... to think that Priti Patel doesn't sound very nice?

[BowermansNose]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8022887/Home-Secretary-Priti-Patel-accused-bullying-creating-atmosphere-fear.html

Daily Mail link, but I'm listening to it on BBC Radio 5. It sounds as if Priti Patel is facing lots of complaints because of the way she treats people. Combine that with her politics, and she just doesn't come across very pleasantly. Can she last in her job treating people like this (assuming it is true).

She's the attack dog for a particularly vicious form of Toryism -- in what way is her alleged behaviour surprising?

I'm not sure Cameron was nice at all. I remember Ed Balls saying that Osborne was actually friendly but Cameron would walk past him as though he hadn't seen him (EB).

As for ‘nice’, I don’t think you would get a position in the current government by being nice.

YANBU. Your thread title made me smile as it's actually very kind considering how you're talking about

who

She needs to come out as genderqueer. Then we'll all #bekind to her
No matter how much she's screwing us, our friends, colleagues and neighbours over

She’s not there to be nice she’s a politician and has to make difficult decisions in quite a tough environment. I don’t understand this need people have to like politicians.

She was sacked previously. I’m not sure she sees nefarious tactics as a hindrance to her career.

SwedishEdith you're missing the point. I'm not suggesting for one minute those men were nice. No one expected them to be, or called them out when they weren't.

It’s a scale isn’t it. I doubt she’s punched anyone or thrown a stapler at someone’s head.

DH has locked horns with her in a professional capacity a few times. He thinks she's utterly vile.

There was a long thread about Boris's lack of compassion and inability to be caring and see others' point of view, a few months ago, when he wouldn't look at the pic of the child in hospital, and pooh-poohed women MPs talking about how they were harassed.

I agree there is an expectation on women to be nice and it's an issue, but I don't agree that we never talk about the same thing with men, and furthermore I don't think women in politics are expected to be particularly nice. Thatcher, May and Barbara Castle weren't all about being nice and seemed to get on. I think we'd all be fine with her not being nicey-nicey if she was businesslike, competent, smart, efficient, open to evidence etc etc.

Patel like a lot of others in the current Tory cabinet seems actually nasty - they generally seem to be selected on the basis of being as cruel, unfeeling and power-crazed as possible, just like BJ himself.

Fair points

SwedishEdith you're missing the point. I'm not suggesting for one minute those men were nice. No one expected them to be, or called them out when they weren't.

They have been called out as just been explained.

She's a total dick, but surely everyone realized that when she advocated starving the Irish to get the UK's way in Brexit negotiations?

I think she's awful but no one would ever start a thread about the niceness or not of a male politician.

Exactly this!

Women must be nice. Men do what you please!

Hardly a surprise.

Nice people don’t tend to want to do her job .

And though I'm a lifelong lefty I think there are nice Tories, or at least nicer, in the scheme of things. Rory Stewart and Ken Clarke (not women) showed a nicer side and it got them the boot from this lot.

William Hague was a good Foreign Secretary.

I know people who have worked with her. She is not at all nice.

I have worked with her (before politics). Whilst it's true to say that she's not at all nice, it must also be started that she's not at all competent. But she IS ambitious and self-serving. How she is Home secretary baffles me every day and I fume every time I see her on the tv - is this really the best we have?

I agree she isn't nice. I think male politicians also get criticism if they are unpleasant, it is just that the language used is different. Nasty bastarc, arrogant tosser etc. She fits those categories too.

The current government is like a sales team that’s been put in charge of delivery.

But she IS ambitious and self-serving. How she is Home secretary baffles me every day

A classic case of those who most want it being those who are least suitable for it.

I see why she appealed to Boris. She's an arch Brexiteer and attack dog. Plus she's a woman and an ethnic minority, so he gets brownie points for that too.

I hold no candle for Priti Patel (Labour party member), and on the evidence I've seen thus far, I don't think she's been any good in any post she's held in frontline politics. However, I agree there is a double standard for men and women in politics in relation to this kind of allegation. I also would not want to jump to conclusions about bullying allegations made by the (overwhelmingly white male) senior civil service about the first ethnic minority female Home Secretary.