Rawnsley’s indictment of the entire Brown government is lost amid a smokescreen about bullying

Tom Pride

It’s a feeding frenzy! Over at the FT the’re saying that Brown threw Peter Mandelson into a laminating machine!

http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/02/did-gordon-throw-a-fruit-into-a-machine-during-factory-visit/

(Hat tip new labour cannon fodder - third comment down - and Guido)

TrevorsDen

But the events (we can conclude) did happen and as such will attract attention.

You make a grand assumption that without the 'bullying' assertions there would have been any interest at all in the other disclosures that are in the book.

Mazza1230

I should imagine that the investigation will expose any bullies at No 10.

They can then face trial like Andy Coulson.

David Blackburn

TrevorsDen,

I make no such assumption - I argue that the wider, probably more important narrative is being drowned out by the bullying allegations...

Frank P

Tom Pride (4.32pm)

So that accounts for the oily sheen? I thought he was being a little extravagant with the KY Jelly.

Maggie

This isn't a noble display of support and unity. These are partners in crime on the brink of exposure practising omertà.

No. 10 insider

If you'd seen, like I've seen, Gordon Brown, Charlie Whelan, Damian McBride and Ed Balls cuddling puppies, making daisy-chains, and painting rainbows on sugar-paper then you wouldn't fall for such terrible slander.

What on earth makes you think this gang of innocents would EVER bully anybody? They're cuddly and fluffy and wouldn't say anything nasty to anyone ever.

sue hall

Andrew Rawnsley should not be using these tactics to sell his book. As for Ms Pratt - Adam Bienkov has raised questions

"A quick look at NBH's website reveals:

* A personal endorsement from Conservative leader David Cameron

* One of their patrons is Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe

* Another patron is Boris Johnson's Chair of the London Health Authority, Conservative Cllr Mary O'Connor

* They have close ties to Conservative controlled Swindon borough Council."

Adam continues:

"There are also doubts about whether NBH is actually a functioning charity at all. An even quicker look at the Charity Commission's register reveals that:

* They are 206 days overdue on registering their accounts.

* They have registered just £852 pounds in expenditure since they were established."

Paul Waugh at the Evening Standard has said this saga has been a "one woman PR disaster" and said Mrs Pratt's appearance on Sky News this morning was a "slow-mo car crash." Others are suggesting this has been a PR stunt, gone badly wrong for the National Bullying Helpline - which, as Adam Bienkov also discovers, appears to be the business arm of a charity, not a charity in itself.

Hippo Chrissy

The Tories should get Andy Coulson to deal with his, it's his territory:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/23/andy-coulson-now-bullying-payout

paulg

I think your missing the point bullying in the workplace is a criminal offence. Technically Mr Brown should be suspended until a full investigation has been conducted.
Moreover I reiterate its labour people and the civil service who work for them who are making these allegations.
Only today on sky news one of them has stated that the way Mr Brown treated junior members of the civil service was disgraceful. And yet again it must be stated that bullying vulnerable employees is breaking the law. Lord Mendaciousson says.... he took it like a man. No doubt he did but the rest of us don't subscribe to his definition of... taking it like a man.
Those who were bullied have every right to have the policies and procedures drafted in reference to the law applied in this case with the full support of the Unions that they belong too.

AndyinBrum

Frank, you're obsessed

toco

Any sensible person will be objective and conclude there is now overwhelming evidence from so many reliable sources that around Brown and his friends including Damian McBride there are clear grounds for the claims of bullying.Denials from the likes of the twice disgraced Mandelson will only confirm this is the case.As far as I am aware not a single threat of a libel action has been made.Brown should be ashamed particularly after his performance with Piers Morgan when he attempted to portray a totally different image but I am not expecting mea culpa from the discredited and unelected occupant of Downing Street.

crockhamtown

Isn't there still something outstanding between Nadine Dorries and the PM over the Damian McBride affair? Possibly something to do with the publication of emails.

logdon

So how about this one then? How much does it take?

Forget bullying within Number Ten and Whithall it's the whole British race!

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1252926/Government-drew-secret-plans-increase-immigration--feared-racist-backlash.html

David Lindsay

What sort of Prime Minister would they prefer? And I wonder at anyone who has never had a boss who shouted and swore a bit. Fleet Street is clearly not as one tends to think it is. Then again, perhaps they assume that no one else has had these experiences, since that would make them the same as everyone else?

Deafening silence from the usual critics of fake charities about the National Bullying Helpline, whose income in 2007 was a mere £1,818, with expenditure of £852. The figures for 2008 are 207 days overdue. In 2007, £1000 was raised by CLM Solicitors and Monahans, £200 by BNY Mellon Asset Services, and around £600 pounds from all other donations. Ann Widdecombe is a Patron, though one does have to wonder for how much longer after today's breach of confidentiality. And the helpline refers callers to a human resources consultancy run by Christine Pratt and her husband.

TGF UKIP

paulg makes a most interesting point when he states "bullying in the workplace is a criminal offence." While my very quick research does indicate that it can indeed be a criminal offence, it would be interesting to hear from any CH lawyers or personnel people just where that boundary lies.

The reason I say that, is that I am certain that even as I write these words, Fleet Street's finest are hunting down any past or present Treasury or Downing Street employees who are prepared to go on the record with specific instances. My bet is that someone, probably from Brown's days in the Treasury, will step forward and the story is likely to break in next Sunday's papers. Place your bets now, Mail, S. Times or NoW.

If someone does step forward and if (an awful lot of "ifs" I know) the behaviour they allege can be capable of being construed as a criminal offence, then I suggest a mass write in to Sir Paul Stephenson demanding an arrest.

Michael Booth

What sort of Prime Minister would I prefer? One that was elected after leading his party into a General Election for a start: one who was courteous to those who worked for him and one who did not treat the British people with contempt.

JONNY

What sort of Prime Minister would I prefer David Lindsay?
Preferably one who isn't a pathological fantasist.

Chuck Unsworth

@ David Lindsay

So your point is that this woman has lied through her teeth in regard to this matter?

Another Lindsay logical non-sequitur.

paulg

@ David Lyndsey, What is your point! You evidently discount the related stories from dozens of labour insiders, staff at No10, and a story from a labour journalist who eidts a labour supporting paper, that bullying is rife around Mr Brown.
Thye lady from the bullying hot line is only relating that she is aware of people making calls to her from No10 because they have been bullied.
Bullying anyone who cannot fight back is a disgraceful thing to do and, you should know better.

Liz Brown

methinks they do protest too much. All the narratives point in one direction - gormless is a bully, always has been and always will and this sickening blackning and name calling by Prescott and his ilk only confirms what is in the public domain. Live by the sword, gormless and die by the sword............

mitch

Brown bullied Blair out of downing street.

Holly ......

Sue Hall,
Maybe they don't like bullies?
Oh I forgot..It must be a dodgy charity,
because Labour bods are saying it is an evil
nasty,cunning,Tory smear campaign against poor old Gordon Brown.
Something was going on in this workplace.
Staff actually picked up a phone and called a helpline.Do you know how bad things have to be to just do that?
Like everything else Blame the bloody Tories
Works every time.This time is no different.
Or is it?
Schools and businesses now have a 'get out clause'to hush,hush any reports of bullying because of confidentiality.
Will parents of bullied children dare report
'cover ups' about a school with a history of bullying?
As long as Brown is victorious,victims don't
matter in his "future fair for all".
Brown and the lot of them should wallow in their victory.
It may have destroyed the helpline and made the lives of bullies a lot easier,but Brown is victorious and in Labourland NOTHING else is nearly half as important as Brown being victorious.
Good heavens they would all be out of a job otherwise.
YAY Brown!!!!

euro-zone

For the first time today I saw the obnoxious person (Prescott?) on TV, admittedly I never had time before I was pensioned to watch british TV. My hypothetical question: how far have the british population sunk to have such a person elected? and how far has british politics sunk to have had this creature as deputy PM? for crying out loud!, this man has been representing the UK on the international stage and to think he was only deputy, the mind boggles

Sir Graphus

You live in your meejah bubble. We live in our ranting right wing blogging bubble. Lord knows what the key voters have made of all this. My guess is that Brown is damaged; that it has reversed any warm glow that he got from wheeling out his dead daughter and blubbing.

Frank P

logdon

The Daily Mail article you linked at 6.49pm contained one line that seems to have been missed by the Speccy bloggers:

David Cameron promised yesterday to limit immigration to tens of thousands a year, a level last seen in the 1990s.

"David Cameron promised yesterday to limit immigration to tens of thousands a year, a level last seen in the 1990s."

Where did he say this? How does he intend to implement it? Has he at last listened to his core voters? Will he at last address the Neather revelations?

Major Plonquer

Peter Mandelson may have 'taken it like a man'. However, he actually prefers it like a dog.

How's that for spin?

Naomi Muse

Andrew Rawnsley's book is serialised so it will act as a steady drip, drip, drip, of content and as the subject is the Death of The Party, it might be difficult for it to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, considering its timing.

michael

Bullying is not something that occurs in the
private sector on wholesale basis because a whiff of unfairness begets an employer the privilege of funding a no win no fee constructive dismissal tribunal. (win or lose)

Peter From Maidstone

I did a sponsored long-distance (for me anyhow) walk with a colleague in 2008. None of the senior Labour people bothered replying to my requests for a word of support. David Cameron did, and his office contacted me again to ask if I would like a signed letter of support. He had nothing much to gain from being nice, but he was. I am not surprised that he has sent a message of support to the National Bullying Helpline. It doesn't mean he is involved with it at all, as his supportive message for me and my colleague didn't mean he accompanied us on our walk. Though my support for him has wavered because he does not seem very Conservative, I still think he is a good person and generally thoughtful of others.

skynine

Would anyone like to speculate why no Labour MP was prepared to stand against Gordon Brown for PM and the reason why they couldn't get the required number of MP's to back them?

That's democracy in the Labour party under not Flash just Flashman.

michael

GB's got a nerve accusing DC of snobbery snootery and cliquishness.

when it comes to LORDING it over people, BELITTLING them, and surrounding himself with CRONIES,.....Gordon rules OK!

What a snob!

Hugo van Randwyck

Most people are fed up with most politicians. Politicians don't seem to have noticed that less and less people vote at the ballot box, the votes needed for winning an election have fallen from 14 million in 1992 to 9.5 million in 2005.
Any bullying is also a symptom of allowing EU laws to be bullied into Britain.
Let's see how many votes the newer pro-democracy parties get in the election :)

How many people have seen the www.efta.int website for simpler European trade options?

The country does need politicians that listen to voters and their staff opinions.

Ghengis

I understood the book to be about the collapse of a political party, and how and why this occurred. Sufficient to say the behaviour of its leader (if as alleged) is not insignificant as stated by Mandelson but a matter of prime importance to the voters at the forthcoming general election. I find it worrying, that I am being urged to vote for a "leader" who has clearly demonstrated that he cannot control his temper due to an excess of impatience, and is caused in some way to bite his fingernails down to the quick. Whilst one of these disadvantages would suggest care be taken when considering such a person for a post, the two together suggests the first diadvantage to be advanced into the realm of self harm. I shall cast my vote elsewhere.

logdon

Frank P

He should shout it from the rooftops.