Home Secretary Priti Patel is at the centre of a political row about bullying. It's claimed that she bullied various individuals in various departments of government in which she's worked in recent years and the Labour Party sees this as an opportunity to berate the Prime Minister. However .....
Exactly what is 'bullying' ? A few years ago, bullying was principally seen as being a physical offence, that is, bullies physically assaulted their victims. Today, that definition has been gradually extended so that now bullying encompasses all manner of highly subjective activity, much of it 'in the eye of the beholder'. Basically, bullying occurs whenever the supposed victim says it does, in similar manner to the ludicrous 'hate crimes' with which we have now been lumbered.
It seems that Ms Patel may be the type of manager who expects her staff to do what she tells them and expects results; when things don't go according to plan, she may have, on occasion, become angry and shouted or otherwise expressed her displeasure. When I was somewhat younger, this would have been perfectly usual and the failing staff member would have been contrite and done their best to put things right; the matter would have ended there.
Today, the recipients of such behaviour seem to collapse in tears, shaking with fear and claiming that they've been 'bullied'; accepting responsibility for their failings never seems to occur to them. These poor delicate little flowers have to be cosseted for fear that they may be unable to cope with the nasty world of reality.
Frankly, most such claims are nothing but bullshit, though the environment in which we all now live is one that supports the supposed victim over and above all others; in essence, we live in a culture in which victimhood dominates while responsibility is ignored.
If Ms Patel did, indeed, shout at a few overblown and self important civil servants, so what ? I say "Good on her !" Surely it's about time that these time-serving mandarins accepted that they are 'servants', not masters, pulled their socks up and did what they're told, rather than finding every possible means, in the style of Sir Humphrey, to frustrate their Minister's policies.
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