A 'bullying' Prime Minister, but what of Andy Coulson?

Tory leader David Cameron calls for an inquiry into Gordon Brown's "bullying" conduct towards his staff with the suggestion he's unfit for high office. Quite right. But what a pity Cameron didn't call for an inquiry into - and has not publicly addressed once - the bullying conduct of someone very close to himself, the Tory media boss Andy Coulson. Last year, the former editor's bullying of a sports reporter cost the News of the World £800,000 before costs - a record award for workplace bullying.

Sadly The Times, which laudably publishes a leader today on the bullying claims against the PM - labelling bullies "weak" - was not moved to comment on Coulson's offence at the time.

Come to think of it, why hasn't the National Bullying Helpline - which has confirmed Number 10 staff concerns about the PM - made an issue of Coulson? Questions, questions. Rhetorical.

Andy Coulson and bullying: Time for a Number 10 petition

I know most of you are not interested - sedated on porn and Ikea as you are - but I have applied to start a petition on the Number 10 website, calling on the government to demand that the Tories comment on the findings of the Stratford Industrial Tribunal of last December, namely that the Tories' director of communications, Andy Coulson, presided over a culture of workplace bullying as editor of the News of the World.

More details on the case can be read here.

Silence is the enemy. Not one anti-bullying organisation that I know of has taken an interest in this case - it's simpler to confine their concern to the playground. Guido Fawkes made light of it when I drew it to his attention. Even Richard Madeley wrote to me asking about the case, then cracked a deflective joke when I explained the known facts. Bit too serious for the TV fluff-meister. He's not alone.

Workplace bullying: Will Coulson get a dose of Crabbs?

In the Commons today Tory MP Stephen Crabb baited Gordon Brown on workplace bullying, thinking perhaps of all those flunkies and Cabinet members the PM has snarled and thrown mobiles at. This is most admirable of Mr Crabb for there is another person in British politics who stands accused of workplace bullying - the Tories' own spin doctor Andy Coulson who has not (to my knowledge) denied presiding over a culture of bullying as one-time editor of the News of the World - story, click here.

At last someone in the Tory Party in prepared to strip away the veil of silence over employee abuse by overbearing managers - do send your congratulations to him at crabbs@parliament.uk. I look forward to Mr Crabb encouraging Mr Coulson to repent his ways. I can scarcely wait.

Andy Coulson: Media bullied into silence?

I am delighted to see that Private Eye, the world's second best magazine (there is no first, dearies) , has taken up the cause against Andy Coulson (in its new Jan 9 edition), the bullying former editor of the News of the World who is now the Tories' director of communications (ie spin).

In a previous post I expressed astronishment that the Tories have not invited Coulson to fuck off on the grounds that a future Conservative government might have credibility problems on any bullying policies in retaining his services. Late last year, an employment tribunal found that he had presided over a bullying culture at the newspaper, had waged some sort of vendetta against an unwell sports hack, Matt Driscoll. Coulson didn't turn up to explain himself and media silence followed. So much for concerns about bullying.

The Eye now reveals why. "Tory spinners have been in overdrive since Christmas, warning hacks not to run anything on the damning judgement for fear of antagonising 'the chap who'll run the next government' [Coulson]," the magazine reports. Does this sound like collateral bullying?

It is a disgrace that the Tories and the mainstream media have not made more of this. Is it now the position of the Tory Party that some laws are less important than others? And as the Eye reminds us, the liars and dolts of the News of the World only recently championed an anti-bullying campaign in schools. Of course there are those who do not take bullying seriously for fear of being viewed weak: when I contacted Guido Fawkes about this before Christmas, all that clot could say was that he had been a bully at school and made light of the matter. He thought I was a "snitch".

I also contacted a number of UK anti-bullying organisations: not one has yet responded, though the Christmas hols may account for that. I will continue to draw attention to this case - and of course we await news of the compensation to be awarded to Driscoll.

Oh dear. Guido Fawkes approves of bullying!

I asked Guido Fawkes the other day whether he had any comment to make on Andy Coulson, the Tory's spin doctor, who last week was found by an employment tribunal to have bullied a sports hack as editor of the News of the World. Fawkes' response to me? ...

"Happy Xmas. I hate employment laws. Takes all the fun out of the office."

Jokes aside, that sums up the problem of bullying in the work place.

Bullying: Jungle laws re-invoked by a fool

Interesting piece in the Observer (for a change), about bullying. Someone called Tim Gill, a former government adviser who led a major review into children's play, has written a book, No Fear: Growing up in a Risk-Averse Society, in which he argues that playground bullying is exaggerated and that kids should be encouraged to sort out conflict with their peers and not be mollycoddled by teachers and parents.

But Liz Carnell, director of the charity Bullying UK, counters: "What may seem like minor name-calling to an adult could be devastating to the child. Bullying can start with one incident, and if you nip it in the bud straight away, it will not grow into a problem."

Carnell's view strikes me as the more sensible. At core, bullying - which can be verbal harassment or physical assault with always an intimidatory intent and usually a sustained element - is an unsocial behaviour. The failure of schools and parents to deal appropriately with bullies may account for the high incidence of workplace bullying: to many it is a behaviour that appears to be countenanced or excused and ultimately rewarded in adulthood. Successful bullies in high status jobs are even granted a certain cachet because of their "toughness" or "ruthlessness". Teachers maybe reluctant to tackle bullying because they themselves were indoctrinated as kids to tacitly side with the bully, not the victim, for fear of seeming weak. The source problem lies not in the victim but in the bully: the Gills and his ilk fail to recognise this simple truth.

Ultimately this is a question about the kind of world we wish to live in. It certainly won't be altered by invoking the old brutalising law of the jungle crap - which is just another excuse to leave things as they are.

Tim Gill - "government adviser". How depressing.

Observer: Bullying is Exaggerated
Bullying UK

Ten VERY SUCCESSFUL and FAMOUS glamour role model bullies (from UK perspective):

Rupert Murdoch
Anna Wintour
David Montgomery
Kelvin MacKenzie
Jeremy Kyle
Anne Robinson
Alastair Campbell
Naomi Campbell
Sharon Osbourne
Gordon Ramsay

Anna Wintour: The glamour of bullying

Just read Jerry Oppenheimer's breathless Front Row: Anna Wintour: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor in Chief - published two years ago. I found a US edition of the book (was there ever a British?) in a remainder shop in Brighton Marina Village for £5 (original price US$24.95).

The real theme of the book is workplace bullying, though Oppenheimer scarcely realises it. All sorts of amazing details blitz the pages but her behavioural patterns are not analysed psychologically, beyond Wintour's Wayfarers prescription shades - a chic Trojan to disguise her poor eyesight - and her many curious habits: she laps up the cream on coffee but doesn't touch the drink; same with melted butter on her soups; she picks out pennies from her purse and tosses them in the wastebasket.

One quote in particular interests me, from an unnamed former British Vogue staffer who "quit in disgust" at Wintour's office conduct in the mid-'80s:

"[Anna Wintour] is the first female bully I ever met. She treated everyone, except for her own little coterie, like trash. You could tell she got off on it. A real little bully of a woman, and for what? Power for her was what it all was about. Power's Anna's aphrodisiac. I mean, Vogue's just a fashion magazine, a catalogue to sell clothes, for God's sake. And people had to be tormented so she could get a pat on the bum [from her Condé Nast bosses]."

Her material rewards for bullying have been immense as editor in chief of American Vogue. And I have no doubt a whole new generation of people will have been inspired by her example - untroubled by legislative attempts to rein in the abuse of staff. The trick of the bully is to force people to think that they're on the losing team as a prelude to office guerrilla warfare and dismissal (constructive or actual). Behind the chic, mute cool of Wintour is just another primitive vulgarian once desperate to make it at the expense of others. Now she's made it, she's applauded by idiots who think success is all. The Devil Wears Prada merely celebrated this syndrome as dressed-up "satire".

Perhaps it's time to found an international organisation that targets the glamour of workplace bullying, or workplace intimidatory behaviours that are sold through the media as examples of winning, succeeding, rationalising, reinventing or re-freshing. It could be called the Anna Wintour Foundation - to remind the future of who required its creation.

For information on bullying see Bullying UK

Jade Goody: Act Against Bullying response

Hi Madame Arcati

Thank you for your email. We have been slightly inundated with emails on this subject so apologies in not replying sooner to your response. I have now issued a statement on my own website which I hope will clear up the situation regarding Jade and the organisation I founded Act Against Bullying. As a result we are receiving some very touching responses.
www.louiseburfittdons.com
With best wishes.
Louise Burfitt-Dons

Bullying Online response: 'What about Jodie?'

Dear Madame A,

I'm really disappointed that an anti-bullying charity doesn't think it's appropriate to speak out publicly on an issue like Jade Goody's appalling Big Brother remarks to Shilpa Shetty which have been condemned by three other anti-bullying charities - Kidscape, Bullying Online and Act Against Bullying - race relations bodies, MPs and the public..

There was no reluctance to speak out to the media when Beatbullying ambassador Jodie Marsh was given a hard time on the 2006 version of the show.

At that time, the charity was quoted widely on the issue, under the London Evening Standard headline "Stop bullying our Jodie" which reported: "Jodie Marsh's harsh treatment at the hands of her Big Brother housemates was condemned by anti-bullying campaigners yesterday."

Elsewhere the charity was quoted saying...."Beatbullying has received a huge number of e-mails from young people across the UK who support Jodie's stance on bullying, many of them very worried about some of the treatment Jodie is going through in the Big Brother house. Beatbullying will speak out against bullying whenever it happens".

It's disappointing that Beatbullying's previous support in the media for Jodie Marsh doesn't extend to Shilpa Shetty when they both took part in versions of the same show.
Yours,
Liz Carnell
Director
Bullying Online
www.bullying.co.uk

Jade Goody: Beat Bullying response

Dear Madame Arcati,

Thank you very much for your email which we received today. I was very impressed with your website, humorous, vitriolic and brilliant! I applaud your criticism of the Anti-Bullying Alliance, not many people do criticise it, which means that its purpose is often misunderstood or undefined. However, for us professionals working within the anti-bullying sector, the ABA does provide a useful forum for sharing best practice. I suspect they add more value to the profession than to the public. But I’m not in the business of defending them.

On the matter of whether anti-bullying organisations should have spoken out against the bullying on Celebrity Big Brother, I respectfully disagree with you. We were asked many times all last week to comment to media on the story, but we declined. We have a strict policy of never commenting publicly on specific bullying incidences, and certainly never vilifying an individual involved in a bullying case. We adhere to this policy even when we have all the evidence, and we had nothing even close to the entire evidence in the CBB case.

We spend all our time working with schools, youth groups and young people from all over the country on the ground everyday. We don’t have the resources to scrutinise Big Brother and cast judgment on the contestants. However, you are not alone in your concern. We have had a number of members of the public asking why we weren’t commenting, that is why we eventually put up a statement on our website on Thursday www.beatbullying.org. It is certainly disappointing compared to some of the more emotive soundbites that have been doing the rounds; boycott Jade, etc. I think it would be grossly irresponsible for an anti-bullying charity to go after an individual like that no matter what their crime, wouldn’t you agree?

Once again, thanks for getting in touch, do let me know if I can assist you in future and well done on a great site with a great truthful tone.

Regards,

Niall Cowley
Head of Communications
beatbullying
Tel: 020 8768 1017
Mobile: 07904 343 950
Fax: 020 8771 8478

Text DONATE to 61211 to set up a standing order to beatbullying
niall.cowley@beatbullying.org
www.beatbullying.org
www.bbclic.com
www.antibullyingweek.org
www.myspace.com/beatbullying

Shilpa Shetty: Anti-Bullying Alliance fails her

In the wake of the Jade Goody/Shilpa Shetty saga on Celebrity Big Brother I am at a loss to understand why the government funded Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) and their 65 members are (unlike Gordon Brown) silent on the biggest bullying issue in the last decade.

On Wednesday (Jan 17) the ABA put out a pathetic and anodyne statement on CBB on its website. Part of it read:

"The Anti-Bullying Alliance (ABA) believes that bullying in any form is wrong and should not be tolerated, and that any environment that encourages bullying, prejudice, and discrimination is unacceptable."

Yet this statement was pulled from the ABA site yesterday. Why? I think for the £600,000 it receives from tax-payers each year we can expect leadership and inspiration - a response that is both timely and exemplary. The ABA ought not to fear controversy.

One of the ABA's member organisations Act Against Bullying even had to issue an apology after publishing a statement that appeared to offer understanding of Goody's behaviour (whom they've just dumped as a rep). Part of it read:

"We apologise once again for any misunderstanding caused by (the) statement yesterday. We under no circumstances condone bullying of any forms, and do our very best to work to eliminate it wherever possible."

This is true incompetence. Why the ambiguity on as clear a case of bullying as has ever been witnessed on national television (non-fiction)? As the non-government funded Bullying Online points out on its site:

"Act Against Bullying says 'that Shilpa Shetty is being bullied not because she is Indian but because of what she represents.' We disagree with that view. Numerous comments have been made on the show referring to Shilpa’s Indian background and most of the large number of complaints we have received share our concern about those remarks."

In fact, as I write, only Bullying Online and Kidscape have spoken out publicly and directly about CBB and its bullying entertainment. Perhaps Gordon should take a closer look at the ABA and its personnel when he finally levers Bliar out of Number 10.

Platell - a victim of bullying

In the Mail today Amanda Platell turns her attention glitter ball to Helen Green, the company secretary awarded £800,000 by the High Court as compensation for a four-year campaign of bullying by four female colleagues at Deutsche Bank. Amanda is appalled that such a victim should have recourse to law - "Hers [Green's] is a hideously distorted world where self-styled victims reign supreme..." blah blah bah.
Apparently, Amanda can't see what the fuss is about: she is unable to find one incident of bullying in this case that most of us would not have "shrugged off as petty offfice politics". So what if colleagues blow mocking raspberries at you or tell you to your face that you smell - welcome to the world of work, children!
Actually, this pile of nonsense - supported by an approving adjacent editorial - is only explicable in context. For Amanda herself is a victim of bullying. Victims sometimes fall for their persecutors, we know the phenomenon: Amanda's is a classic case.
We have to return to the mid-'90s for the full story. She was made editor of the Sunday Mirror but under the terrible and dysfunctional aegis of the sad and mad managing director Bridget Rowe - a woman Amanda would come to describe as a member of the tribe of she-men.
The two women were at odds from the start. Bridget subjected Amanda to a grotesque reign of terror - on one occasion a row on the car phone with her boss grew so violent that Amanda had to tell her driver to stop so she could spew in the gutter. Fortunately for her, the Asbo had yet to be unleashed on anti-social behaviour.
Sometime after she left Canary Wharf, Amanda was traumatised or angry enough to write a readable pulp fiction about some bitch newspaper editor which hopefully was cathartic. Whether it earned her £800,000 is not known.
Yet what psychic injury may this experience have done to Amanda? Nurtured by the arch-bully of them all David Montgomery, then herself a victim while her erstwhile mentor stood by doing nothing to help her, she doubtless came to the painful realisation that behaving like a total shit is the only way to get by in the antediluvian world of national popular journalism.
What a sad but well remunerated world Amanda inhabits.