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Treasury suffers email gaffe

Graeme Wearden ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 25 Jan 2006 17:45 GMT

The curse of the email blunder has struck once again, leaving red faces at the Treasury.

According to reports on Wednesday, a junior clerical officer at the Treasury attempted to send his friends an email with the subject line "Advantage of being Chinese". The email also contained the phrase "try pulling the corners of your eyes as if you were Chinese". If the reader squinted at the body copy, it would read the phrase "no sex causes bad eyes".

The official, whose job includes sending press notices by email, had intended to send the mail to a group of friends. However, in an ill-advised move, he instead dispatched to the Treasury's list of key media contacts. This is understood to have included the editors of The Observer and The Sunday Telegraph.

Upon realising his error, the official attempted to recall the missive. However, this did not save him from discovery.

The Treasury subsequently apologised for any offence caused, insisting it has "a detailed and strict policy on the acceptable use of email systems."

Such mistakes are worryingly common, despite a number of high-profile gaffes in the past. Last February, Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's former chief of communications, accidentally sent journalists at Newsnight an email in which he said he wished he could tell them to "fuck off and cover something important".