Apparently she is the first government minister ever not to be forced to resign after such a report. Ethnicity, gender etc shouldn't come into the discussion. There would seem to be no doubt that she has broken the ministerial code on numerous occasions and all ministers should be treated equally.
Perhaps, but I don't have much doubt that the entrenched old school civil servants in both her Departments tried to make her life hell and obstructed her as much as they could.
Perhaps, but I don't have much doubt that the entrenched old school civil servants in both her Departments tried to make her life hell and obstructed her as much as they could.
Do you have any direct personal experience of such behavior? I have worked closely with a number of ministers from both major parties, some of whom had a well deserved reputation for being difficult. One of the trickier tasks for those you insult is to save the politicians from themselves e.g. reminding them that their intended course of action would be illegal or that it is a policy area belonging to a different department and minister. Sometimes they had to be told that there was no budget to carry out their wishes and that Treasury had made it plain they wouldn't pay. Some ministers seemed to think they were Jean Luc Picard - "make it so" - and didn't like hearing that it wasn't going to be possible.
I never knew a senior civil servant who would have tried to obstruct a minister's wishes. The Cabinet Secretary would have them removed from post pdq if they were daft enough to try. As for making a minister's life hell well in the real world it works the other way round as we have just seen.
It has long been said that the culture at the Home Office among civil servants is toxic and that can only happen thru bad leadership and it would seem there has been plenty of that in recent years. Whether it comes from civil servants trying to implement political directives and policies which are impossible/contradictory/immoral (Windrush)/inhuman(Windrush)/racist (Windrush and Stop and Search) with inadequate supervision, bad leadership and inadequate funding is another matter.
For any minister or manager to have to resort to shouting, intimidation and bullying is a failure of leadership. To think it can be done that way without hurting people with less power is naive and stupid.
We are well past the time when this kind of bullying is acceptable and yet it is rife. Time to lead by example be it politics at any level, military, business, trade unions, public services of any kind from NHS to the police and council services.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Perhaps, but I don't have much doubt that the entrenched old school civil servants in both her Departments tried to make her life hell and obstructed her as much as they could.
Do you not think that that in itself would be another problem? If Prati Pitel had been obstructed in any way shape or form because of any 'ism' or discrimination, then that should have been reported and dealt with openly and with the full force of the law.
If it wasn't discrimination or an 'ism' and Prati was being obstructed for some other reason, then I can't believe there are not internal procedures already in place to handle that (and steephill closes that off) - so again should have been addressed.
When the allegations about bullying surfaced, they may have been true or false. No idea. So the allegations were investigated (the right thing to do), and a report prepared. If Boris didn't have faith in the person preparing the report then someone else should have been appointed. If he didn't believe the report accurate (presumably only if Boris had access to other information that the report writer didn't have), then he should have declared the additional information. If the report was just garbage, came to the wrong conclusion and/or poorly produced, then the person who prepared it should have been sacked.
Frustratingly, Prati refused to admit to bullying in the interview yesterday afternoon - just apologised for upsetting people unintentionally - the upshot being that she appeared to be tacitly blaming the people she bullied for being overly sensitive.
Goodness knows how the people Prati bullied are feeling this morning.
On much happier notes we started on the outdoor Christmas lights 😃😃😃 had loads of fun with the boys getting them up. Mrs Wilderbeast is rather obsessed with crimbo lights so we start early to manage the workload.
Do you remember the European butter mountain? I’ve got the European Christmas decorations mountain in my shed. Actually, it was in my shed and now it is in the conservatory.
You buy new decorations but then don’t throw out the old. It’s now all sorted and I have already offloaded quite a stack on Freecycle. I’ll list more tomorrow.
I've had a clearout and, despite labelling boxes forgoodnesssake, I can't find a ******* thing! What seems a logical place to put something one day doesn't seem so logical when there's half a dozen equally logical places you could have put it. I think I'm going back to the 'Where did I last use it? ' filing system and that's my RTBC - in case I've posted on the wrong thread.
Posts
For any minister or manager to have to resort to shouting, intimidation and bullying is a failure of leadership. To think it can be done that way without hurting people with less power is naive and stupid.
We are well past the time when this kind of bullying is acceptable and yet it is rife. Time to lead by example be it politics at any level, military, business, trade unions, public services of any kind from NHS to the police and council services.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You buy new decorations but then don’t throw out the old. It’s now all sorted and I have already offloaded quite a stack on Freecycle. I’ll list more tomorrow.
A sort out and an organisation is so cathartic.
What seems a logical place to put something one day doesn't seem so logical when there's half a dozen equally logical places you could have put it.
I think I'm going back to the 'Where did I last use it? ' filing system and that's my RTBC - in case I've posted on the wrong thread.