Blue_Darren

Carlisle fan, food fan, beer fan, wine fan (not always in that order)

[Football Away Days @FBAwayDays]

It means everything, regardless of age.

What a fantastic video… ❤️

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

SIR ALAN BATES - THANKS GOD FOR THIS MAN. EH.

In 1998 Alan Bates and his partner Suzanne packed up their lives in West Yorkshire and moved to a small town in North Wales.

They put everything they had into a post office. Every penny. Every hope. A future they had planned together.

Two years later the software started lying. Money appeared to be missing. He called the helpline 507 times. He kept going. He kept records. He kept asking.

The Post Office's response was simple. It wasn't the software. It was him.

In 2003 they sent him a letter terminating his contract. No reason given. He lost £65,000. Everything he and Suzanne had invested, gone. Their private notes about him, revealed at the public inquiry decades later, described the situation with devastating corporate elegance. He had become unmanageable.

That is what they called a man asking why the numbers were wrong.

So he did what any reasonable person would do after losing everything to an institution that called them a liar.

He spent the next 25 years fighting back with nothing. No legal fund. No media empire. No government support. Just a burning refusal to let them win.

He wrote letters promising his continued and increased resolve to bring this to people who would have no choice but to act, regardless of how many years it took.

It took 25.

While he was fighting, at least 13 people who had been through the same thing took their own lives. People who couldn't hold on long enough. People who needed someone to believe them and found nobody there.

While he was fighting, the Post Office and its lawyers billed £265 million in legal fees between 2014 and 2024. Making sure the truth stayed buried. Making sure men like Alan Bates ran out of road before they ran out of fight.

He didn't run out of fight.

He rejected three compensation offers he considered insults. He watched an @ITV drama turn his life into a television event. He watched politicians suddenly discover outrage they had been too busy to feel for two decades. He watched the country cry at a story it had been ignoring since 1999.

In June 2024 they gave him a knighthood. Twenty-five years after calling him unmanageable.

In November 2025 he settled his compensation claim. He received 49.2% of what he was owed.

No executive has been charged. Fujitsu (@Fujitsu_Global) still holds government contracts. The Post Office (@PostOffice) is still standing.

This country failed Alan Bates for 25 years. It failed every person who could not hold on long enough to see what he saw. It handed him a title instead of justice and called itself generous.

He deserved better. They all did.

Teach this man in every school in Britain. Not as a feel-good story. As a warning about what happens when ordinary people trust institutions that were never built to protect them.

And as proof that one person, with nothing but the truth and the stubbornness to keep saying it, can make an entire country look at itself in the mirror.

Even if it takes 25 years to get them to look.

Sources: @ComputerWeekly | @BBCNews AND many others

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@GatesheadFCSoul @CUFCTrust

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@officialcufc This is lovely but any chance of a manager?!

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@Jonnyreay I'll take one of the white ones. Very important question......are these standard sizing or Italian/Errea? If the latter, is there still a character limit on here as there might not be enough space for my Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl order 🤣

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@mirashowers Hi folks, I am looking for a spare part (Product Code: 1663.165). It seems to only be available as part of the full cartridge, is that correct? Seems a shame to spend £140 when I only need the £20 part of it? Thanks

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

Beaten by the better team today. They play from the back, we stand off. We play from the back, they press. If they lose on Sunday Tom needs to be on the phone to their gaffer. Come and do your thing in front of that crowd every week and fetch some players with you too....#COYB

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@joncolman @newsandstar Let's say thanks and then our goodbyes

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

Here we go folks. Let's go Blues 💙🦊 #COYB

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@JacobsVegasLife @Brunton_Carl Discovered this years ago…….#oldnews @HunterMartyn @Hali_B_Williams

[Jon Colman @joncolman]

👏 The Blue Army - magnificent from beginning to end (and here's hoping for one more away day in the capital...) #cufc @newsandstar

[Carlisle United @officialcufc]

UP THE BLUES!!! 💙

[Carlisle United @officialcufc]

Your Blues in Cornwall 👊

Team news sponsored by @StanwixPark.

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@gravesylad Have a good one pal

[Carlisle United Supporter Liaison Officer @CUFC_SLO]

👏👏 Let's give these incredible guys a huge welcome reception when they finish their mammoth journey at the Truro FC stadium at 1.30pm

https://t.co/0PmkoISCmb

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

Morecambe away #COYB

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@ReiverPhil Newcastle mate. Alex James Britpop tonight, reliving my youth 😂

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

Pure tidy chore..........🤤 @ReiverPhil

[Blue_Darren @Blue_Darren]

@joncolman @newsandstar Do we know if the club are supporting his family at all? It can be costly having someone in a hospital away from home so wondered if the club/us fans can do anything to help them

[Football Away Days @FBAwayDays]

Nobody should go to a game and have this happen to them…

Heartbreaking… 💔😭