There will always be tensions between senior civil servants and politicians.
Senior civil servants are typically intellectually and academically very high calibre. This is achieved through:
- avoiding error and criticism
- long term perspectives, not short term expediency
- building mutually beneficial relationships within the civil service
- very secure employment rights
- as any large family seeking to support and protect their own
Politicians:
- often fail to match the intellectual skills of their senior civil servants
- are focussed on the short term (a week is a long time in politics)
- are under intrusive media scrutiny and pressure to deliver manifesto promises etc
- know their their own career can be history in an instant
- are ambitious for quick progression (the next election may be their last)
Priti Patel strikes me as someone who could be very "shouty" if frustrated in her efforts to get things done at her pace. Whether this constitutes bullying I don't know - perhaps it depends on who she was being shouty at!
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