A (Gasp!) Bullying Culture
Poor old Gordon Brown. No one is enthusiastic about Gordon Brown the man. He just doesn't push anyone's enthusiasm button, it seems. Stolid, earnest, hard-working doesn't make it, you've got to have the kind of pushy charisma that his predecessor was possessed with to make any inroads on public opinion. And he inherited tenure at 10 Downing Street at a most distressingly inconvenient time in world financial history, so that hasn't helped him one iota.
From what one reads, in any event, come the next election he's history. Perhaps that grates on him, that the public is one giant ingrate. He has sacrificed much, even questions about his health, about his purportedly-failing eyesight, and lamentably short-vision with respect to his country's direction. Anyway, no improprieties can be levelled at him, sex scandals of any kind. Is that a positive? Perhaps not, in Britain.
If he had a little bit of Silvio Berlusconi in him to titillate the British public, a little bit of Nicholas Sarkozy's boundless energy, a little of Barack Obama's oratorical flights, even some of the zaniness of Hugo Chavez there might be a little affection spared on his behalf by flighty British voters. Allegations of a vicious temper, an unrestrained reaction to adversity, a bit of paranoia, well, that's just not British, is it?
Well, actually it is, isn't it? So what's the problem? Oh, it is unseemly for a British prime minister to snap at underlings, to forget all about that obligatory stiff upper lip stuff. It's just so declasse, actually, to exhibit volatility, abuse of one's dedicated staff, even - horrors (unproven) physical violence. Sorry, the physical violence, there's evidence of that; evidently there are ink-blobs on the seat of his official vehicle where an exasperated Brown stabbed the upholstery.
Interesting is it not, that a man with such a horrendous weight of responsibility finds it difficult at times to repress his agitated state over matters he can do little to ameliorate. And that regardless of what he does, how he reacts, there will be condemnations raining down on his poor bowed head. And he manfully staggers upward and onward, snapping at some poor staffer through sheer frustration.
Some of whom have had their little revenge, it would appear, by telephoning in "three or four" calls within the space of a few months to the National Bullying Helpline. Causing the founder of said helpline to avow that she had spoken personally to at least one of these complainers who spoke of a "bullying culture" and of the "stress" thus caused to staff.
In his defence Lord Mandelson insisted that Prime Minister Brown is most definitely not a bully, the man was rather, 'impatient', and 'demanding' of his staff. Appalling, utterly indefensible.
From what one reads, in any event, come the next election he's history. Perhaps that grates on him, that the public is one giant ingrate. He has sacrificed much, even questions about his health, about his purportedly-failing eyesight, and lamentably short-vision with respect to his country's direction. Anyway, no improprieties can be levelled at him, sex scandals of any kind. Is that a positive? Perhaps not, in Britain.
If he had a little bit of Silvio Berlusconi in him to titillate the British public, a little bit of Nicholas Sarkozy's boundless energy, a little of Barack Obama's oratorical flights, even some of the zaniness of Hugo Chavez there might be a little affection spared on his behalf by flighty British voters. Allegations of a vicious temper, an unrestrained reaction to adversity, a bit of paranoia, well, that's just not British, is it?
Well, actually it is, isn't it? So what's the problem? Oh, it is unseemly for a British prime minister to snap at underlings, to forget all about that obligatory stiff upper lip stuff. It's just so declasse, actually, to exhibit volatility, abuse of one's dedicated staff, even - horrors (unproven) physical violence. Sorry, the physical violence, there's evidence of that; evidently there are ink-blobs on the seat of his official vehicle where an exasperated Brown stabbed the upholstery.
Interesting is it not, that a man with such a horrendous weight of responsibility finds it difficult at times to repress his agitated state over matters he can do little to ameliorate. And that regardless of what he does, how he reacts, there will be condemnations raining down on his poor bowed head. And he manfully staggers upward and onward, snapping at some poor staffer through sheer frustration.
Some of whom have had their little revenge, it would appear, by telephoning in "three or four" calls within the space of a few months to the National Bullying Helpline. Causing the founder of said helpline to avow that she had spoken personally to at least one of these complainers who spoke of a "bullying culture" and of the "stress" thus caused to staff.
In his defence Lord Mandelson insisted that Prime Minister Brown is most definitely not a bully, the man was rather, 'impatient', and 'demanding' of his staff. Appalling, utterly indefensible.
Labels: Britain, Crisis Politics, Human Relations
posted by Pieface | 6:29 PM
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