Iain Dale’s diary has an anonymous letter from a clearly disappointed Lib Dem.
Whatever you make of the claim (personally I’d say that in my days on the party staff I encountered some very strong personalities, and determined people, but not bullying) I do think this is time for people who are indulging in the explosion of anonymous briefing against the party (or specific members of the party) online to consider their actions carefully.
Cast your mind back to the last days of Charles Kennedy’s leadership – were you one of the many members who said in despair that you wished our MPs would stop trading anonymous barbs through the press? If so, then you really have to ask yourself how it’s any worse than talking anonymously to a Tory blog.
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19 Comments
are all they on the second floor?! Is third floor nicer?
I hope these comments were posted in jest – but would you want to work for an organisation where members accused staff in a public web site of bullying. Don’t we owe our staff more respect than that?
Only one person has ever accused me of bullying…
Duncan
On the third floor
I have hidden, but not deleted, posts from two people (but written under three aliases!) naming five specific party staff as “bullies”, with no supporting evidence. One of the people appears, as Andrea indicates, to have perhaps been a volunteer on the second floor in the past!
I’ve hidden the posts while I seek advice as to whether or not they are libelous – and no, putting a question mark at the end of the name doesn’t change a comment’s suitability for publishing!
I would ask that the commenters in question respect the fact that they’ve made serious accusations, and I need to check the legal position before I can allow publication.
I should point out that my post was a quip. Probably in retrospect inappropriate in itself in this discussion.
I got accused of being a control freak (or something similar) by a party member several months ago. My crime – strongly suggesting they put out a few more leaflets during a by-election (we lost)!
In the end we all know that you can’t please all of the people all of the time.
I do wish people would think about such anonymous posts before they go down that route. It simply damages us and to be honest makes the poster look a bit of a nutter! If people really did encounter such problems then yes they should be dealt with and dealt with internally – it is not as if we are short of committees or shrinking violets!
All the best,
Tim
PS Rob I hear you are a bit of a control freak – naughty boy:-)
When i worked with the campigns staff during the General Election, they bought me sweets and other goodies. Bloody bullies.
We are a party that believes in free speech, in open government, a free and vigorous media (where ownership should not be dominated by one or two people), and also that those in power at any level of government are regularly held to full scrutiny. These these are fundamental values of the Liberal Democrats. However, if there is one thing that disgusts me is people in our party (from a few MPs to individual members) who have a personal complaint but are not willing to declare their name. To resort to sending your anonymous complaint to a Tory blog just reflects on the individual being rather sad.
If you have something to say about our own party put it on record and don’t hide behind anonymous titles.
A few of our MPs (probably not realising the full consequences of what they were doing) have resorted in the past to using anonymous quotes and hiding behind such titles as “leading Liberal Democrat MP”, “Lib Dem Spokesman”, “Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet Member” etc.
Such procedures have been extensively used by Conservative MPs in the past (and did immense damage in mid 1990s) and over the years by Labour MPs as well. It is a problem facing all parties.
As a party we need to really challenge such behaviour. We should have extensive debate in public and everyone should show know that individual complaints are taken seriously, but it helps no one if people resort to anonymous complaints and comments on blogs.
The people who do it are lacking the confidence to go public (some would go further and say they are simply cowards).
If you have something to say about our party – say it publicly and put your name on record.
Cllr Mark Morris
Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group
London Borough of Lewisham
“A few of our MPs (probably not realising the full consequences of what they were doing) have resorted in the past to using anonymous quotes and hiding behind such titles as “leading Liberal Democrat MP”, “Lib Dem Spokesman”, “Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet Member” etc.”
I don’t see why our Chief Whip/leader doesn’t say that Lib Dem MPs aren’t to undertake such practices, to do so will be a PP disciplinary matter and journalists are encouraged to name Lib Dem MPs who give them off-the-record briefings.
Complaints by staff about being bullied at work should go to someone in management. IIRC there are now statutory provisions requiring consideration of grievance complaints even if there isn’t anything contractual (which I suspect there is).
I think any Liberal Democrat who poured his heart out in such a way to Iain Dale of all people, for him to publish to the whole wide world must be totally insane.
So one arrives at two possible conclusions:
1. This person is not a Liberal Democrat.
2. This person is utterly crazy and needs the help of a psychologist.
Two questions then arise:
1. What has Iain Dale done to establish his supposition that this person is indeed a Liberal Democrat?
2. What steps has he taken to convince him that he ought to seek professional help?
If Iain has done either (or both), it would be helpful if he could inform the wider public. If not, he is totally irresponsible and clearly ought to be disregarded.
Doe anybody think that the above might get published on Iain Dale´s website?
As you have published it here I do not need to publish it on my website. But let me respond. I don’t publish things lightly on my blog. I know there are people in every party who are dissatisfied for one reason or another. Indeed, I have had emails before from LibDem supporters and not published them. This one was different. It responded to a previous post by me which had been ridiculed by various LibDem bloggers. I entered into protracted email correspondence with this person to establish their bona fides. I can assure you that my correspondent is indeed a Liberal Democrat and has held office at high levels within the party. I made no comment on what this person wrote and left it to others within the Liberal Democrats and outside to judge the contents on their own merits. From the lack of criticism on this site and others it is clear to me that it struck a chord. It was therefore worth publishing it. Rosemary, it is not me or my correspondent that need professional help…
There’s a fine line with dealing with people who (claim to) have been bullied. While we must protect people from false accusations, it takes a lot of courage if you actually have been bullied to stand up and say so. We can’t give people the licence to behave as they like by allowing the line “if you try and do anything about my behaviour, you’ll see me in court, and you will suffer”.
I’m sure none of us are under the illusion that we’re too nice for bullies to exist in the party and we don’t need procedures to deal with serious complaints from people. It’s just that if you are being bullied, either out of malice or ignorance on the bully’s part, it can often seem unclear as to what you can do about it.
Iain – to be fair, you’d have said the e-mail had struck a chord if we’d all gone in to howls of protest and wailing and gnashing of teeth too.
Actually, I don’t think silence indicates its struck a chord – your e-mailer was talking about party committees and party staff. The potential pool of people who could have been ‘bullied’ in that context is small, and not all of them read either your or my blog, or indeed any blog.
Biscit – party staff and, I imagine, volunteers can complain to HR types in both Cowley St and Parliament if they believe they’re being bullied, committee members would probably have to go to their committee chairs.
But politics at the top level of any party is a rough old game and if we introduced HR grievance procedures for committee members and volunteers throughout the party I think we’d be the first, and probably only, party to do so. It would be like creating an internal standards board, and that doesn’t hit me as a good idea.
I’m sure Iain Dale wouldn’t claim that senior Tories are all sweetness and light, and that there are no ambitious people at the top of his party determined to get their own way.
In reference to earlier comments,the anonymous posts I hid are staying hidden – legal advice is that if someone wanted to sue as a result of being named with no evidence, in the absense of the comment author naming themselves the only person that could be sued is me, and I’m not prepared to be sued over unsubstantiated allegations by anonymous posters!
Please don’t imagine I was implying that such procedures don’t exist! Just that we shouldn’t kid ourselves we don’t need them. I did realise what you were doing was right, I was just saying some bullies take the line that they are just forceful personalities and they can hide behind lawsuits, and there’s a fine line between keeping things legal, and giving people the idea they can behave as they like. A disclaimer to the effect “this doesn’t mean that.. yadda yadda yadda” would have been nice.
Let me be clear to those that don’t know that I have no expeience of the inner workings of Cowley Street, and any comment I made was a general one about how people who are being bullied feel and are sometimes treated. My comments are more abstract than they may at first appear. I do have a life outside being a Lib Dem member and the internet!
I admire Iain Dale for his blinkered eye approach to life! This is a man that really knows how to spin… he will go far in the New Tories!
…he will go far in the New Tories!
Wasn’t North Norfolk far enough 🙂
duncan borrowman’s unfortunate “quip” shows that there may be problems after all-if any of this is true-it is not something to joke about.
but if true there must be better ways of dealing with it than contacting Iain Dale about it….
Simon. My quip was in response to Andrea saying
“are all they on the second floor?! Is third floor nicer?”
I would have left it, but at some point around the same time came the postings naming people, that Rob rightly withdrew (timing meant I didn’t see them).
Fair enough Duncan-sorry to be unfair to you on this!