Priti Patel

[Walkaround]

Is it actually possible to unintentionally bully someone? I always thought there had to be some knowledge of abuse of power - it’s supremely difficult to intimidate or coerce someone accidentally. The fact that the people Priti Patel works with as equals- other ministers - are falling over themselves to say how delightful she is to work with, whereas those who work for her accuse her of bullying surely makes it more likely her behaviour is deliberate bullying? Otherwise, her equals would find her to have an frightening, tyrannical demeanour, too!

Meant to say the abusers got away with it because authorities didn’t want to appear racist.

Open dialogue of someone clearly abusing their power who happens to be BAME is not being racist towards them

ancientgran like the buck stopped with Amber Rudd which was a direct result of departmental incompetence and the leader of the staff in that department was none other than Sir Phillip Rutnam who went MIA when the shit hit the fan. Sir Phillip's appearance before the Commons Committee about the debacle was a masterclass in obnoxious arrogance. Are you saying that Sir Phillip has no responsibility for the way the staff in that department who report to him behave and that he does not set the standards and tone for their behaviour?

The report levelled criticism at the Civil Service and the current Home Office Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft has also stated that the findings make difficult reading for the Civil Service.

We shouldn't turn a blind eye to over mighty and incompetent Civil Servants and Sir Phillip seems to have an uncanny knack of being embroiled in fuck ups yet he sailed on unscathed.

@ancientgran sexism and racism not fine on Mumsnet.

Anti-Irish sentiment (or turning a blind eye to Irish insults) = rife.

Don’t you know that?

She must have been an absolute terror to get the heartless bureaucrats at the top of the Home Office upset.

All I have heard is that she shouted and swore at people

Well god forbid some people would work in our office in the 80s , we put up with that all the time plus sexual harassment from some bosses

What a low fucking bar. Were you given the slipper as a kid too?

It wasn't right then and it isn't right now.

More than one thing can be true. She can be a vile bully, while also almost certainly having had to deal with racism and sexism. Unfortunately for her, people don't struggle to believe she's a bully due to her public comments and voting behaviour.

like the buck stopped with Amber Rudd which was a direct result of departmental incompetence and the leader of the staff in that department was none other than Sir Phillip Rutnam who went MIA when the shit hit the fan. Yes, her department and she should have dealt with it. Do these "top" politicians need their hands holding? If people aren't doing their job there will be procedures to deal with it.

She must have been an absolute terror to get the heartless bureaucrats at the top of the Home Office upset. Do you realise that not everyone in the Home Office is a bureaucrat at the top? Or doesn't it matter if she shouts and swears at some teenager or 21 year old on a graduate scheme?

@Brefugee

If you read the rest of my posts you would see how we have dealt with this on our company now , because of course things have changed for the better.
But employees can also claim damages for hurt feelings , which can be thousands of pounds . And that can be a matter of perception.

If you don’t pull people up immediately they are rude to you they will get away with it .

I have had a boss swear in my face , I walked out .

Came in the next day and demanded an apology , I had no one else to turn to .

And btw was there any need to swear in your post ? Bit ironic . Did you lose control ?

@ancientgran

like the buck stopped with Amber Rudd which was a direct result of departmental incompetence and the leader of the staff in that department was none other than Sir Phillip Rutnam who went MIA when the shit hit the fan. Yes, her department and she should have dealt with it. Do these "top" politicians need their hands holding? If people aren't doing their job there will be procedures to deal with it.

It should be easy to discipline or sack Civil Servants within Government Departments, it quite obviously isn't as Sir Phillip with his track record of fuck ups was still employed in high office within the Civil Service as are, no doubt, many others.

Schummakker

Wow - How did you go from a women accused of bullying her colleagues to paedophile ring??
Oh ...... that’s because ‘they’ are similar ethnicity so somehow ‘they’ are linked?

Enough said i feel

*Fact: she has been found by an independent investigation to have broken the ministerial code.

Fact: every single time a person has previously been found to have breached the code they have been sacked/ resigned. Every single time*

This.

Doesn't matter male or female, race, colour...just follow the rules Boris. Step up. How can we build a moral so society when this is the model the government set. Hideous.

Baroness warsi- a former chair of the Conservative party has very clearly said on Twitter that she has to go.

If there are rules in place and someone breaks them then they have to follow through with the consequences

Can't believe there are people on this thread arguing that shouting and swearing at work is ok?! It's not, it never is. Glad I work for a company with zero tolerance for that behaviour

A thousand times this. And the whataboutery about men doing it too. With no evidence. And even if they were, they should be sacked too. I'm sure the burden of proof would be extremely high to sanction a government minister.

And there's a difference between not getting support from the civil service and trying to railroad them into doing things that are unethical/outside their remit.

And the argument about she's only being investigated because she's an ethnic minority is part of the reason the Rotherham child sex abuse wasn't investigated. She is not the first female or BAME minister but she is one of a very few that have broken the ministerial code and the ONLY one who hasn't resigned.

You know those arguing in her favour have lost the argument when their argument is that a BAME woman should be entitled to behave unacceptably, because white men have got away with it in the past.

@Walkaround

You know those arguing in her favour have lost the argument when their argument is that a BAME woman should be entitled to behave unacceptably, because white men have got away with it in the past.

Completely this. It's unbelievable. Shouldn't we expect everyone to behave better?

The woman is an absolute face of evil on this planet - she wants refugees to drown rather than send boats to rescue them.

I have zero problem believing she is also loathsome in private given her public face is massive evil cunt.

Honestly she's like a cartoon smirking villain.

Lefties affronted that an Asian woman should dare to be a Conservative. It confuses their bias.

Hardly . Given that Modi is Indian PM.

Lefties affronted that an Asian woman should dare to be a Conservative. It confuses their bias.

I doubt that's why Baroness Warsi is saying that PP should go.

She broke the ministerial code twice.
People can be offended all they like, but the facts remain for everyone to see.

omnishambles

She probably bollocked a few useless civil servants and they won't have like been spoken to like that by a woman.

This!

If her department refused to support her as reported, if they quietly made her life difficult day in and day out, undermined her - and were quietly prejudiced towards her because of her gender or her colour - then why are we surprised that the same people decide to 'accuse' her of bullying.

And this.

I’m no fan of Priti Patel, but how come she’s getting it in the neck when male ministers who have behaved similarly don’t?

Why is Alistair Campbell (who wasn’t an MP but was one of the prime movers in the Blair government) now wheeled out on TV as a genial old rogue when he behaved ten times worse than Priti Patel? How come he gets away scot free?

I wonder why any woman ever stands for Parliament, if this is what we can expect. Not just that, but posters, women, queuing up to say, “she sounds just like my ex boss, the bitch!”: projecting the perceived sins of other women on to somebody they have never met so that they can proclaim how horrified they are by bullying.

I actually feel quite sorry for Priti Patel, and I never thought I’d say that.

It gets better - from Steven Swinford at The Times:

Whitehall sources told The Times that Boris Johnson asked Sir Alex Allan to change his report to state that there was not clear evidence of bullying at home office

Sir Alex refused and said he’s quit if the PM overruled him - which is exactly what happened today

Why is Alistair Campbell (who wasn’t an MP but was one of the prime movers in the Blair government) now wheeled out on TV as a genial old rogue when he behaved ten times worse than Priti Patel? How come he gets away scot free?

Was Alistair Campbell a Minister of State?