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Yes Minister, on how to respond to a crisis: Sir Richard Wharton: “In stage one, we say nothing is going to happen.” Sir Humphrey Appleby: “Stage two, we
by nxp 7y ago
Yes Minister, on how to respond to a crisis:
Sir Richard Wharton: “In stage one, we say nothing is going to happen.”
Sir Humphrey Appleby: “Stage two, we say something may be about to happen,
but we should do nothing about it.”
Sir Richard Wharton: “In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it,
but there’s nothing we can do.”
Sir Humphrey Appleby: “Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done,
but it’s too late now.”
Remember that Yes Minister is a manual for politicians, not a comedy.
- rahidz 7y agoStage four requires admitting guilt, it should be "We've always known we should've done something about it, but (opposing political party) didn't let us!"
- nickff 7y agoThat back-and-forth is between two bureaucrats, who are talking about how to obstruct politicians. One of the core premises of "Yes Minister" is that the bureaucracy holds the real power in government, somewhat similar to the idea of a 'deep state', though the show existed long before that phrase was coined.
- AlexandrB 7y agoThis seems to undermine the point at the end of the GP comment: > Remember that Yes Minister is a manual for politicians, not a comedy. It seems like the deep state was (more) right on this one and the politicians are/were the ones trying to downplay the danger and generally mislead.
- jacquesm 7y agoThe proper name for the deep state is civil service employees and they generally tend to be right on a lot of stuff because they've been at it for decades rather than a couple of weeks to months. The whole idea that some politician lands in a chair and starts making policy by their lonesome is laughable.
- dmix 7y ago> The proper name for the deep state is civil service employees It's funny how that has become the new explanation/softer excuse. I remember when "Deep State" was used to describe groups like the Koch Brothers and similar power brokers well before it was adopted by the right-leaning popular media to describe the puppet masters of the 'establishment' on the other side. Now it's spun as an attack on simple 'civil servants'... I guess it means whatever people want it to mean, depending on the context of your ideology or position on the matter.
- Symbiote 7y agoThe episode in question is episode 6 of series 1 of Yes, Prime Minister "A Victory for Democracy". Highly recommended!
- bigfudge 7y agoThe point of YM is that civil servants and ministers are interdependent, rather than a 'deep state' in the trumpian conspiracy theory sense.
- ksec 7y agoVideo Link Below. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/coronavirus-pandemic-yes-minister-boris-johnson-uk-testing-outbreak-symptoms-a9396511.html https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/cor...