- Downing Street has come up with a strategy to curb embarrassing
internal e-mails by replacing electronic messages with sticky notes.
-
- The method has already been adopted by the White House.
Staff at No 10 are to be encouraged to leave messages for each other on
Post-it style notes that can be torn up and destroyed without a trace.
-
- The move follows a barrage of highly embarrassing electronic
mails, written by some of Tony Blair's closest aides, that came back to
haunt the government after they were submitted to the Hutton inquiry into
the death of Dr David Kelly.
-
- In one, Tom Kelly, the prime minister's spokesman, de-scribed
a row with the BBC as "a game of chicken". He wrote: "This
is now a game of chicken with the Beeb ñ the only way they will
shift is (if) they see the screw tightening."
-
- In another, Jonathan Powell, No 10 chief of staff, revealed
doubts about the strength of the evidence in the government Iraq dossier.
-
- Most famously, the govern-ment was caught out in 2001
when Jo Moore, the special adviser to Stephen Byers, the former transport
secretary, e-mailed civil servants suggesting that September 11 was "a
good day to bury bad news".
-
- Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's former press
chief, who was less computer literate than some of his colleagues, was
said to be shocked by the volume of e-mail correspondence that passed between
some of his team.
-
- "The problem is people inside Downing Street use
e-mail like an extension of a verbal conversation.
-
- "They are much more candid in their choice of language
than they would be in an official minute or note," one insider said.
-
- "But as the Hutton inquiry showed, not only do e-mails
remain as a permanent record, they also look 10 times more damning on a
big screen in a courtroom, being picked over by lawyers, than they would
ever seem at their creation.
-
- "Generally, e-mails are dashed off by busy people
at the speed of light. They're only intended to convey a quick thought
or message to a close colleague, not leave a permanent incriminating record
for all to see."
-
- The idea of using "yellow stickies" is thought
to have been borrowed from the White House, which has long been wise to
the problems of rogue e-mails.
-
- But news of the decision is likely to cause consternation
among those who believe the government should be more open.
-
- Lord Hutton complained about the lack of official minutes
of the meetings held at No 10.
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- http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/8651.html
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