The Whole Gordon Brown Bullying Allegations Thing (And Other Stuff)

I have had the misfortune to work for two real workplace bullies, one now dead, the other probably still teetering on the brink of insanity somewhere, as usual, and for two other wannabes, so the issue is a personally distasteful one. The enquiry should proceed unhindered and, if proved guilty, Gordon Brown should go.

What many people do not understand about Gordon Brown is that he is a particular product of Scottish culture, a 'son of the manse', and for that reason has possibly been over-edified all his life, pushed to the front and told that his views on life, the universe and everything perhaps carry a greater weight than those of other mere mortals. Some such people might eventually develop the unreasonable expectation that they be obeyed as a matter of routine, other people really little more than items that move in front of the traffic. Combine this with conviction and a smattering of intellectualism and the results might be explosive.

On the other hand, of course, the behaviour of Christine Pratt of the National Bullying Helpine has been reprehensible. Her disclosures make a mockery of confidentiality. As a law student, one imbibes the concept of confidentiality along with mother's milk and professorial polemics about how bad and naughty some people really are for asking 'Is it because I'm on Legal Aid that I've got to take a lassie?' (I have long since discarded the copy of 'Paterson & Bates' from which that quotation came). I once had a non-lawyer employer who was very jealous of 'commercial confidentiality', as if the doings of tailors and fishmongers were somehow as important, as serious, and as private as the discussions of lawyer and client. While one would never actually do so, it would be very gratifying to obtain such a person's client lists and plaster them onto lamp-posts as punishment for the sheer insolence of their neoliberalism.

Yet the relationship of counsellor and counselled is, or should be, one of the strictest confidence. The appositely yclept Pratt has exposed every single person working within Downing Street to the third degree. If they weren't being bullied before, they are sure going to be bullied now. I don't know the extent to which art imitates life or life imitates art - personally, I sometimes find myself strangely drawn to the idea of beamed out of Glasgow all the way to Deep Space Nine - but one has to wonder whether those who work in Downing Street might imagine themselves to be characters in that most unappealing and unfunny television series 'The Thick of It', taking their lead on real-world behaviour from shadows dancing on a glass screen. Of course, the show could be an accurate depiction of what goes in on government, serving no purpose other than to reinforce any number of prejudices regarding the calibre of those involved in government.

If this is the way that government is run, then it is an Augean Stable begging to be cleaned. It was illuminating to watch Nigel Farage say on last night's 'Question Time' that he didn't want a nice person in charge. I've never mentioned this before, but Farage is the reason I let my membership of UKIP lapse; his performance on a previous edition of 'Question Time', if memory serves either during or after the snowfalls of February 2009, was one without the slightest hint of human empathy, and the second I saw it I realised that I was watching The Last Thatcherite in action, a person for whom business will always take priority over family and home; his business over your family and home, that is. UKIP has a number of good ideas, and those members in Scotland with whom I had dealings always conducted themselves in a friendly and gentlemanly manner; but I do hope that they understand the type of people who seem to lead or who have led UKIP, because when push comes to shove I'm afraid that they might find they don't have much in common. At best, Farage's performance in the European Parliament this week was boorish and ill-mannered. But it wasn't its best, it was far worse than that; it was unstatesmanlike. It was a disgrace, and Farage doesn't seem to have the wit to see that he has scored an epic own goal which may have done UKIP's worthy cause no end of harm.

There is, however, another aspect to this bullying saga, and it's one that I'm as ever indebted to Laban Tall for helping to bring to the front of the mind. Laban published a piece a week ago entitled 'Education and Self-Esteem'; in the light of the developments in education which have led to such articles being necessary, one has to wonder whether perhaps conceptions of what bullying actually is might have changed over the course of time. Without in any way condoning bullying, could it be the case that a generation of people now exists that thinks not getting what they want constitutes bullying? Or that having their ideas considered and disregarded is bullying? Or that being expected to consistently perform to a high standard is bullying? Or that being corrected is bullying?

If any of these is at all a factor in these allegations, there would be no satisfaction in it, but there would be a measure of what I suppose I could say was justice - that as the British Left has worked so hard to elevate childrens' confidence while diminishing their sense of others' needs, it would only be appropriate if they turned round and bit it on the backside. Ah, sharper than a serpent's tooth is an ungrateful child!