MPs and peers fall out over emails

Friday, November 13, 2009

MPs and peers have fallen out after a round-robin email saw many people hit reply all and thus inundating others' inboxes with emails.

Conservative MP Mark Pritchard had sent an email to all MPs and peers asking them to join a new All Party Parliament Group on Cyber Security he was setting up. But many MPs and peers hit reply all to the email with comments. This led to frustration to MPs not participating in the discussion as their inboxes were being filled up with replies.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and others sent messages asking for their colleagues to stop the flow.

But the Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mullholland claimed to have ended it with a message in red ink saying "NO MORE REPLY ALL".

Mullholland's message said:

"To: All Members across both Houses

"IF I GET ANOTHER UNSOLICTED EMAIL ABOUT THIS CR*P I WILL BE MAKING A COMPLAINT. PUT YOUR BRAINS IN GEAR AND STOP BOTHERING ALL MPs and PEERS WITH THIS!!!! NO MORE REPLY ALL"

He later told the BBC that his "blunt" approach appeared to have worked.

"Do we need this ridiculous flow of e-mails full of all these daft comments? I wasn't even following them," he said. "I wasn't even remotely interested in joining this group."

Mulholland added that Pritchard could have prevented the mass of emails by CCing every MP instead. Pritchard retorted that he could not be blamed for people hitting reply all. He also accused Mulholland of not taking cyber security seriously enough.

"I am not surprised by Liberal Democrats treating cyber-security so lightly," Mulholland said.

"It is also clear that some Liberal Democrat politicians need training in answering emails correctly without sending the same reply to every Tom, Dick and Harry."

Mulholland added that his new group had attracted support from senior MPs including Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, former cyber security minister Tom Watson and former shadow home secretary David Davies.