A revealing episode

The row about which email account special advisers use for which emails is, I suspect, of very little interest to anyone outside SW1. But today’s FT story certainly has set the cat amongst the Whitehall pigeons.

At the risk of trying the patience of everyone who doesn’t work within a mile of the Palace of Westminster, I think there is something here worth noting about our political culture. Christopher Cook’s story in the FT this morning is about an email that Dominic Cummings, one of Michael Gove’s special advisers, sent urging various political people not to use his Department of Education email. In this case, the email was perfectly proper. Ministers and special advisers aren’t meant to use official resources for party political activity. So, for instance, if a special adviser sends a journalist an email criticising a shadow spokesman, they shouldn’t use their departmental email account to do it. Equally, those in Downing Street drafting David Cameron’s conference speech won’t be using government accounts to ping round copies of the draft.