Pritti Patel wouldn't be getting this much crap if she was a man

[FFSFFSFFS]

I think she's probably an awful person and probably has been all sorts of awful to all the civil servants. I am really not a fan and I do think this kind of behaviour should be held to account

BUT I am willing to bet a LOT of money that Philip Rutham would have reacted very differently if she was not an Indian woman.

The amount of bullying that happens by senior men both in the corporate world and in the public service is massive. And yet here we have all these unprecedented and extraordinary steps being taken and it just happens to be a woman....

I think if she drove someone to attempt suicide that's pretty serious.

And what the fuck is this crap about "she wouldn't be getting criticism if she was a white man"? We don't know if that's true, but even if it is, does that somehow excuse it? We think it's OK for government ministers to bully staff into attempting suicide as long as the ministers are female and black?

I mean, JFC, can't we just say, this is really shitty behaviour whoever it's from, male, female, white, black, whatever?

I have no idea about the fine details of this issue but I think John Prescott survived an unfeasibly long time as bully in chief.

Yes she would.

Conservative women home have said he wouldnt have complained if she was a man. He had 4 previous female bosses.

Previous staff have complained about her.

Defending her because she is a woman, does women no favours.

I don't generally find these kinds of claims, that someone would never be treated in a certain way if they were a man, very convincing.

It's difficult to judge at the best of times, because so much is down to individual personality, but in most cases it looks to me like men do get treated the same way.

I mean, Boris. Well, he seems to have some turd-like qualities. But he can actually be quite charming and funny when he wants to be which I suspect mitigates some criticism, and actually he gets a lot of it anyway. It can be surprising who is liked by people who work with them, there was an MP here under Stephen Harper who was called his bulldog, he was always going off in the House and making the unpopular policy announcements and such, he was considered sort of a bully in terms of his public persona. But he was voted most popular MP by civil servants, twice I think, and people said that actually, the staff all really liked him, he was a good boss.

Hard to tell. I worked as a civil servant under Gordon Brown. Very difficult man. A shouter. Often unreasonable. But not a bully, I don’t think.

Perhaps because it never felt personal.

There has been talk of a campaign against this particular CS and that would be the thing that would tip it over the edge for me. I can guarantee he’s been in angry and shouty conversations before so it’s not that but the whispering campaign against him.

How in any sane world she is still even allowed ear a government position after the carry on in Israel, is beyond me. She should have been facing a very stern out come off the back of that but she skipped out of view for a bit and popped up a yeR or so later like nothing had happened.
She is an appaling, devious piece if work that is everything wrong with this government. Being female and Asian have not been a factor to this achievement, it's all about personality in this case

No I think she is exceptionally vile and incompetent so she is getting an exceptionally strong response. I think you don't have to work hard to find a much better example of inequality!

@FFSFFSFFS 'Jeremy Corbyn is a huge bully'

hmm, in 20 years of being involved with family and colleagues I have never heard or seen anything that would justify this statement.

If you have some evidence to back up that claim Id love to hear it?

Priti Patel talks about starving the Irish into agreeing with Brexit.
She is a racist who thinks the poor deserve their lot.
Her sex and race are irrelevant compared with her hateful views and attitudes.
After the Netanyahu episode she should never have been allowed back into government.

Well, her reputation was bad before she became Home Secretary. And Philip Rutnam has, by making a claim in court rather than taking a pay out, ensured she will have to explain.

It’s not about the money. For the damage it will do to her, that is why.

I imagine Philip Rutnam has got plenty of material for this circus that pulled into town. Patel is totally out of her depth. Civil servants can be mean as shit; either way she will be done over by this process.

This may suit Boris. She wants his job and if she messes this up then that’s another contender on the scrapheap (Javid).

Had her down as a Mean Girl. The one you would actively avoid in the school corridor. My husband thinks she's awesome, I think she's frightening.

The news reported she told people to get lost and get out of my face. All part and parcel of my workplaces in financial services. Yes unpleasant and rude , is that workplace bullying? Or is that tv report not stating the full extent?

I read this weekend that the left don’t like her because she’s an Asian woman who didn’t ask their permission to be successful. I think there’s something in that. How dare she be a Tory?

At least a decade too late to try to sell that line. Baroness Warsi doesn't get anything like the level of criticism Patel gets. For the simple reason Warsi doesn't behave like Patel.

Interesting to watch Patel-pals squirm around trying to distract from her behaviour, though!

Ditto all the wild splashing round of claims that everyone else must be a bully too.

The completely unsubstantiated, detail-free "no angel" phrase is one I've seen twice now. Are you all feeding from the same sources?

Her own blooming Prime Minister, the woman who'd appointed her, sacked Patel three years ago for deceitful behaviour.

And when I say, same "sources", I mean, from the same meme-machine.

Am yet to see any substance in the hazy smears against Rutnam. Doesn't mean there isn't any – but if there is, perhaps the posters muttering about him would like to tell us what it is?

Yeah, not with you on this OP.
I think she's significantly worse than previous bosses to merit this.
Quite look forward to her downfall.

She doesn't seem to be a nice person, and all of the evidence suggests that she's a bully. I wouldn't want to work with her, and she should lose her job.

However, only an absolutely ruthless woman would ever get to her position in the first place. Good guys finish last in industries like politics. The only politicians allowed to be buffoonish are upper class white men, like Bojo and Rees Mogg. Women will only ever get anywhere in politics by fighting tooth and nail for it.

She has definitely faced some misogynistic abuse on Twitter, there was a thread the other day with some vile things said about her. No doubt she will also face racial abuse too.

I can't stand the woman, she actually gives me cold shivers down my spine when I watch her speak. Stick to her politics and behaviour when criticising her.

The only politicians allowed to be buffoonish are upper class white men, like Bojo and Rees Mogg. Women will only ever get anywhere in politics by fighting tooth and nail for it.
So true. Priti Patel seems horrible, but it also seems like you can only succeed as a woman in politics if you DGAF about criticism and misogynistic abuse and can fight your way to the top. That kind of environment is always going to produce some wrong'uns.

Its because she is an asian woman. Double whammy.

The only politicians allowed to be buffoonish are upper class white men, like Bojo and Rees Mogg.
Boris is only a buffoon in the sense of being consistently incompetent because he doesn’t give a shit about doing jobs well or the impact on ordinary people. But he has shown himself to be ruthless in getting to No 10 and will fight tooth and nail for his own interests. I don’t agree that PP has got a disproportionate amount of flak, but BJ gets disproportionately little.

I am sure that any man who drove a young employee into taking two overdoses would be hung out to dry. In fact I’ve never heard of anybody else in government managing that!

She’s a horrible human being.

Nothing to do with being a woman

BJ does get cut a lot of slack, but then Corbyn got a huge amount of abuse.
Abbott gets racist and sexist abuse, but that's pretty extreme.
PP gets what she deserves.