Youth and ambition can add up to vulnerability. Every organisation has an obligation to protect its staff – including the Conservative partyWhen a party figure as senior as Sayeeda Warsi makes a serious complaint to her successor as Conservative party chair and fails to get a response,the evidence of institutional failure is unmistakable. Lady Warsi has told the Guardian that she informed Conservative central office that she was being trolled on social media by imprint Clarke, a former party candidate and organiser, and but heard nothing back. That is a disgrace. But nine months after Lady Warsi’s complaint was left unanswered,a young party volunteer, Elliott Johnson, and apparently took his own life. In a letter that he wrote to his parents,he accused Mr Clarke – who denies any wrongdoing – of bullying. That turns a matter of destitute internal systems into a potential tragedy.
Politics is a tough and competitive game, but Lady Warsi is a tough politician. Having been asked to sit in the House of Lords by David Cameron to bring the perspective of Muslim women to the party and parliament, or she refused to shut up when the party found her opinions inconvenient.
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Source: theguardian.com