The Torys hoisted by their own petard for introducing standards into politics!
I have not read the report and do not know the details.

From the BBC
The individual's first suicide attempt was before she had any contact with Ms. Patel. The bullying occurred before Ms. Patel was a minister. She may have been the minister when the court case was brought, and may have been when the person took the next overdose. Clearly it would be wrong to attribute the whole of this persons distress to Ms. Patel, according to the record she left two weeks after Ms. Patel came into post, but according to the above the problems had been longstanding prior to her arrival.

ETA

I wonder if any of the others against whom allegations were made have been sacked? Perhaps they were all white men?

But didn't the report mitigate for that? Whilst it might an historical truth that the working classes resented having woman or an ethnic minority person as their boss, so behaved in a resistant and hostile manner, nonetheless it is also well-known that in Indian culture (which is also very much class-based, as is British culture) that 'you suck up↑ and kick down ↓' . By this, it means you sycophantically crawl to your bosses but bully those lower down. So, whilst Johnson and his chums think the 'pritster' is charming and has been misunderstood, her underlings in the Civil Service may have had a very different experience of her. It is a common tactic of an office bully to surround him or herself with an inner circle.

This type of behaviour is very damaging for the victims of the bully. It can cause nervous breakdown (as happened to two friends of mine). Whilst sure, there are still people around who resent women and 'ethnics' as their bosses, I fail to see how bullying resolves this. There are proper HR procedures to deal with this. It is a cop out to say it is 'racism' that forced Patel to be a bully.

I haven't read the report. My issue would be whether this is a correctable behaviour, if so then she needs assistance in improving her management style. If not then she should not be a minister.

True, but Trebuchet said 38, which was a very common rating for a frigate circa.1800.

Dave

None of us have....

Do you agree then that your use of politicians' behaviour prior to the Ministerial Code isn't a support for this case being caused by institutional racism?

And I am not saying there isn't institutional racism within the civil service and the government, just that in this case there doesn't seem to be any evidence of it.

I am happy to see whatever evidence you think supports that this case is in fact caused or heavily influenced by institutional racism.


Shouldn't you let the evidence lead to a conclusion ?

Again we are all only getting titbits of information so I am dubious of the quality of the "facts" however from what we have in front of us one person who in fact has a case going to tribunal in which she is named states that she had previously been warned about her behaviour.

(That person's evidence wasn't considered by the inquiry because of the ongoing legal case.)

Haha just noticed that! could have sworn it was 88!!!!!

Can you link to the story, please?

Link

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51705069

There’s been a written Ministerial code since at least the first time I worked in a UK Govt department, which was 1999. Blunkett resigned over a breach of the Code in 2004. But it’s lost in the midst of time and memory what provisions it had on bullying, harassment and discrimination, and whether those were added recently, sorry. Each PM since Brown has issued a new version on attaining office. The Johnson version is here, if you’re interested: Current Ministerial Code

Thanks for the background info.

You’re welcome. I tried to find older versions of the Code without success, but I have now found a history of the Code at the Institute for Government website. History of the Ministerial Code

You’ll be interested in the last para:
So it looks like the specific BHD section was added as a result of Patel’s earlier behaviour*, along with Fallon’s and Green’s.

I am actually surprised at that, as BHD has been monitored (and sometimes even acted on!) for civil servants for a long time. Perhaps it was thought that Ministers wouldn’t stoop to such behaviour.

* ETA - actually, this could be wrong. While there were allegations of Patel’s bullying behaviour at DFID, it’s not clear these were ever raised formally under the Code. The element that she resigned from DFID over, inappropriately making contact with a foreign government, appears to have been added to the Code in the section on conduct during foreign visits.

I honestly don't know what's happened to this website recently, where it now seems that providing a citation is seen as a terrible imposition, and asking for a citation is seen as the height of unreasonableness.

People do understand the role that evidence and primary sources play in scepticism, don't they? And they have looked at the name of the website that they're posting on, haven't they? This is really, really basic stuff.

The board rules, for reference:

Thanks. I don't think there's anything in there that mitigates Patel's behaviour

As is the case with many prominent politicians, he resigned, and then came back. Some politicians do this multiple times. Blunkett sits in the House of Lords now, so probably won't need to resign again because "the Code" for lords seems to be rather more lax than the already pretty lax ones for ministers and MPs.

How pathetic - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55057680 “ their mass walkout from Tuesday's [NEC] virtual meeting”

They must have really clicked hard!

I vaguely recalled Blunkett’s resignation - the visa for a nanny stayed in my mind, so I’ve gone and read a few articles about it from the time. I’m astonished to learn that the bod who ran the inquiry didn’t know there was a ministerial code!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/...nkett.politics

At least things seem to have changed and everyone knows about the code now, even if they do breach it! :)

Its all about who you know and are in favour with. Patel is now totally beholden to Johnson.

Trying to check what tier I am in...

What a pathetic mess :mad:

What tier am I in? Latest Covid rules in England post-lockdown

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...land-local-map

I suspect the lookup website had a few more visitors than usual when I was trying. No one could have predicted that...

Well, except Dominic Cummings, who is probably going to predict it some time in the next couple of days.

Dave

Serious question as I'm a tad unsure, I am in a tier 2 area as is London, to travel into London has me going via Slough train station and Slough is in Tier 3. Is that journey fine?

Gov.uk totally ripped off Dominic Cummings.


eta: Conjugation. Should that be "Gov.uk is going to have totally ripped off Dominic Cummings."?

I think it actually depends on the reason for the journey. Okay if for work otherwise not sure.

I'm in a Tier 3 area, but I can walk to a pub half a mile away that's over the county border in Tier 2. Not that I would, of course - I've not been in a pub or restaurant since January - but plenty of my neighbours will make the journey. They wouldn't walk, though - they use their cars for any journey more than a couple of hundred yards.

:D <--- sorry I don't have anything more constructive than that to contribute. Some of my own neighbours won't walk to the end of the street. :confused::D

Yes according to this its ok to pass through tier 3 as pat of a longer journey

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel...-b1761760.html

Not if you are following the rules you can't. you aren't allowed to travel to a tier 3 area from a tier 2 or vice versa.

Unless someone gets on at Slough, in which case you all have ot go home again.

I may have made that bit up.

I think that's only an applicable rule when quadruple reverse shunts are enabled, though Wimbledon is still a valid move.

Dave

This is why sensible organisations do capacity forecasting and planning and use cloud hosting that can upscale rapidly when needed. Simples.

Well, as a general principle, don't enter Slough.....

Is a railway station a "public space"? If so my quick skim of the UK's rules suggest only six people may be there at once.

Unless you're in nip, of course.

The Guardian: Huge wealth of Rishi Sunak's family not declared in ministerial register.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...erial-register

One had wondered how he made it to Chancellor so young.

Jacob Rees-Mogg tweeted
@Jacob_Rees_Mogg
The first duty of the British government is to its subjects. The Chancellor is providing £4 billion of taxpayers’ money to support the economies of the midlands and the north this parliament.

When did we become 'subjects' of Rees-Mogg?

Midlands and North? Are they Tory party donors?

The government has cut £1bn from the rail infrastructure budget following the chancellor's Spending Review.
Rishi Sunak had previously promised record infrastructure investment as part of the government's "levelling up" agenda.
Until now, Network Rail's "enhancement" budget for the five year period from 2019-24 had been set at £10.4bn.
But, this week rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris said that the budget would now be £9.4bn.
That has put a question mark over some long-planned improvements to rail infrastructure.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55182000

But they will keep pouring billions and billions down the HS2 ********.