Barnes: guilty of guilelessness in venting his private opinions on-line

THE odds are that Ben Barnes didn’t plan to leak his ‘longest suicide note in history.’

I’m betting that when he wrote his e-mail giving out about his Board and shareholders, he meant it to be read only by the fifteen people to whom he sent it. When guys want their private correspondence to figure in media, they usually tidy up the syntax before sending it out. Sentences missing the odd word are OK for friends, but leakers always want to be seen to write perfect English.

Since Ben Barnes’ note missed out on a word here and there, the benign assumption is that he didn’t intend it for public consumption. Although those warm comments about the Minister and the Government standing by him will have gone down a treat in Fianna Fáil circles.