I would have thought that it's a reasonable assumption made on the part of the Labour Party that you - as a fee-paying member of an organisation - might have a passing interest in who its new leader is going to be.

As a fee-paying member of the Labour Party I do indeed have more than a passing interest in who its new leader will be. But the communication was from Gordon Brown's campaign, not the Labour Party.

None of the contenders for Deputy Leader have sent unsolicited emails, and neither have Meacher or McDonnell. The only unsolicited email was direct from Gordon's campaign with no indication whatsoever that it was an official Labour Party electronic communication.

The Labour Party has to be a neutral arbiter in the contest IIRC, so that's why your distressing email probably didn't come from a sanctioned LP address.

I don't understand the problem here - are you saying that GB should have to okay everybody in the LP he wants to canvass? It could be time consuming!

Look at this way. As a member of the Labour Party, I'm more than happy for the Party to use my email address for official party communications. Likewise, I have no problem with the Labour Party sending an official email noting all the candidates campaign sites for both Leader and Deputy Leader candidates.

As you point out, the Party itself must remain neutral in the elections and so cannot canvas on behalf of any specific candidate. This is good.

But Gordon's campaign is not an official campaign on behalf the Labour Party. So what right does he have to use an email address supplied to a third-party in his personal campaign?

And as I noted earlier, Gordon is the only candidate in either election that has apparently bulk-emailed the membership with an unsolicited communication.

So, in answer to your final question; yes, I do think that Gordon should only email people who have actively signed up to his campaign. Sure, it could be time consuming, but that's the way the rules of email marketing (which is what this is) are supposed to work. When I signed up to recieve emails from the Labour Party, I didn't ask for my address to be given to any other person or organisation. Yet this would appear to be what has occured in this case.

Look at it this way. If you signed up to receive emails from a favourite business, how would you feel if one of the directors who was staging a takeover started sending you emails without asking?

I think I must be on every mailing list the party has. Strangely enough I've not had one yet.

PP, perhaps that's the secret, sign up of every mailing list possible and Gordon will assume he's already got your support.

Hello. What's this? Nobody ever e-mailed me about, or claiming to represent, Gordon Brown. If they had, I would have said "Good on ya", but after 55 years in Canada my vote would not be available. However, my verbal support for Mr. Brown is. God save the Queen...and please pay attention to the rest of us. (I thought I should finish up on a posiive note.)