Yes Minister

[jgw1]

Am I being unreasonable to start a thread just for this post I wrote a little while ago imagining how Humpherey and his Minister might deal with the Lineker situation?

Humpherey: Minister we have a bit of a situation.
Minister: What is that?
Humpherey: Gary Lineker has tweeted comparing us to 1930s Germany.
Minister: Who?
Humpherey: Gary Lineker - the footballer.
Minister: Oh that's ok no on listens to footballers anyway.
Humpherey: He presents one of the BBC's biggest programmes and has 7 million twitter followers.
Minister: Oh. Something must be done.
Humpherey: That is why I came in to ask what you would like doing.
Minister: Get the BBC on the phone I must tell them that they must tell this footballer that he is a very naughty boy and they must well I don't know sack him or at least make him apologise.
Humpherey: Very good Minister.
Some time later.
Humpherey: Minister the situation has developed somewhat.
Minister: What situation?
Humpherey: With Gary Lineker's tweets.
Minister: Well I told the BBC to tell him off, they did that?
Humpherey: Yes they did.
Minister: So the situtation has been solved.
Humpherey: Well Minister not exactly.
Minister: Why not exactly the BBC did sack him? We cannot have people saying we are Nazis.
Humpherey: The BBC have suspsended him from tonight's show.
Minister: Good.
Humpherey: Not exactly. Everyone to do with football at the BBC has walked out.
Minister. Good, no one likes football.
Humpherey: Many voters do. Remember you had to go and watch a match to pretend to be like the people.
Minister: I thought Manchester Town played very well. Is that who Lineker played for.
Humpherey: You watched Manchester City, and no Lineker played for Leicester and England.
Minister: Oh. What is the situation anyway.
Humpherey: More people are talking about how we are behaving like 1930s Germany.
Minister: What do they mean? Gassing people know.
Humpherey: Not that was in the 1940s Minister. They mean things like silencing people because they disagree with the government and stoking hatred to futher thier own ends, telling broadcaster what to say and so on.
Minister: Well we would not do that. We are British. That is the sort of thing that goes on in other countries. We are a bastion of democracy and free speech.
Humpherey. I will ring the BBC and tell them not to sack Lineker then.
Minister: Why?
Humpherey. Because you said we are a bastion of free speech and don't silence people.
Minister: Oh.

That's brilliant OP. We've got the box set, it's amazing how so little seems to have changed in 40 odd years.

I'm a big fan of Yes Prime Minister and Yes Minister, but to be honest in the last few years it's The Thick of It which I keep thinking of in relation to current political insanity.

Thank you very kind of you to say so.

Rumours now out there that the BBC Chairman will resign later today.

We quote it lots in our office. Guess what we do for a living?

I did politics A level nearly 30 years ago, they used to show us episodes of YM and YPM as learning materials

Brilliant! Made my day. i can imagine such conversations being had in the corridors of power.

Or Whatsapps of power 🫣

@moveoverye that’s good 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I thinking my next turn might be a series of spoof whatsapps.
The inspiration hasn't arrived yet though.

My favourite sitcom of all time, except in the words of Maggie Thatcher, "That's not a sitcom, it's a bloody documentary!!"

Every time surveys are mentioned as some kind of proof of what most think, I remember this:

Rumours now out there that the BBC Chairman will resign later today

And right on cue:

Sir Humphrey : With respect, Prime Minister, we can't send two Lord Ron Jones to the Upper House. It will look like a job lot.
Jim Hacker : We got to give him something, I promised.
Sir Humphrey : Well, what is he interested in? Does he watch television?
Jim Hacker : He hasn't even got a set.
Sir Humphrey : Fine, make him a Governor of the BBC

It was on the curriculum for my doctorate in public administration (non-UK.)

I had forgotten that episode.
Must rewatch more of them.

DVD boxset now in my Amazon basket ready for my holiday viewing. Caravan sites without TV reception!

@RandomMess - has your DH read the book of "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"? It is written largely as emails and memos etc, and dedicated to my arms-length body. It's very close to the bone!

Maybe I'll buy it for him! I can read it first 🤣

I use procedure, not policy a lot at work.

I suggest this policy is costing the taxpayer millions! Nothing to say? I can't comment on Government policy.

• But you advise the Minister.
• I can't disclose how I advise him.
• The Minister's responsible for policy.

I set up procedures and tell people how to do stuff. But I| am not responsible for why they have to do it and what they should do. Just how to do it.

They have to ask someone else what they should be doing. I just show them how they put in the stuff in the system.

"Government needs to support the universities... Both of them"