Bullying at work? Women are the worst offenders
A recent tUc survey claims more than half of all working women have encountered sexual harassment at work (Mail). As a woman who has worked since the Sixties, this angers me, especially as no one asked me for my opinion.
even as a university student, when I was one of only two women in a class with 60 men, doing economics in the Sixties, we women were always treated with respect.
I have worked in the police and the fire service, in the defence industry (as an administrator) and finally in a doctors’ surgery, and I can honestly say I have never experienced sexual harassment.
In all those jobs there were certainly flirting and double entendres but nothing nasty. I did, however, receive a great deal of harassment from women.
Women bosses were the most bullying and difficult to work for. At my first experience of police work in the Sixties in Brixton, I had a woman boss who didn’t take kindly to a former convent school girl.
However, in the training school at Peel House, where women were a tiny minority, we were shouted at to train us for what was to come but we were never bullied by men.
throughout my varied career, I found the nastiest people to deal with were my own sex.
there were exceptions but, generally speaking, I found women bosses much nastier, although I did find the most unpleasant men to work for were doctors.
So, I disagree markedly with the results of this survey and wonder again: why didn’t they ask me? FRANCINE TWITCHETT,
Wokingham, Berks.
Why bigger is better
I AGree with First Minister nicola Sturgeon that the UK we voted to stay in two years ago is changed utterly post-Brexit.
Where I disagree is over what to do next.
She wants Scotland to become an even smaller country and, despite all her gallivanting around europe, one that would be locked out of the eU. that would be a disaster. I say we need to double down on our UK membership, as being part of a larger country makes us more competitive.
Scotland’s voice needs to be heard in this new UK – but the message cannot be whining about Brexit. We have voted to leave and leave we must.
Similarly, begging the eU not to forget us is, frankly, embarrassing. they don’t care about us.
And the nationalist MPs at Westminster need to address issues such as the plight of Scotland’s rural areas.
Angus robertson has come dangerously close to admitting his party is failing rural areas – a welcome change from his usual pompous pronouncements in the commons about Libya and the like.
As for Miss Sturgeon, less plotting to break up the UK and more concentration on issues that affect Scots now, please.
FIoNA ANdERsoN, Edinburgh.
SNP bandwagon stalls
ALtHoUGH too much cannot be read into the result, it is interesting to note that the SnP bandwagon suffered a setback in a north Ayrshire council by-election, losing out to Labour Party for a vacant Irvine seat.
It is a seat, however, where you would have thought the ‘unstoppable’ SnP would win easily. Bear in mind the candidate was nicola Sturgeon’s father robin and the seat was in her home town. the SnP leader also visited the town to support her father’s candidacy.
Maybe disaffected Labour supporters are now trickling back to the party fold, wakening up to the SnP’s empty promises.
M. CAMpBEll, Troon, Ayrshire.
An expensive flop
tAM DALYeLL (Mail) is a man out of time. the days of Scots holding sway in the commons are over.
We have sent political pygmies there and rather than represent us, they have busied themselves fighting for seats in the chamber while tweeting about it all.
B. RICE, dundee. I AM no fan of tam Dalyell but he is right when he says that Holyrood is an expensive flop (Mail).
In these austere times, we cannot afford the amateurs there to spend a single penny of our money.
Beef up the Scottish Affairs committee at Westminster and shut down Holyrood. Jo sMITH, Glasgow.
Unguarded moments
InSPector Ken Wharfe is wrong.
there were no ‘supposedly SAStrained guards’ at Mohamed Al Fayed’s side in Westminster Abbey at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, or any other type of bodyguard (Mail), and nor did he ask that there should be. Apart from Mrs Al Fayed, I was the only person with him on that terrible day, and I’m not a bodyguard.
From his account, it would appear that Inspector Wharfe was the only bodyguard present in the Abbey but then, again according to his own account, he had resigned from the Princess’s service several years earlier in frustration that she would no longer follow his advice or accede to his instructions. MICHAEl ColE, Harrods director of public affairs 1988/98, laxfield, suffolk.
Dangerously boring
I HAve 37 years’ experience as an HGv driver, and the only reason we all fall asleep at the wheel (Letters) is boredom.
trucks today are automatic: we press a button and the truck drives itself. All we have to do is steer and brake. We can’t use our phone and we can’t drink water while driving; we just sit there nodding off.
After many more have been killed, someone will one day allow us to go back to manual driving with a gearstick and clutch.
dAVE CRoW, address supplied.
House numbers
I SUGGeSt that, at the next General election, the House of Lords is limited to the same number of seats as the commons, its members nominated by the political parties in proportion to the number of votes (not seats) each party gets at that election. their term should last as long as that of MPs.
this would give a voice to parties with a large following but which receive only minimal representation. It might also forestall many of the claims of cronyism, could appease those who advocated proportional voting, and restore some honour to the Honours system.
KEITH THoMpsoN, Warrington.
Poor judgment
tHe manner in which Judge Patricia Lynch threw back the same four-letter-word tirade aimed at her in court (Mail) has done nothing to help stem the use of such obscene language.
All she has done is make it more ‘acceptable’ to utter such verbal abuse. She should have done what any reasonable person would have done: ignore the offensive outburst with a dismissive attitude.
MAGGIE HAll, Whitby, North Yorks.
Not much cop
ForMer chief constable Sue Sim is one in a long line of very senior people, including politicians, who reveal the problems they encountered during office only once they have retired.
they had the rank and the clout to do something positive and substantial about the situation at the time, but chose not to do so.
p. pURNEll, Woodhall spa, lincs.