On my last post ‘Gordon, Temper Temper’ a comment came in which I publish below. Having vaguely defended Gordon Brown to the extent of asking in that last post whether the passion of caring makes you a good boss or a bully – this comment continues the dichotomy – as to where truth lies. I remind readers this is a comment posted on a previous blog post.
Jon says:About 15 years ago, Mr Brown when he was Shadow Chancellor, used to be one on my regular clients, I worked as a telesales operator at a tour operators and he used to regularly fly to Nice (S.France) for whatever reason.
On one occasion he reduced me to tears when I was unable to find a flight for him. He turned up at Heathrow (last minute) and demanded me to get him onto a flight immediately to Nice. When I was unable to do so, due to it being a Friday and flights being completely full, he launched into the most unbelievable tirade of abuse I had ever experienced. This was not controlled anger and I saw first hand the terror he can cause, let me assure anyone he can be very scary – what I experienced was rage fuelled by not getting his own way yet it was not bullying in my opinion as it was an isolated incident – his rage is not malicious, it is passionate rage as I also found him to be warm and courteous prior to this incident and typically Scottish.
So 15 years on and he is my Prime Minister and remember this episode like it was yesterday, apart from nearly losing my job for putting the phone down on him and my language back to him – I was called in to the MDs office but cleared of misconduct due to the nature of his call and the abuse I received.
I always wondered if this was an isolated incident and perhaps I caught him on a bad day – should I have apologised for my language, should he have to me, for the way he spoke?
All things aside I would far rather have a strong personality running the country than a shrinking violet and assume he uses the fear factor as a tool in what must be a fairly stressful job – I am sure that a lot of this story is pre election banter and if it were not this then it would be a n other story.
I also now have the ultimate dinner party story of having told the PM to FO!
Lynne Featherstone 
I personally think this is a distraction! Let’s focus on the real issues here. As leader of the country, he only needs to answer one question for me;
“Does he have the tenure to lead us into this decade and bring Britain back into the top 5 nations of the world?”
At present I do not think he has the gumption to do just that and for that reason he should do some self examination and realise the predicament he and his government has placed us in. The next decade is going to be dreadful!
So, let the work start with a change and not a distraction – let’s change the Government as a first step!
So why doesn’t he just sue the author, if he’s innocent? Go on Gordon, the nation dares you. If he doesn’t, we know he’s lying and is guilty as hell.
My story was not posted to say he is a bully – quite the opposite, it was more to focus on what is bullying and that is what the author has accused him of.
What the point in question is whether being passionate and yet a little irrational is bullying – at the time I was upset (and also keen to keep my job) but as I have got older I have learnt that people who do get annoyed usually have a reason – some people loose their temper at the smallest things (I empathise as my father was exactly the same – but he was certainly no bully, and he too had a high pressured job, he was considered by his 300+ staff to be a superb boss, yet also had that same short fuse). I personally do not think you can get to the top without being this focused and ruthless.
I believe Mr Brown’s life is about getting to the point of the matter quickly, whether it be his travel arrangements or any aspect of running the country, he almost certainly does not suffer fools gladly.
The author pointing the finger at bullying obviously feels he has reason to question the PM’s functionality, but his timing in unveiling these revelations makes me laugh. I suspect that the same people that feel they have been bullied apart from needing to grow broader shoulders, may also also have another side to their story, similiar to my thoughts of finding him to be “warm and courteous” not disimiiar to the person that Piers Morgan interviewed last week. 15 years on and what I then thought to be so bad is now a party piece for me.
To a degree, I wish I was as mercenary as him as this seems to be a trait that does seem to get you somewhere, I imagine you cannot forfil the role of PM without being like this. You are also bound to upset people along the political path and in getting to the top; surely this is more the case here. With the possibility that Mr Cameron will get in, the question people should be in asking whether he too is prepared to beat a few eggs along the way to make his omlette?
Gordon Brown:
Bully: mine is resounding NO vote.
Temper: 100% Yes with first hand experience.
If one looks at the SROI (Social Return on Investment) this is costing, then I’d venture to say we are wasting valuable resources.
Rather invest in asking questions like; “Gordon, how are you going to get us out of the Financial pickle?”
This has a much bigger impact socio/economic impact on whether he is up to the job and can be measured for its effectiveness in changing our lives. Ranting about ‘bullying’, although a serious issue in and of itself, is not where we should be investing effort.
Probably repeating myself so let’s just keep focused: campaign, overcome, clarify and deliver!
Then we can talk about the issues raised during these troubled times.