Do Ministerial communications normally have misprints, errors etc?s

buzzwell

I am in possession of a communication purporting to be from a Minister. (Albeit sent by email)

It contains a misspelling, a misplaced comma, and a grammatical error, and is identical in content in some paragraphs to a letter sent by an employee of a quango to a different recipient defending it's position on a matter in dispute.

It has a gif attachment of the Minister's signature, and came from the Minister's office.

Would this be normal practice?

trad

Several versions of the same document are circulated with grammatical or spelling errors unique to each document. The errors are deliberate and are intended to track down sources of leaks of confidential documents by comparing the leaked document with a known version of the communication sent to a specific individual.

Either that or they don't use F7 because of cutbacks.

mikemac

You know the answer, no it isn't normal and doesn't usually happen.

It's unprofessional and doesn't look good
But has happened most any company in Ireland at some stage

Liam Byrne

A few press releases regarding the cost of Anglo & NAMA seemed to be missing a few zeros alright.

And does the inclusion of extra words count as a "misprint" ?

e.g. "We are not in negotiations with the IMF"

I'm just hoping that the proposed property tax has a misprint of an extra zero.

buzzwell

trad wrote: »

Several versions of the same document are circulated with grammatical or spelling errors unique to each document. The errors are deliberate and are intended to track down sources of leaks of confidential documents by comparing the leaked document with a known version of the communication sent to a specific individual.

Either that or they don't use F7 because of cutbacks.

The grammatical error in this one and the others actually defeats the whole purpose of the letter, by admitting to the quango's erroneous action.


Do they always read, write or sign their own letters, or is it true that civil servants are running the country?

sarkozy

The grammatical errors in this thread are apalling.