It’s the tourist season in Westminster now. I don’t know for sure who decided it was a neat idea to synchronise school holidays round the globe, but they’re all here. Lots come to see Parliament. It’s a bit grim, to be honest, what with all the scaffolding up. But once you are inside – £26.50 full-price, £22 concessions – it gets better. I think the tours start in Westminster Hall, the really old bit, then up past all the statues, Central Lobby, the Chamber, all the bits from the TV. It’s undeniably impressive – all those massive ancient paintings, fancy tiles and busts of old prime ministers. But after you’ve been working there for a while, people get a bit inured to all the grandeur. It’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. The roof leaks, the toilets are broken. There are mice. The cash machine wasn’t working earlier. And it quickly reduces to its basic elements and becomes a place of work. An office. That’s what the whole place is in the end. One big office. And just like in every other office there are good and bad people. So this week’s report into bullying didn’t, unfortunately, come as much of a surprise. It’s a very serious issue everywhere, the way people behave in the workplace. In Parliament there are still the odd couple of relics knocking around who bemoan the days are gone when there was a “real drinking culture” and you could smoke everywhere. But pretty much everyone else agrees things have got better. Yet reading the White Report this week, it is pretty clear that bullying is still an enormous problem. Senior lawyer Gemma White QC was tasked with producing an independent report on the treatment of Parliament’s employees. Some of the extracts from it – testimony from MPs’ staff – are heartbreaking. “The MP would intimidate, mock and undermine me every day, often shouting at me. “Staff members from nearby offices came to check on me after the MP left. On one occasion the MP stood directly over shouting at me for over ten minutes.” Or this one: “As long as getting political jobs in Parliament are dependent on who you know and are related to, sexual harassment will be a necessary evil for ambitious young people like me.” It’s a horrible thing that in a place that’s supposed to represent all that’s good about the country there’s still a toxic culture. And until the powers that be address it and take action, nothing will really change. Monsters like Gordon Gekko from the film Wall Street will still be around. On a similar theme, one of the security guards in Parliament I was chatting to this week told me about a complaint an MP had brought up about the staff. It was by a Tory MP. One of the MPs the staff are paid a fraction of a politician’s salary to protect. Anyway, this MP has complained – ahead of the months of recess he’s got coming up – that the staff are having “too many breaks”. Makes no sense. Who would complain about the people who are looking a
Politics,Houses of Parliament,House of Commons,Bullying,Sunday People,
It’s the tourist season in Westminster now. I don’t know for sure who decided it was a neat idea to synchronise school holidays round the globe, but they’re all here. Lots come to see Parliament. It’s a bit grim, to be honest, what with all the scaffolding up. But once you are inside – £26.50 full-price, £22 concessions – it gets better. I think the tours start in Westminster Hall, the really old bit, then up past all the statues, Central Lobby, the Chamber, all the bits from the TV. It’s undeniably impressive – all those massive ancient paintings, fancy tiles and busts of old prime ministers. But after you’ve been working there for a while, people get a bit inured to all the grandeur. It’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. The roof leaks, the toilets are broken. There are mice. The cash machine wasn’t working earlier. And it quickly reduces to its basic elements and becomes a place of work. An office. That’s what the whole place is in the end. One big office. And just like in every other office there are good and bad people. So this week’s report into bullying didn’t, unfortunately, come as much of a surprise. It’s a very serious issue everywhere, the way people behave in the workplace. In Parliament there are still the odd couple of relics knocking around who bemoan the days are gone when there was a “real drinking culture” and you could smoke everywhere. But pretty much everyone else agrees things have got better. Yet reading the White Report this week, it is pretty clear that bullying is still an enormous problem. Senior lawyer Gemma White QC was tasked with producing an independent report on the treatment of Parliament’s employees. Some of the extracts from it – testimony from MPs’ staff – are heartbreaking. “The MP would intimidate, mock and undermine me every day, often shouting at me. “Staff members from nearby offices came to check on me after the MP left. On one occasion the MP stood directly over shouting at me for over ten minutes.” Or this one: “As long as getting political jobs in Parliament are dependent on who you know and are related to, sexual harassment will be a necessary evil for ambitious young people like me.” It’s a horrible thing that in a place that’s supposed to represent all that’s good about the country there’s still a toxic culture. And until the powers that be address it and take action, nothing will really change. Monsters like Gordon Gekko from the film Wall Street will still be around. On a similar theme, one of the security guards in Parliament I was chatting to this week told me about a complaint an MP had brought up about the staff. It was by a Tory MP. One of the MPs the staff are paid a fraction of a politician’s salary to protect. Anyway, this MP has complained – ahead of the months of recess he’s got coming up – that the staff are having “too many breaks”. Makes no sense. Who would complain about the people who are looking a
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