Words Dept.: entry

Culture secretary James Purnell is now saying he didn’t read the e-mail that confirmed Tameside hospital was going to doctor a photo to make it appear that he was present at an event when he wasn’t.

Last month, when the story broke, Purnell said:

“I didn’t think a faked photo would be produced and I didn’t see this photo before it went out, and if I had done wouldn’t have agreed to it.”

But, according to the Sunday Telegraph yesterday:

In an email dated July 24 and sent to Mr Purnell, Christine Green, the chief executive of Tameside Hospital, said: “Dear James, Thank you for attending on Friday. I am pleased we were able to catch the photographer so that he could ‘drop you into the photographs’.”

She then emailed him a copy of the doctored photograph on September 17 which had been held back until the announcement of funding for a new development at the hospital, the original reason for the MPs’ event.

She wrote: “Dear James, I enclose three photographs… which you may wish to use. Figure 1 with 6 people outside is the one being used for the press coverage.”

Hmm, rather awkward, isn’t it? Hence the excuse from Purnell’s office that although the e-mail was sent to the “general constituency office e-mail”, the minister “did not see either of these e-mails or the photo before the story broke”.

What, then, is the point of Purnell having an e-mail address? Why not rely on a complex system of flags and bells, or, better still, a carrier pigeon? More chance of getting in touch with the “sideburned schmoozer” (copyright Sunday Telegraph) than relying on this new-fangled so-called “electric-mail” gadget, which no-one in his office really knows how to work anyway…

-