‘The Post Office and HS2 both share a contemptible culture of obfuscation, cover-up, and ‘protect the scheme’ at all cost’

• THERE are some screamingly obvious parallels between High Speed 2 and the Post Office, the default response being a determination not to provide requested information and to heavily redact any documentation, often hiding behind “commercial confidentiality” and the Data Protection Act.

— And there’s the heavy-handed, intimidating, use of legal threats from their lawyers and the use of non-disclosure agreements.

— And the seemingly endless protraction of paying out fair compensation (for example, the Bree Louise pub).

— The systematic, duplicitous, and incomplete briefing to ministers, who parroted the contents.

— The failure of non-executive directors and MPs to shine any inquisitive light on what they were being told.

It seems the civil servants in the Department for Transport and its wholly owned subsidiary HS2 Ltd have behaved deplorably to protect the HS2 scheme and their jobs. Normally their names can be withheld under the “Osmotherly Rules” but there’s a strong case with HS2, I suggest, to suspend that protection.

The Post Office and HS2 both share a contemptible culture of obfuscation, cover-up, and “protect the scheme” at all cost.

In summary, mediocrity in the management of state-owned organisations.

PAUL BRAITHWAITE, NW5