This is why we really do need Anti-Bullying Week in Wales
COLUMNIST
IT reads like a script from The Thick of It, the comedy television series satirising the inner workings of British government. But descriptions of life at the heart of Welsh Government, coming from some quarters since the death of Carl Sargeant, have been anything but amusing.
It is a grim irony that tales of “toxic bullying” at Cardiff Bay should have emerged during Anti-Bullying Week, the week when the issue is highlighted in schools among younger, perhaps more impressionable, members of our society.
Steve Jones, who worked as First Minister Carwyn Jones’s media special adviser from 2009 until 2014, has claimed the atmosphere when he worked with the Welsh Government was “pure poison” and that ministers were undermined by senior advisers playing power games.
The atmosphere was one of “fear and loathing”, he added.
Mr Jones’ worrying portrait of Wales’ power base came after former Welsh Government minister, Alyn and Deeside AM Carl Sargeant, was found dead having been sacked as a minister amid allegations of harassment.
There followed a blog from former minister Leighton Andrews accusing some people in the Welsh Government of a campaign to undermine Mr Sargeant.
Mr Andrews, who ran Carwyn Jones’ campaign to become Welsh Labour leader in 2009, wrote of a “toxic” atmosphere in Cardiff Bay.
To top what can’t have been Carwyn Jones’ best week in office the First Minister is facing allegations that he misled the National Assembly over claims of bullying within the Welsh Government.
Mr Andrews said he made a formal complaint about alleged bullying in 2014.
But when Welsh Conservative AM Darren Millar tabled an Assembly Question to Carwyn Jones, asking: “Has the First Minister ever received any reports or been made aware of any allegations of bullying by special and/or specialist advisers at any time in the past three years and, if so, when and what action, if any, was taken?” his then advisor Steve Jones had replied: “No allegations have been made”, it was reported.
This is all too typical of the horrible tangle of claim and counter claim made in any bullying scenario or inquiry.
The complexities of reaching the truth and beginning to address it will be familiar to anyone who has ever had a passing acquaintance with bullying which is, whether we like it or not, a daily occurrence in our schools and work places – the government not withstanding, so it seems.
Politics is an environment of big egos, large personalities and brash talk. It is not surprising that bullies may lurk there as they do in all milieu.
What is unsettling is that we should be surprised. It is sad and depressing that those who may be vulnerable are not alert, or alerted to, the possibility that adults may act without integrity or care for those around them.
Bullying is not just an issue for schools. It is an issue for all of us.
But school bullies have a propensity to grow into adult bullies and it is vital schools highlight the issue with help from the charities and organisations that are experts in it.
In the same way that society can never win the phoney war on drugs we will never stamp out bullying.
Those who seek to undermine others to grab the throne are usually sly enough to work undetected until the damage is done. Then there are those who shout and fight. They are more visible in the undergrowth, but no less destructive or easy to deal with.
We need to talk to people – young and old – about bullying, to warn them it is there, how to recognise it and how to guard against it.
It is no use pretending bullying doesn’t exist or to express surprise when its terrible effects are felt.
Bullying has the power to wreck lives. This week a teenager from the south Wales valleys bravely went public describing the drip, drip effect bullying had on her over several years.
Lowri Morgan spoke to our website WalesOnline about how being called ugly in the first year of high school spiralled into self loathing and self harm which prompted depression and a desire to “curl up, go to sleep and never wake up”.
Luckily the l7-year-old had parents and friends to support her.
The tragedy for many, and that may often include adult victims, is that they don’t have the opportunity to seek or get support.
When you are hurting it is hard to show your vulnerable side to get help.
That’s why events like Anti-Bullying Week are so important. We should do more than pay lip service to it, even if the endless round of this week and that week gets a tad annoying.
It’s no use teaching our children languages, maths and science if they don’t have the resilience to cope with life that can, at times, be brutal.
We could start with every school in Wales making sure every pupil and every member of staff is aware of their procedures on reporting and dealing with bullying.
If every pupil and every teacher in all schools in Wales get information on bullying, how to report it and where to seek help, that would be a start.
Our children are future employers, employees and government ministers. It is not a given that any, or every, environment always has bullies. It is up to individuals to change that. But they cannot do it alone.