By SARAH VINE
The defenestration of Dominic Raab by ‘snowflake’ civil servants is principally a political story, which of course it is. But it also has a wider cultural relevance, since at its core are attitudes to office culture and working practices in the post-pandemic, post-hashtag-this-that-and-the-other world we inhabit.
Does anyone really know what defines a ‘bully’ these days? If I send back a dish in a restaurant because it’s undercooked, am I a bully or just a customer who wants what they’ve paid for?
To me, bullying is making another person’s life a misery through a mixture of humiliation, persecution and constant undermining of their confidence.
At school, I was bullied by a group of girls who disliked me because I was ‘foreign’ (aka a bit Italian). They mocked my accent and long hair and the fact that I liked books and classical music instead of pop music and boys. I had done nothing to them – they simply loathed my very existence.
Similarly, my own children have been targeted because their father is a Conservative Minister. Again, not because of anything they’ve actually done.
It seems the worst Raab is guilty of is being a demanding Minister with quite a brusque and dismissive manner. Rude, maybe, arrogant, too – and perhaps quite hard to please and probably not much fun to work for. But a bully? I don’t think so. MOS.
Blogger: the real clue here is that identical tactics were used against Priti Patel.
But the Guardian reveals much worse: '... hints about Raab’s character and approach were emerging. He was said to be a tough boss, insisting on an inflexible schedule including daily gym time ... rigid, insisting on being fetched an identical Pret a Manger lunch every day.
'How dreadful to want his staff to be fit and as for not varying his lunch order - clearly unfit for high office!'
