I have always been very clear that bullying should be condemned wherever it occurs. It happened to me at school, although not to any serious extent, and as an adult I suffered a mild form when working in a supermarket, but Mrs Green actually gave up her job because she was being bullied to such an extent by her boss in another supermarket nearby.
In my case the bullying was partly racial, as I was an Englishman working in small town Ireland. In my wife's case there was no obvious reason for it other than her boss was a nasty woman, as we subsequently discovered by talking to other victims.
In neither case had we behaved in any way which could have been considered a reason for such a reaction.
Having made it clear that I abhor bullying in any form, let us consider the accusations being levelled at the current Labour leader, and what is described as his team.
Firstly this team operates within a Parliamentary system where bullying is institutionalised. I don't mean that it is endemic like we are told racism is in the police force. I mean it is literally part of the fabric of parliament and is know as whipping. This is an old practice whose name is taken from the hunting field so presumably that is why the Tories are so keen on it. Parliamentary political parties have a whips' office which consists of the Chief Whip and his assistants and their job is to make sure that their MPs vote in a way that the management desires.
Is this bullying? Probably yes.
Is it Jeremy Corbyn's fault? Undoubtedly, because everything from the state of the pound to foot and mouth disease is self evidently his fault. In the Middle-Ages it was customary to blame either the devil or some arthritic old lady for any ill that befell the village. Now they have been replaced in the eyes of the press and other media by Jeremy Corbyn. Indeed he is on record as saying that he is quite prepared to accept that everything is his fault, so it must be true.
The Observer today ran a story which reinforces this view. Apparently a former member of the shadow cabinet Seema Malhotra, has complained to the authorities that her office has twice been broken into by one of Corbyn's aides.
It is instructive to look at the facts behind the rhetoric in so far as this is possible.
On 26th June Seema Malhotra resigned from the shadow cabinet along with several of her colleagues. The reasons for this are still unclear unless you believe either it was a conspiracy to destabilise Corbyn's leadership or alternatively that several members of that shadow cabinet independently and quite spontaneously decided for their own personal reasons to resign on the same day.
Anyway, whatever the reason it seems that the office she was using was one which went with the job and that she would be moving out fairly soon.
It seems that Karie Murphy who is an office manager accessed the office on 13 July, two and a half weeks later, only to find a member of Mulhotra's staff still there. When asked what she was doing she said she was only being nosy and asked when they would be moving out. She was told it would be when they were allocated a new office. She returned the next day but her key wouldn't work so presumably she went away. And that seems to be about it. Hardly Watergate.
What exactly did Mulhotra think Karia Murphy would find in her office. Details of assassination plans? Letters of application to join the Tory Party? If she really had been sent there to find something don't you think she might have had a good story ready to explain her presence if she was discovered. Saying you are 'just being nosy' doesn't really cut it does it? In fact it's a bit of a giveaway.
John MacDonnell addressed this matter on the Andrew Marr show this morning. I would share a direct link if knew how to do it, but it is on Momentum's Facebook page here. https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesMomentum/?pnref=story
I fear we are in for a long summer of mud slinging, at the end of which we will be no further on. Corbyn will still be leader. The MPs will still be MPs, and on current showing the only way for him to persuade them to get back in line would be to garner about 27 million votes in the leadership election, and that ain't gonna happen not least because there aren't that many eligible voters. If he does somehow manage to get that many then I think that calls of electoral fraud might be justified.
Which reminds me. The police are still investigating the Tory election expenses. I do hope this isn't spoiling anybody's holiday in the sun.
Take care and don't let the bed bugs bite.
Love Tim xx
Examples of meaningless political waffle #1. Baroness Stroud of Fulham on Broadcasting House this morning talking about Universal Credit. 'The first priority is to deliver it safely.' What does she envisage? A padded envelope brought by motorcycle courier with an armed escort? I suspect not. What did she really mean? Not sure. Probably delivered in such a way that nobody suffers as a result of its introduction. As I said, waffle.
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