Career bully more common than we think

From early childhood we gain intuition about those we think are likely to bully and to those who may become the bullied. Indeed, perhaps we all need to bully a little bit in life only to then in turn be bullied a little bit ourselves.

By contrast, the career bully has developed that into a major part of their lifestyle choice and may be more common than we think. Whatever else she thought, a woman of experience from an Anti-Bullying helpline can have had no illusions whatsoever as to the pain she, personally, would suffer should there be substance to the current raft of political allegations.

CHARLES BROWN

Garelochhead

Helensburgh

When referring to Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister, Tony Blair told the Commons to "beware the clunking fist" which most of us took as a warning about David Cameron. Now we realise he was actually warning the junior staff at Number 10.

BRIAN CHRISTLEY

Bryn Gwyn

Abergele, Conwy

Any organisation that offers advice to the victims of bullying should have a clear and simple policy on confidentiality.

The Anti-Bullying Network provided a free bullying information line for more than five years.

In that time we were contacted by thousands of people from all parts of the UK and told about bullying that had happened in a variety of places including schools (which are the main focus of our interest), workplaces, the community, voluntary organisations and even occasionally in charities dedicated to improving the welfare of vulnerable adults and children.

Our ethical code dictated that we never revealed any information that might lead to the identification of the caller or of any institution or individual against whom an allegation had been made. The only exception to this was if we learned that a child was in immediate danger of serious harm.

We often had to resist extreme pressure from journalists to break this code in order to put them in touch with a caller or to say what we knew about a particular allegation but we felt that we had compelling reasons to stick to our guns. Firstly, because many people who contacted us were extremely distressed and vulnerable it was vital that we should do nothing to cause them further harm.

Secondly, we had always to bear in mind the fact that any evidence that came from these calls was second hand and incomplete.

Thirdly, a very small percentage of our callers may have suffered from mental health issues while others may have acted maliciously.

The information that we gathered from these calls helped to identify and illustrate both good and bad practice but it was only ever published in a very general or anonymised form that made it impossible to identify the individuals or institutions involved. Bullying ruins lives. It drives people to the edge of despair. False or unfounded allegations of bullying can have the same effect.

ANDREW MELLOR

Director, The Anti-Bullying Network

St John's Town of Dalry, Castle Douglas

The news of bullying at Number 10 comes as no surprise to me. About 12 years ago I witnessed Gordon Brown tearing strips off an unfortunate female colleague in Heathrow's Executive Lounge. There were more than a dozen other people in the lounge at the time and Brown finished in a loud, very angry voice telling her: "Never do that to me again!"

MIKE MCKINNELL

Hillview

Edinburgh