DEPUTY-elect Jeremy Maçon has yet to take his seat in the States but he has already captured the headlines on two occasions.

The 21-year-old first made news by becoming the youngest ever person to win a Deputies’ election, but we have seen disaster following hot on the heels of triumph. Thanks to an extraordinary series of e-mails, he will, for a very long time, be known as the politician whose hand is held and whose policies may be shaped by a close adviser with a difference – his mother.

The e-mails, through which Deputy Geoff Southern ultimately used stark block capitals to advise his young colleague to ‘ditch the mother’, will cast a lengthy shadow, but let us acknowledge that everyone deserves a second chance. Notwithstanding the present evidence of youthful indiscretion, immaturity and inexperience, the Deputy-elect must be allowed the opportunity to show his mettle.

Meanwhile, perhaps we should look for a real villain of the piece in this low farce. It can be argued that it is not the young politician and it is not his mother, who has clearly misunderstood the nature of the doctrine of collective responsibility. Nor is it Deputy Southern, whose justified exasperation was, unfortunately, accompanied by some highly intemperate remarks about other States Members. It is the haphazard use of technology which made the whole débâcle possible.

It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that we now live in the age of government by e-mail. The ether is dense with electronic information being fired to and fro by politicians who naively seem to believe that there is security in the airwaves.

In reality, every time they commit online indiscretions they might just as well be taking out full-page advertisements in this newspaper to display their prejudices, lack of judgment and propensity to be offensive about all and sundry.

That so many Members are now willing to fire off hasty, ill-judged e-mails – often to multiple recipients as if in a deliberate attempt to engineer a leak – is a cause for concern. Measured, considered comment in the House or in other public places counts for little if we know, from the evidence of communications that were meant to be confidential, less august thoughts and opinions are bubbling away below the surface.