'Subpostmasters had their hand in the till'

You go on to say my instincts tell that in a recession, subbies with their hand in the till choose to blame the technology when they are found to be short of cash. Why was your your instinct to think that some postmasters who allege that Horizon caused shortfalls were stealing from the post office? Well, that’s an expression I’ll regret for the rest of my life. So you know, it was it was an inappropriate thing to put in an e-mail. Not not in line with. My view are some postmasters. It was the most profound structural injustice. Unmeritorious charge of theft was being used as a Jemmy or sledgehammer to force a plea or to crush sub postmasters into submission. I don’t know if that was a deliberate strategy by the post office, but that’s how it manifested itself and it’s unacceptable. It was a strategy and you ought to have been aware of that strategy. Do you accept that now? Not with hindsight, but what you ought to have known at the time? I did not know that at the time. But what? You ought to have known it at the time, Mr. Cook. Yes, I do accept. I ought to have known it. I didn’t know it would be nothing that I would ever willingly want to do.