Editorial: The Guardian

• The self-serving behavior of Post Office boss, Paula Vennells, was evident throughout the Horizon IT inquiry.
• Vennells showed her ignorance of the law and exhibited an over-reliance on others while refusing to re-examine older convictions.
• Vennells's attitude and her fixation with the reputation of the Post Office are problematic.
• Questionable behavior is not limited to Vennells but extends to lawyers and other executives as well.
• The overall impression is of a complacent bureaucracy that deemed the lives of subpostmasters to be of secondary importance.
• The evident reluctance to admit mistakes among very senior professionals expounds an institutional culture where personal and corporate self-interest blot out everything else.

Conclusion: This analysis presents a dire situation at the Post Office where high-level leadership, including former director Paula Vennells, took on a defensive and self-serving stance, sidelining the lives of subpostmasters and demanding justice.

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