Paula Vennells returns her CBE

Too little too late and obviously returned before it could be taken from her.

I just find it all so depressing that it takes a drama on TV to kick people up the rear to stat doing the right things that should have been done years ago.

I don't believe she's had a rush of conscience, but I might reconsider if she gives the £400K bonus she received to be shared among those whose lives she hoped to ruin.

Luckygirl3

I just find it all so depressing that it takes a drama on TV to kick people up the rear to stat doing the right things that should have been done years ago.

Exactly.

You have to wonder how reliable those who nominated her are though.

The question now is why, when as late as 2019, when much of the ongoing debacle was in the public domain, was she awarded it in the first place.

I wonder WHO recommended her & who signed it off.

She in now chairperson for a NHS Trust as well as directorships of Morrisons and Dunelm.

Urmstongran

I wonder WHO recommended her & who signed it off.

She in now chairperson for a NHS Trust as well as directorships of Morrisons and Dunelm.

Paula Vennells was appointed Chair of Imperial College NHS Trust in 2019 but left the role early in 2020. She resigned from the Boards of Morrisons and Dunelm in April 2021 after the Court of Appeal quashed the wrongful conviction of dozens of staff of the Post Office.

I just heard on the radio that she nearly became Bishop of London. She was in the last 3 who were up for the job.

Some people have skin as thick as a rhino, she appears to have no shame whatsoever.
She didn’t deserve the CBE to start with and there should be some serious questioning of the people who put her forward to it.
She must have thought her God was responsible.

Very sensible decision, if there is an enquiry she will have to give evidence, until then she can say nothing.

Urmstongran

I wonder WHO recommended her & who signed it off.

She in now chairperson for a NHS Trust as well as directorships of Morrisons and Dunelm.

I wonder WHO recommended her & who signed it off

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/who_nominated_paula_vennells_for

Thank you TheatreLover for clarifying my post. It’s good to be updated. Keeps the threads factual.

Also, this from today’s Telegraph is interesting I thought.

“ It is surprising that Tim Parker, the chairman from 2015 until 2022, when he stepped down just before the public inquiry into the scandal opened, has not received more attention. According to Lord Arbuthnot, Mr Parker’s handling of the litigation involved (he ran, too, the Post Office’s litigation sub-committee) was “atrocious”. He pursued Mr Bates, although he must have known that the Post Office and Fujitsu, the software supplier, had remote access to the sub-postmasters’ accounts and that therefore all their convictions must have been unsafe.

While at the Post Office, Mr Parker was also chairman of the National Trust. Under him, the charity began its semi-surreptitious introduction of policies designed to discredit some of its country houses, including Winston Churchill’s Chartwell, by making tendentious links with slavery and “colonialism”. When this blew up into a major crisis for the NT, Mr Parker was somehow not to be found.”

So far she she has seemed to me to be way out of her depth. Wringing your hands and bleating that you're terribly sorry really doesn't cut it.Can't imagine what sort of bishop she would have made,

Good - now perhaps she’d like to return her £400k bonus.

She was shortlisted to be Bishop of London. I accept that many others are involved in the scandalous lying and cover ups but PV does seem to be exceptionally thick skinned.

It is likely that these organizations will want to have someone so infamous in a prominent position going forward?

Elrel

She was shortlisted to be Bishop of London. I accept that many others are involved in the scandalous lying and cover ups but PV does seem to be exceptionally thick skinned.

Makes you wonder about the other candidates. The whole establishment should be investigated. It's one big old boys (or girls) network and will always be protected. CEO of this, that or the other.

I agree with other posters about her bonus. Forget the CBE, she's been "persuaded" from on high to hand that back. She should had back her staggering bonus, notably to the poor devils who have had to spent the last 20 years doing cleaning jobs or to the families of the suicide victims who were ruined by this unspeakable injustice.

Its extremely unlikely that any member of the establishment is going to be indited. None of the bankers were ever punished over the 2008 crisis.

Witzend

Good - now perhaps she’d like to return her £400k bonus.

Absolutely she should give her unjustifiable bonus back - hopefully someone will launch a petition for that and it will (along with it drama publicity) force her hand into doing the correct and moral thing 🤞.
For a religious woman, she appears to have no concept of the necessity to 'do the right thing'?!

Susiewong65

Some people have skin as thick as a rhino, she appears to have no shame whatsoever.
She didn’t deserve the CBE to start with and there should be some serious questioning of the people who put her forward to it.
She must have thought her God was responsible.

She was in the wrong, but so were many others who were involved in this horror..Ed Davey, Fujitsu, to name a couple.
Why mock her religion. Would you have done it if she was a Muslim.

Paula Vennels has done the right thing in returning her honour, albeit late in the day.
I can't help feeling though that this is turning into something of a witch hunt. There were other senior people also to blame at the Post Office who have not been named and shamed.

She should not have accepted it in the first place. The damage she did to people was incalculable.

sodapop

Paula Vennels has done the right thing in returning her honour, albeit late in the day.
I can't help feeling though that this is turning into something of a witch hunt. There were other senior people also to blame at the Post Office who have not been named and shamed.

There most certainly are, sodapop but this thread is about Paula Vennells and her undeserved CBE.

Yes, they have been named on other threads.