One reason it is in the public interest for the Telegraph to be permitted to publish the identity of the businessman accused of bullying, racism and sexual harassment - and of silencing alleged victims with non-disclosure agreements - is that such conduct is not unique.
As someone who has reported on and observed those who run big companies for 35 years, the uncomfortable truth is I wasn’t surprised enough by the Telegraph’s disclosures.
In fact when I read the Telegraph’s story, I immediately thought of at least four prominent business figures (all men of course) who could fit the newspaper’s devastating description of an individual abusing their power to humiliate and take advantage of staff and colleagues.
But here is the shaming question I must face. When I first heard the gossip and rumours years ago, why didn’t I - and other hacks - do more to call out and expose the bullies and harassers?
I fear we were beguiled by the cult of wealth-creating “strong” leaders - who were grabbing businesses and the British economy by the scruff of the neck and generating profits that create jobs and pay for public services.
So because the gossip and rumour was not about illegal behaviour but about power-hungry plutocrats treating people shabbily, we held our noses, stood up to them in private but did not do enough in the public realm to shine a light on what now looks like a pernicious...
... feudalism infecting too much of corporate life.
All I would say however is that some of the outrage you will now see expressed about all this in the press and on television has just a tinge of hypocrisy: within my working life, much of the media...
All I would say however is that some of the outrage you will now see expressed about all this in the press and on television has just a tinge of hypocrisy: within my working life, much of the media...
... used to be the very archetype of institutionalised bullying and sexism.
That said, the biggest abdication of responsibility rests with non-executive and senior executive colleagues of the harassing and bullying bosses, too many of whom turned the Nelsonian eye...
That said, the biggest abdication of responsibility rests with non-executive and senior executive colleagues of the harassing and bullying bosses, too many of whom turned the Nelsonian eye...
...when their “inspiring” leader silenced employees and colleagues who felt used and exploited.
