But Gordon Brown, was well known for his temper and obsessions with the media. I could believe that he would phone to say he's displeased at headlines and articles.
"He became even more temperamental about his coverage in the media, obsessively monitoring the press headlines and the prominence he was getting in television news bulletins. If his speeches and initiatives were ignored or got less coverage than David Cameron, he would "lash out" at those around him. A dark pall descended on the whole building. An official noted that "he surrounded himself with people who amplified his weaknesses rather than compensated for them. There was no camaraderie. It was a quite depressive, introverted, dysfunctional coterie." Long-standing members of his inner circle had endured Brown's temper for years and accepted the tantrums as part of the price of working for a complex man they admired. One veteran of his court says: "Over the years, I've had all sorts of things thrown at me – newspapers, pens, Coke cans." This sort of behaviour was a shock to staff at Number 10 who had been accustomed to the courteous manners of Tony Blair and John Major. "Gordon's mood was absolutely black the whole time. He was in a permanent state of rage," observes one civil servant. "Staff were afraid of him because he was always shouting at people, being unpleasant, constantly blaming people for things going wrong. He never had a nice word to say to anybody."
Another official agrees: "He was astonishingly rude to people." Civil servants were shocked by his habit of abruptly getting up and leaving meetings when officials were in the middle of speaking. He became notorious within the building for shouting at the duty clerks, bawling at the superbly professional staff who manned the Number 10 switchboard and blowing up at the affectionately regarded "Garden Girls", so called because the room from which they provide Downing Street's secretarial services overlooks the garden. When one of the secretaries was not typing fast enough for an angrily impatient Prime Minister, he turfed the stunned garden girl out of her chair and took over the keyboard himself. Word of these incidents reached the alarmed ears of the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, who was becoming increasingly anxious about the Prime Minister's behaviour. The Cabinet Secretary was so concerned about the garden girl episode that he made his own inquiries into it. Though the worst excesses of the Prime Minister's temper were kept hidden, it was inevitable that some accounts began to filter out across Whitehall and then into the media, which reported stories about mobile phones being hurled in fury and the furniture being kicked. One civil servant who applied for a position at Number 10 was asked at the interview whether he could cope with "extreme verbal abuse" and violence done to objects. The civil servant was so scared by the description of what it could be like to work for the Prime Minister that he withdrew his application."
"Brown's exhaustion and sense of isolation made his temper even shorter and blacker. Officials became more apprehensive than ever about delivering unwelcome news for fear of the reaction. One aide with bad tidings decided to break it to the boss when they were travelling in the back of the Prime Minister's Jaguar. As was customary, the aide took the rear seat behind the driver. Brown sat behind the protection officer. The cream upholstery of the seat back in front of Brown was flecked with black marks. When having a meltdown, the Prime Minister would habitually stab the seat back with his black marker pen. On this occasion, what the aide had to tell the Prime Minister provoked a more scary response than the stabbing of the pen. Face like thunder, Brown reacted by swinging back an arm and clenching his fist. The aide cowered back, fearing that the Prime Minister was about to hit him in the face. Brown crashed his fist into the back of the passenger seat in front of him. The protection officer flinched. This was happening more and more often. The Prime Minister's compulsion to vent his temper by hitting the upholstery became so regular that sitting in front of him was regarded as the worst duty among the protection squad."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/21/gordon-brown-rage-despair
it's now across the pond and in the US - hoping that it becomes a story that resonates in the consciousness of everyone
= new reply since forum marked as read
