Yes Minister - Vol One

Yes Minister - Vol One (1981) by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay – BBC

Before The Thick of It, before spin doctors acquired mobile phones, and long before anybody thought government departments might be improved by giving everyone a PowerPoint presentation and a diversity of consultants, there was Yes Minister — a wonderfully dry examination of British government in which absolutely everyone is working very hard to ensure that as little as possible actually happens.

Written by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay, this first volume brings the gloriously obstructive world of Jim Hacker MP, Sir Humphrey Appleby and Bernard Woolley from the television screen onto the printed page. Hacker has finally achieved what every ambitious politician supposedly dreams of: ministerial office. Unfortunately, he rapidly discovers that being a minister does not necessarily mean being allowed to run his own department.

Standing between Hacker and anything resembling decisive action is Sir Humphrey Appleby, the magnificently polished Permanent Secretary whose principal skill is explaining why the minister’s latest perfectly reasonable idea is administratively impossible, politically dangerous, financially irresponsible, constitutionally dubious and, most importantly, not the way things have traditionally been done.

Sir Humphrey is, of course, never openly disobedient. That would be terribly improper. Instead, inconvenient proposals are referred to committees, discussed with interested departments, subjected to reviews, reconsidered in light of emerging circumstances and eventually buried somewhere beneath a memorandum entitled Preliminary Considerations Concerning Possible Future Action.

Bernard Woolley occupies the dangerous territory between the two men, attempting to serve his minister while simultaneously remembering that his actual career depends upon the Civil Service. His contributions frequently involve correcting someone’s grammar while the machinery of government quietly catches fire around him.

Presented in diary-style form, Yes Minister - Vol One expands upon the television series with additional observations, memoranda and bureaucratic absurdities that make the whole thing feel alarmingly plausible. The joke, of course, is that the politicians think they run the country, the civil servants know that they run the country, and the public occasionally gets invited to vote so everyone can maintain the illusion.

The humour is clever rather than frantic, relying on elaborate language, carefully constructed misunderstandings and the eternal battle between political ambition and administrative survival. Sir Humphrey’s spectacularly complicated sentences remain particularly impressive examples of how the English language can be used to say almost nothing while occupying several minutes and sounding extremely important.

Published by the BBC in 1981, this is an excellent little slice of British political comedy from an age when government scandals involved expense accounts, awkward parliamentary questions and ministers accidentally telling the truth.

This copy is in Good condition, meaning it has survived more than four decades of governments, reorganisations, policy initiatives and efficiency drives without requiring the establishment of an independent review committee.

Sold by Crappy Old Books, where we believe old books deserve another term in office, regardless of whether anyone remembers voting for them.

ISBN: 0563179341

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