Strange to think the northern lights have been glimpsed in public more frequently over the past few years than the former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells. I didn’t see the northern lights last week, but I will see Vennells close up next week, when – at very, very long last – she presents herself before the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal.

Polite notice: if your attention has drifted slightly after the fireworks sparked by ITV’s sensational drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office earlier this year, next week is the time to return with laser-like focus to this story. Post Office is once again box office – and remember, NOT ONE PERSON has yet been held accountable for what happened. Alan Bates has just rejected his second “derisory” offer of government compensation.

Briefest of recaps: owing to computer errors denied then covered up by Post Office and Fujitsu, hundreds of subpostmasters were wrongly convicted and in many cases jailed for theft and false accounting, in what has been called Britain’s most widespread miscarriage of justice.

And so to a person very much of interest to the inquiry. The past few years have seen Vennells resign as a non-executive board member of the Cabinet Office, hand back directorships and the chairmanship of an NHS trust, and (eventually) be stripped of her CBE, as well as “step back” from her duties as an Anglican minister. Her public statements have been........

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