post Office: “We’re sorry you weren’t able
to join us in Westminster on Monday evening
for our Green Paper reception as we mark this
important milestone for the future of the
Post Office.”
They got it half right: I was there in body, if
not in spirit.
Veggie Perrin
For anybody who remembers the classic TV
comedy series, The Fall and Rise of Reginald
Perrin: apparently there used to be an Indian
vegetarian restaurant in Plymouth called Veg
gie Perrins, whose slogan was adapted from
the catchphrase of Reggie’s boss, CJ – “I didn’t
get where I am today by ...” – and added “... eat
ing meat”. The restaurant was even opened by
the original CJ, the actor John Barron.
Sending out an SOS ...
In more company news, there’s trouble at
t’mill, with what was until recently SOS
Wholesale. The original story was that the
company had sadly gone under, but its MD Vi
pin Patara had managed to evacuate the entire
senior leadership, together with the full sales
and telesales teams, to sister firm The Soft
Drinks Company (TSDC). Patara was then
appointed MD of TSDC, having previously
served as a director for it since 2023. All good,
then, and a phoenix from the ashes story.
Except that now Mark Beckett, who
founded SOS in 1996 and later retired as MD,
has publicly criticised the circumstances
surrounding the administration, alleging
that management decisions in recent weeks
undermined efforts to rescue or sell the busi
ness.
“In the past 10 days the entire manage
ment team resigned, effectively preventing
any chance of selling the business to maxim
ise value. If you want your car to run, you put
fuel in it. If you want your business to succeed,
you invest in it. They did neither.”
“Was this a deliberate act to move them to
their sister company, The Soft Drinks Com
pany (TSDC)? This business was purchased
with funds taken from SOS Wholesale in
breach of the SPA. It is now proudly promoted
as ‘debt free’”.
Asian Trader wonders if m’learned friends
have already been instructed ...
“Stick to ya knittin’”
The sad news reaches us that craft beer
pioneers BrewDog have sold the
£8.8m Scottish forest they began
planting in 2021, after recent dif
ficult trading meant cuts (chops?)
had to be made. The original idea
was that with for every multi-pack
of Lost Lager sold, BrewDog would
plant a tree in its “Lost Forest” as
part of a “Buy one, get one tree”
initiative (geddit?). Well, now
they’ve gone and lost the Lost
Forest – along with most of the
BrewDog pubs, which are also be
ing closed.
The economics of beer-forestry
didn’t seem to add up five years
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