It’s what comes out of a man that defiles – emails and politics.

Not what goes into a person that defiles, but what comes out of him. The observation was made by Jesus. And it applies to words as much as actions. Words are the codes we use to communicate thought and feeling, to express our inner world to the outer world that hears, sees and knows. Acts of Parliament and poems, novels and tax legislation, commercial straplines and sermons, UN resolutions and Argos catalogues, road signs and nutirition information on my box of walnut whips bought at M&S as an Easter treat – they all use words and communicate something deemed essential. But however words are used, they are open to moral scrutiny and ethical judgement. That holds whether they are any of the above, or are used in emails or conversations, texts or phone calls. And that holds especially amongst those who presume to exercise power in the name of the people who elect and hold accountable those who govern our country.

That Gordon Brown has not apologised for the now notorious email exchanges amongst his Downing St staff is an interesting example of how seriously politicians take words – when it suits them. A letter expressing 'profound regret' is not an apology. To say 'I am sorry' would be to acknowledge some personal responsibility, and hand significant adavantage to one's political opponents. And the debate about whether such an apology would be justified will go on.

I suppose what I find most depressing / disturbing / infuriating – is that highly paid public officials in Downing Street – in the PM's office – can even conceive of, imagine, give mental energy and intellectual living space, to emails so shocking in their content, so scurrilous in their intent, so obviously fabricated and with malice aforethought, that they haven't even been published.

Which brings me back to words, and those words of Jesus, that what comes out of a man is what defiles – words included, emails included. That a mind capable of such culpable ethical deficit should be a close and long term advisor to the Prime Minister is a national embarrassment. Whether or not Gordon Brown apologises or merely expresses regret, such a toxic inner world as displayed in such email exchanges is, to use the older biblical term, defiling. For all of us. I don't mean to sound self-righteous – I confess I feel self-unrighteous, tainted, compromised, embarrassed. And someone needs to apologise.