To think Priti Patel probably wishes she hadn’t been so quick to claim racism doesn’t exist?

[Tellmetruth4]

....because now she can’t state it’s a factor in the attacks against her.

I have less than zero time for PP. I think her views are odious from claiming British workers are lazy in her capitalism on steroids book ‘Brittania Unchained’ to her comments on the Irish.

However, I also believe if she were white, the old guard of the civil service would have done some more hand holding, helped her find her feet, given her more of a chance. There have been many white male and female ministers who are horrible but they have not been quickly and publicly destroyed in the way PP has been. In addition the guy who resigned is no angel, having presided over the implementation of the Windrush scandal and was more than happy to assist in creating a nasty attitude towards immigrants under May.

Nevertheless, because she’s been very keen to pretend racism doesn’t exist in regards to others facing it including Meghan Markle in an attempt to ingratiate herself with the right of her party and DM readers, now she is a victim herself she can’t complain or expect anyone to come to her defence.

I’ve seen this at work in relation to sexism where a female employee who’s keen to rise through the ranks will turn a blind eye to all kinds of sexism in order to keep on the right side of senior men but when faced with it herself finds herself with no allies.

Am I wrong in my assessment?

@AutumnRose1 it was still a terrible thing to say.

And , no matter what way you look at it, she did say
"that the threat of food shortages should be used to get Ireland to drop the backstop"

To a country that has lost 1 million people , specifically to a famine.

Terrible thing to say.

I disagree that she would have been treated differently by the civil service if she was a white male.

Phillip is the consummate professional and the civil service does its best to deliver the priorities of the Government of the day. Sometimes that does mean saying things that Ministers don't want to hear.

This is my favourite Priti video. She comes across as marvelously clever, don't you think?

For her to suggest that racism is not directed at MM is silly. She reminds me of Ann Widdecombe and her take on sexism. I also disagree with a pp saying she is light skinned and looks European, she looks Asian/dark (she actually has great skin, few wrinkles) and would be completely aware that racism is alive and kicking.

“ that the threat of food shortages should be used to get Ireland to drop the backstop"”

Posters have said this before but never linked to a source. The only comments I can find didn’t come across like that to me.

I also think what was directed at Meghan was racist and/0or anti American but I can’t interpret any of this as Priti saying “racism doesn’t exist”.

@BumbleBeee69 - I get you! Very funny...…

Trust me I think she’s a complete arsehole but that doesn’t mean that sexism and racism isn’t involved here. She's not the first female Home Secretary, she's not the first Home Secretary of Asian descent. I think she can personally take full credit for how she is perceived.

I mean, I think she is an awful person, but I also think alot of other people in the Government are terrible people, so, she is no worse than them

I am not sure why she is still there

Shortage of talent in the Conservative Party right now.

I mean, they weren't best placed in 2010 – Cameron had to appoint an old school friend as Chancellor, which is usually a sign that a Prime Minister is promoting pals over talent, or that there isn't any talent.

Johnson can't appoint people who know him from school, because people who've known him any length of time don't trust him and say he's unfit to run the country.

Javid was one of the few who had anything about him. Look what happened to him.

She doesn’t even understand the difference between terrorism and counterterrorism. She’s ignorant, bigoted and a bully. She needs to go and take the toxicity she’s created with her.

BumbleBee are you Priti’s DM?

Oh yes because Phillip Rutnam is a very image of professionalism he isnt a incompetent little man who has presided of multiple fuck ups yet some how repeatedly come up unscathed well not anymore.

@Iggly - re-read my posts and then apologise for wishing bullying on a complete stranger. What a wicked thing to say. I’ve actually been bullied in the workplace and it was awful but thankfully the person was dealt with.

I actually never said PP wasn’t a bully or a nasty person. She can be a bully AND be a victim of racism and sexism. If someone shot and injured me last Friday and then I shot and injured someone the following week, that makes me a victim as well as a criminal. Victims don’t always have to be squeaky clean themselves.

She may have been a complete dick to Philip Putnam. However, he is not an innocent having been more than happy to implement ‘hostile environment’ policies under May and Windrush. I believe he is not a nice person either and may have found it difficult to take orders from a minority woman. There is no way that in 33 years he has never seen poor behaviours from ministers until PP so I think an ‘ism’ is at play.

Put simply, she’s a dick but that doesn’t mean she can’t also be a victim or that he isn’t also a dick.

I don’t believe she should be in government given her odious views but that doesn’t mean the civil servants around her welcome a minority woman in charge.

A minority woman who doesn’t shout, swear or belittle wouldn’t have been an issue. I wouldn’t tolerate any of that at home or work regardless of race or gender. Sounds as if PR isn’t the only one with grounds for complaint.

@Tellmetruth4

That comment wasn’t directed at you - MN defaulted to putting you when I meant someone else. it was in response to someone suggesting that Priti was doing a great job.

Yes I wished they experienced bullying because they clearly had no idea of what it was like.

As for However, he is not an innocent having been more than happy to implement ‘hostile environment’ policies under May and Windrush

He wasn’t leaving because he disagreed with policies. He’s leaving because PP has been unacceptable on a personal level.

This the exact quote that Patel gave, about shortages of (anything including food) that Ireland might face, and how that forecast should be used to UK advantage.

It was crass insensitively (politically insensitive!!) & highly ignorant remark. Remember that Ireland was exporting food during the famine, under British policy that free market mattered more than whether people died. There is a direct parallel historically between what she said and the mistakes of the 1800s, with the more powerful nation deciding that Irish hardship (Irish lives) didn't matter. Pattern established over centuries.

is there no process to demote civil servants or move them to other departments? Were Rudd & Javid forced to work with Rutnam after he supposedly messed up so badly under May & Rudd? Given Patel's cutthroat reputation, I don't know why she wouldn't ask for fresh senior civil servant leadership in her department. Seems like she would have had been on solid ground to request that.

Somehow Javid managed to work with Rutnam. It's almost like Javid is someone who cares about his staff and treating them well.

Well we don’t actually know what happened in terms of Windrush etc do we? We’ve only heard the politicians side of the story

As for demoting people - this isn’t unique to the public sector. How many times have CEOs of big companies left a failing company only to pop up somewhere else.

I’m guessing he was kept on as he understood the area so well. Ultimately it’s the politicians who decide what they want to do and civil servants advise them on it. They cannot just do what they like (civil servants) - they have to serve the government of the day like it or not (hence the word servant).

I also have a relative that works with the HO. Apparently this is the tip of the iceberg.

Remember that they've worked with Nick Timothy et al. She is far worse.

Generally I think the HO are arses but mostly they are enacting the ministers wishes. She is worse.

As for However, he is not an innocent having been more than happy to implement ‘hostile environment’ policies under May and Windrush

He wasn’t leaving because he disagreed with policies. He’s leaving because PP has been unacceptable on a personal level

Well, quite, but I'm sure there were numerous straws laid on the camel's back and Patel's incompetency, stupidity and bullying was the last one. I mean just recently in the department, Windrush etc - and this would not have been the idea of or the fault of civil servants, this is the result of ministers going against advice and doing their own thing. Then the way Javid was effectively sacked- someone who was more competent and who Rutnam could probably get on with.

But it is only now that he has been able to build a case for constructive dismissal and to thoroughly humiliate the Government in court. Good on him. If he'd have resigned earlier over policy, he'd have been a footnote and nothing would have been examined in the media. Now he has publicity and a cause célèbre.

The difficulty for a civil servant is that they have to be impartial. So if a minister wants to carry out unsavoury policies but it’s still legal then they have nowhere to go but to advise on the ramifications.

That’s why you won’t see resignations for civil servants disagreeing with ministers.

Civil servants are pretty good as doing what they’re told - ministers tend to not like it when the civil servants tell them it’s not possible for practical or legal reasons.

That’s why the likes of Cummings hates the judiciary and civil servants - because they point out the ugly truth.

Formerly employed by the PR firm Shandwick, she worked for British American Tobacco (BAT) notorious for funding the brutal Burmese dictatorship in the early 2000s and exploiting child labour in Nigeria.

In 2013, Priti voted against same-sex marriage in England and Wales.

She voted against banning the detention of pregnant women.

She’s been a supporter of the death penalty, telling BBC Question Time in 2011 that it would “deter crime”. She later backtracked on these comments in 2016.

Priti is supporting the government’s right-wing immigration reforms, labelling immigrants who try to reenter the UK after deportation as “foreign criminals”. These new reforms include longer sentences for immigrants without papers.

She declared that as a daughter of immigrants she needed no lectures from the “North London metropolitan liberal elite”. Political commentators have pointed out the coded antisemitic language used here garner support for anti-immigration reform. This weaponises her identity as a woman of colour to enact violence on black and brown people.

In 2015 and 2016, she voted for stricter immigration policies. These include forbidding asylum seekers to work if their application takes longer than six months and restrict support for those whose applications were denied

She backed the immigration bills of 2014 and 2016 introducing the rent, work and bank account checks. This lead to members of the Windrush generation being wrongfully told they had no right to remain in the UK.

Not racism or sexism: she’s dim and not very nice. She’s a bully and he was brave to call it out.

Phillip is very far from incompetent R1 - quite the opposite. Have you worked with him yourself?

Why are posters blaming him for the
Windrush scandal? He’s not in charge of policy that lies squarely with the politicians.

he is not an innocent having been more than happy to implement ‘hostile environment’ policies under May and Windrush

His job is to implement the policies of the government, regardless if they are unsavoury. Civil servants are required to remain politically impartial. Any blame for Windrush needs to be laid squarely at the feet of the politicians who were behind the policy.