Endgame?

Just finished watching the final part of the ITV2 dramatisation of the Post Office Horizon scandal: "Alan Bates vs. The Post Office". I started following the story of the persecution of sub-postmasters some years ago; but this drama, I think, will open the eyes of many who missed the story at the time, because, frankly the reporting was always in niche media and effectively an echo chamber for people like me. To be fair, a story breaking in Computer Weekly and Private Eye, and thence The Guardian, is never going to reach a mass audience, which is what this utter travesty of truth and justice demands. Everyone working for a large corporate entity, at whatever level - except the bloody boardroom - will, or already have felt the clammy hands of ingrained corporate injustice and duplicity.

The truth is that the creatures that these entities employ to do their bidding are either immune from censure at the highest level or subject to its most extreme strictures at the lower strata of the organisation. The culture of fear that pervades these entities is palpable to anyone held in their thrall [personal and family experience, in entities various, entitles and informs my opinion], and the disempowerment of the isolated individual is almost total: as it was with the divide and conquer regime at The Post Office. Isolate the pawns on a chessboard and they are weakened and easily attacked. This strategy, along with a peculiar, ancient and unique legal position, and of course the power, both legal and financial, of government [sole shareholder in the 'company']; meant that isolation and brute force were almost certainly seen as a fait accomplis from the standpoint of the Post Office senior management, and that they could therefore not be challenged in their duplicity or touched by the law.

However, to stretch the chess metaphor a tad further, they failed to understand that connected and well-structured pawns have a power that transcends the mightier pieces on the board in an endgame. The pawn is the key to that endgame. The sub-postmasters who were victims to the Post Office were seen by the organisation as weak, isolated and exploitable pawns. But the middle game is finally over and the endgame begins. Let the demolition of the power structure begin...