Mr Bates vs The Post Office

The difference in the private sector is that inefficiency and all of the other negatives are invariably exposed in the results and the business reforms or goes under. In the public sector we all pay for them to play their game.

Dominic Casciani (BBC) Home and legal correspondent

Paula Vennells came to the inquiry with a staggeringly long witness statement and her position seems to be that she was let down by others, but should have dug more deeply.

That may be the story she wants to tell – but the fact is that in any public inquiry or courtroom, the simple story that dominates is often the one that a skilful barrister steers the witness towards accepting.

So Jason Beer, the inquiry’s lead counsel – and a master of detail – simply ignored Vennell’s statement to cut through with simple and explosive opening questions. His first shot was a huge salvo: Had she been the unluckiest boss ever?

This is the kind of question that stops a confident witness in their tracks – and a fearful one will visibly wither.

They reach for their own simple story in response but, immersed in their detail, rather than the bigger picture, they don’t always know how to tell it.

I suspect there was indeed an element of 'Paula doesn't want to hear X' in this. Her question before the Select Cttee which predicated the answer she wanted to hear re remote access comes to mind.

I thought absolutely everyone in the organisation would have known about that. When I worked a Christmas in a Royal Mail mail centre in 1999 (so back when it was part of the same group as the PO), it was covered in the 1 day induction course we got, basically as a dire warning that anyone nicking mail would be caught and that the consequences were more severe than just dismissal.

They were to her "disturbing" because they were a threat to her and the POL as she saw it, hence they needed to be crushed, that's the nub of the whole scandal.

I'm surprised Beer hasn't posed that question to her.

Guess though they aren’t getting paid £600k salaries with £300k bonus and hopefully don’t sweep anything under the carpet anymore.

Those that do seem to get sent off to NHS England before retiring.

Although Sir David Nicholson is still going strong still working in the NHS 10 years after retiring with best part of a Million pound pay off and substantial pension

Her examination is starting to sound like Shaggy's hit single.

As we're into the lunch break now, I was just reflecting on this whole enquiry, and was thinking how impressive Jason Beer is.

I know it's his job, he gets paid very well, and he has a lot of experience, and no doubt a lot of help in the preparation, but unlike the witnesses who turn up for a few hours to (in this case) 3 days, he's there every single day and asking detailed, pertinent, intelligent, and very probing questions for hours at a time, day after day, and causing major problems for some of the witnesses, some of who themselves are experienced legal professionals.

It's one of the factors that make this enquiry so interesting to watch, in addition to the obvious overriding point of wanting to see something moving towards some kind of justice for the SPMs.

You can almost see the cogs whirring as she puts together an answer she thinks Mr Beer will accept! Wasn't it Angela V who was described as a less than credible witness before? Think she's lost her title today! Oh, and she's using the waterworks way too much! Maybe someone should point out they've almost had one 'rain stopped play' today!

In a big listed multinational, at least in very competitive industries the natural competitiveness places pressure on companies to be efficient. And if investors think that they aren't delivering enough value they will sell, apply pressure to the board (for larger institutional investors) or an activist investor will start to take a position (see Paul Singer et al)