By Jane Wenham-Jones

I AM not usually first in the queue to stick up for Gordon Brown but the more ludicrous the “bullying” stories from 10 Downing Street become, the more I want to stand on a box and shriek: “For God’s Sake Get a Grip!”

By this, I do not mean I am entreating our Premier to grab another hapless advisor by the lapels when the news is bad (and let’s face it, it usually is) but rather am saying, let us not get too exercised over the matter before we define our terms.

“Bullying” is a strong word. Children can be bullied – ruthlessly and shockingly – and need all the help and support available.

Young recruits to the army, left to the tender mercies of  large hairy sergeants, probably can be too. But civil servants in an office? Not in my book. Not unless there’s just the one of you, isolated, while everyone else in the room sneers and spits in your coffee.

For the whole point of bullying is that an individual is targeted and made to feel small, worthless or frightened. You can’t bully an entire group of employees – not unless they don’t have a single backbone between them.

If it is true that the Prime Minister flies into rages and yells and shoves (which seems entirely likely) this is poor behaviour, which needs to be challenged.

But I wouldn’t call it bullying and it annoys me intensely that anyone else does. And that’s before any cynicism about the timing.

No surprise of course that after years in the job, these claims about Gordon’s temper tantrums traumatising his staff have turned up just as an election is looming. Or that the story gets less credible the deeper you dig, featuring as it does,  an increasingly dodgy-looking Mrs Christine Pratt who not only has committed the ultimate sin of breaking confidentiality – an absolute no-no under any circumstances – but whose advice to the “bullied” is alleged to consist of sending them in the direction of her husband who then charges a fat fee to investigate. No shock value either in the revelation that, according to “an internal survey” of Cabinet Office staff seen by The Times newspaper,  a third want to leave, and six per cent want to quit “as soon as possible”.

I don’t doubt that working for certain members of Parliament with their over-sized egos and obsession with power, is very trying indeed and who wouldn’t want a quieter life if their bosses also shout a lot. 

What I do find intriguing is that “less than half of staff said that they felt it was safe to speak up”. Why? What do they think will happen if they do? They’ll lose their jobs?

I thought it was nigh on impossible to sack a civil servant – that’s why there’s so many of them (and not exactly breaking their backs either).

Or are they afraid big bad Gordon will shout a bit louder? If half the office are too feeble to band together and tell him to pipe down, then frankly I’ve lost interest already. Claiming you’re being bullied, when you just mean your boss lacks self-control (regrettable but hardly insurmountable – try telling him you won’t have it,  perhaps?) undermines the plight of those who really are suffering, in the same way that ridiculous women who flee for the nearest tribunal the moment a man makes a comment about their breasts, give the rest of us a bad name.

Anyone who is genuinely being abused or victimised in such a way that they have no redress,  has my deepest sympathy. But if you’re a civil servant who’s going to have the vapours every time a politician behaves badly, may I suggest you’re in the wrong job?