Tony .Tony .Tony ??

[life on mars]

I told Blair to cancel Horizon in 1998 – even I could see it was likely to go wrong’
Sir Geoff Mulgan, adviser to multiple PMs, explains how the process was flawed – and why the winner of the next election needs to ‘a reset’

Gordon Rayner,
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
26 January 2024 • 6:00am

For the hundreds of victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, a recently-unearthed memo from 1998 must be almost too painful to read.

The then Prime Minister, Sir Tony Blair, was warned that Horizon was “flawed” and that an “unsatisfactory” deal with suppliers Fujitsu would leave the government “dependent on a hugely expensive, inflexible, inappropriate and possibly unreliable system”. Fatefully, Blair went ahead with Horizon anyway, and we all know what came next.*

The man who wrote that memo, Sir Geoff Mulgan, is now helping Sir Keir Starmer to prepare for government, and the Labour leader would do well to listen to him. Mulgan worries that political leaders still have too little grip on science and technology, and that mistakes like Horizon are still happening around the world.*

[life on mars]

Actual letter :

From: Geoff Mulgan (9 December 1998)

To: Prime Minister (cc Lord Falconer, Jonathan Powell, David Miliband, Jeremy Heywood, Geoffrey Norris, Sharon White)

Horizon, ICL and the Post Office

1. A decision now needs to be taken on whether to proceed with the Horizon project. You will recall this is the initiative to automate the Post Office network, involving ICL. The project is nearly three years behind schedule, having been plagued with problems. Negotiations have been underway since the summer to find a way to continue the project.

2. The sums involved are big. Total spending, through DSS contracts, will be around £5bn between now and 2008.

3. After a tough period of negotiation ICL has made an offer which represents a significant move. Acceptance would still cost the government around £200m more than previously envisaged; equally, ICL would be set to lose £270 in total on the project. Their offer still leaves a significant gap with the government: £110m on funding, as well as differences over the practicalities of implementation. But the Post Office would be prepared to meet the funding gap out of existing resources, and, despite the continued opposition of the Benefits Agency, it will only certainly now be possible to reach a settlement

[pipster]

For context - Fujitsu bought ICL. ICL used to make mainframe computers before branching out into being a software house. They were the goto company of choice for the public sector - back in the day.
Fujitsu also had to relinquish their contract with the NHS back along with Accenture when they realised they werent up to the job and didnt have the staff.
This was part of the 6 billion NHS IT spend by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - where they fell into the usual trap of believing just throwing money at a problem will fix it - when it doesnt, it just wastes the tax payers money.
Those 2 idiots plus Ed Balls made the same mistake with the schools rebuilding program - spent over half the budget without even laying 1 brick - if I remember correctly.
Both these projects were scrapped by the conservatives as they were never likely to complete without wasting even more money.
The Horizon project some how seemed to escape.

[stevo]

He should have done time for war crimes too

[Heathblue]

He should have done time for war crimes too

I read today his name associated with Epstein but most definitely a war mongering criminal

[jon1959]

He should have done time for war crimes too

Yes he should.