prime minister - a bully?

[crisgal]

i don't know what to make of these stories.
Could it be that he is just a bit of a strees-head, (as i am myself when under pressure!) Or is there some truth in them? Surely you're allowed to get a bit bossy when you're in that job!

It goes against everything i believe in - to vote anything other than labour, but if what the media says is true, I don't really want to support Gordon Brown.

At one time, no-one would dare speak out against anyone in high office. So perhaps they've all been nasty pasties in the past, and we just didn't know about it!

[jno]

they have; Churchill was often a bully to those around him. It's not good, but I can't help feeling that senior civil servants should be able to cope. Office typists are another matter, though.

It's also open to question whether someone who's constantly surrounded by a red mist can be a competent leader; but again, Churchill seemed to do it.

[anotheoldgit]

It would appear that any form of discipline these days carries the label of "Bulling"

Any military drill instructor would tell you that one cannot get a body of men to work as one unit without a little "bulling" as they call it today.

[Oneeyedvic]

Bullying - what a great term. How do you define it? Simple answer is that (in the UK) there is no legal definition.

So is shouting at someone bullying? What about if they shout twice? Three times?
Is throwing a file down on the deak, bullying?

Unless you know the specifics of the case, it is very difficult to make a judgement.

[rov1200]

You can't save the world by being a shrinking violet?

[saxy_jag]

There's more to bullying than shouting and yelling and blowing off at people. Starting rumours, blaming/picking on other people for your own mistakes, the digs disguised as jokes unless you're on the receiving end, the complete blanking out of an individual ... there are so many ways to be a bully without ranting and raving.

Brown's supporters may deny he's a bully (well, they would - they get too many back-handers not to), and he may deny it himself (most of them do), but my guess is they're all only addressing the shouting and yelling part of it.

[lardhelmet]

I don't you should blow off at anybody saxy. I think you should go to the bathroom if you're going to do that sort of thing

[lardhelmet]

*think

[sanndwich]

bullying is personal to the individual, bullying may be uncivilised behaviour to one person and banter to the next, depends on how you communicate.

[birdie1971]

This whole issue has got completely out of hand. The Tory's love it because it gives them something else to hit Brown over the head with. I don't think for one minute that Cameron gives two hoots if the story's true or false – it just makes the media and the general public look the other way and stops them from asking Cameron what his policies actually are.

The real villain in all this is Christine Pratt – the head of the National Bullying Helpline – who seems to think that she has a right to disclose confidential information to the press. By her ill-informed actions she has jeopardised the fundamental principals of this and other 'confidential' help-lines.

Pratt by name, Prat by nature.

[ludwig]

I saw Ed Balls on telly saying words to the effect of 'I've never ever seen GB bully anybody in my life, he's a fine upstanding bloke etc etc'...and while he was saying it I was thinking please please end this with '..and he told me if I didn't say this he'd beat me up'.
Needless to say he didn't. Humourless t1t.