Cabinet Office promises auto-sacking for breaking email rules

Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell has confirmed that Number 10 special advisor Damian McBride's email activities, which emerged at the weekend, were a serious breach of government rules. Replying to a letter from MP Francis Maude, O'Donnell confirmed that using government resources for party political purposes is in breach of …

[Anonymous Coward]

Where's the email traffic DB when we need it then?

'... no other "Minister or political adviser other than Damian McBride had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the e-mails which were covered in the weekend newspapers."'

So who exactly did he send the emails to then? His mum?

Were there other emails that the weekend newspapers didn't cover?

I paid for some of that equipment, and for his time using it, so I think I have a right to know.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm

Now where's the padlock for that stable? Oh, wait....

[Steven]

That would be all of them then?

So any Special Adviser or Minister caught using government email to play party politics, or "disseminating inappropriate material", will now be automatically dismissed. That should do it then.

Will the last one out of number 10 please shut the door, thanks.

[amanfromMars]

Politics is NOT an Honourable Profession but many would have it pay them so.

"So any Special Adviser or Minister caught using government email to play party politics, or "disseminating inappropriate material", will now be automatically dismissed. That should do it then."

Hmmm. A Minister in government will surely, by default, be using email to stay in power by playing party politics, for they would always be pushing their party's* views/policies rather than the Opposition's. And is that not the role of the Whips ... to keep them toeing the Party line rather than acting independently and in line with their conscience/leanings/intelligence.

* And if the Party is led by a Bully, it will be a such a Leader's views which are being played into politics, with the Party a cuckolded and convenient scapegoat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Severance pay?

So sending a naughty email gets you fired with no severance pay, but running your bank into the ground gets you half a mill a year for life...

Sounds fair...

[An nonymous Cowerd]

White House

I met a former US White House worker, he mentioned that on Day One of employment they fill in a signed, undated, resignation letter for automatic use should the administration find/put itself in deep $hit.

Tangentially what does PM/WackiJacqui think now about the benefits of widescale e-mail monitoring? (and subsequent leaking)

I haven't seen much following/analysis of the e-mail leakage trail, would they perchance have been leaked from another "impartial" bunch of serious civil servants nearby Gloucester??

[Anonymous Coward]

One thing I've been wondering about...

...was the politician in question claiming his email account had been hacked into.

If this is so, the leaker - or whoever first obtained the emails has committed acts contrary to the Computer Misuse Act (and the Data Protection Act as well?).

Whither the investigation?

[Vladimir Plouzhnikov]

They just don't get it!

These idiots in their cloud-cuckoo-land still do not understand that the problem is not in sending emails but in the fact that their people can come up with such ideas in the first place.

The whole Govt is a bunch of compost, cooking in its own juice. They are beyond all hope.

[Richard]

One has to wonder

What if they don't sign the understanding piece of paper?

[Anonymous Coward]

The devil's in the details

>So any Special Adviser or Minister caught using government email to play party politics, or

> "disseminating inappropriate material", will now be automatically dismissed.

Yeah, too right! Don't use government email systems for that. That's what googlemail is for.

Joke alert... or is it?

[umacf24]

What gives Gus O'Donnell the right....

.... to say that a Minister will be sacked? That's for HM, advised by Mr Happy in No 10.

Special advisors on the Civil Service payroll are fair game though. O'Donnell should sack them all, to preempt any further trouble..

[Mike Bell]

Cabinet Office Promises new Stable Door

'... no other "Minister or political adviser other than Damian McBride had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the e-mails which were covered in the weekend newspapers."'

Hmmm - Call me an old cynic, but I'm not entirely sure I believe that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummmm...

"So any Special Adviser or Minister caught using government email to play party politics, or "disseminating inappropriate material", will now be automatically dismissed."

How are they going to dismiss a Government Minister? Only the PM has the power to do that and we all know that Uncle Gordy likes his puppets to stay where they are.