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Post Office has run out of road thanks to an honest, stubborn man

There’s a long way to go before reparations have been made, but Alan Bates has finally proven in the Horizon inquiry that the operator went rogue

As Alan Bates took the stand for the latest phase of the Horizon inquiry, it would be de trop (too much) to say that it was as if Madonna had entered the room, but even the judge, Sir Wyn Williams, seemed impressed. Not the Alan Bates? There was an expectant hush as he was asked to state his full name. I don’t know what the world was expecting, to be honest. “Alan ‘scourge of the corrupt’ Bates”? “Just call me The Enforcer?” “Alan Bates,” he said, with the faintest imaginable amusement on his face. Somewhere in that national hero’s head, there’s a voice saying, “I’m not the Messiah, I’m just an honest, stubborn man.” The living nightmare of shitehawks and con artists everywhere – an honest, stubborn man.

It has become absolutely de rigueur (custom) for everyone from politicians to phone-in punters, to observe: “It’s an outrage, that it would take an ITV drama, to get justice for the sub-postmasters”. It is, indeed, chilling.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

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