The Post Office Revisited. Suddenly It’s News. And Quite Right Too.

I wrote a Blog four years ago – January 2020 – Headed, “Computer Says NO. Go To Gaol. Just Another Day At The Post Office.”

Here it is – Link –

I expressed my amazement then, that the Horizon Post Office computer had been useless and malfunctioning since installation in 2000, and that the Country was not up in arms about it.

Although Private Eye magazine and others had reported all about it for years, the General Public seems to have had a mental block.

Douglas Adams of course recognised that if a problem is so enormous, so overwhelming, – say a great big iceberg looming in front of the Titanic, – then people will prefer to ignore it.

He explained, they are not ignoring it, they literally can’t see it. It is an SEP. It has created an “SEP* Field” around itself.

*Someone Else’s Problem

A Somebody Else’s Problem field, or S.E.P., is a useful way of safely protecting something from unwanted eyes. As we know, Slartibartfast’s ship, the Bistromath, was covered by an S.E.P. field.

His Description:- “An S.E.P. can run almost indefinitely on a torch or a 9 volt battery and is able to do so because it utilises a person’s natural tendency to ignore things they don’t easily accept, like, for example, aliens at a cricket match.

“Any object around which an S.E.P. is applied will cease to be noticed, because any problems one may have understanding it (and therefore accepting its existence) become Somebody Else’s Problem. An object becomes not so much invisible as unnoticed.

“A perfect example of this would be a ship covered in an SEP field at a cricket match. A starship taking the appearance of a large pink elephant is ideal because you can see it, yet it is so inconceivable, your mind can’t accept it. Therefore, it can’t exist, thus ignoring it comes naturally.

“An S.E.P. can work in much the same way in dangerous or uninhabitable environments. Any problem which may present itself to a person inside an S.E.P. (such as not being able to breathe, due to a lack of atmosphere) will become Somebody Else’s Problem.

“An S.E.P. can be seen if caught by surprise, or out of the corner of one’s eye.”

So – The Post Office, where friendly people sell stamps and give you your pension? What, you say? Horrible Crooks? Ooohh that’s an SEP mate. I can see it out of the corner of my eye, but I don’t want to look at it. Or think about it. Someone Else will sort it all out.

My Blog of course has changed nothing. If only I had been a playwright. Four hours of TV and now the Nation is united.

Personally, I am glued to the enquiry which is going on now – you can watch it on You Tube, the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry Live Stream.

If you read my earlier Blog, I stand by every word I wrote – except when I wrote “By the way, and not before time, it would appear that the Horizon system is now working properly. So that’s all fine.”

Apparently, it turns out, Horizon is still in use in UK Post Offices to this day. And still not working.

One postmaster, who runs two Post Offices in the South-East of England and spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said the system is still unreliable.

“You still get shortfalls. You can’t trust it. You can’t rely on it.” BBC – Link Here –

A salutary reminder to me that however avidly?you may or may not read my Blogs, they are not, on their own, likely to change the world.

Oh Well. -Song Here-

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