Truth #1: Government agencies do not work for you. They work for the commercial and financial interests they are supposedly set up to regulate. They are a tool for eliminating competition. They can usually only be made to act through intense and concentrated public pressure. Scott Tips, Health Freedom, The European Union and Codex Alimentarius
Truth #2: Decentralise government whenever and wherever possible; diffuse power; get power back to the people; the more remote the rulers, the more corrupt and less accountable they are; government is not God. ibid.
When a government takes over a people’s economic life it becomes absolute, and when it has become absolute it destroys the arts, the minds, the liberties and the meaning of the people it governs. Maxwell Anderson
This is the secret world of Whitehall: decisions taken here behind closed doors affect all our daily lives. Michael Cockerell, The Secret World of Whitehall 1/3: The Real Sir Humphrey, BBC 2011
The Cabinet Secretary – the real-life Sir Humphrey from Yes, Prime Minister – pulls the invisible strings across Whitehall. ibid.
Lloyd George set up the first cabinet office. ibid.
Number 70 Whitehall has a Victorian facade but it stands on the site of King Henry VIII’s old Whitehall Palace. ibid.
There’s another part of the Cabinet Office that remains off limits for security reasons. ibid.
Hunt and the government lost the case and the Crossman diaries were published. ibid.
Sir Robert Armstrong was a product of Eton, Oxford and the Treasury. ibid.
The Cabinet Office is the epicentre of British Intelligence. ibid.
Butler found Major to be the best negotiator he’d worked for. But it was a turbulent time. And Butler also had to deal with the very powerful figure of Michael Heseltine, who Major appointed to be his deputy prime minister. Hezza was to be based in the Cabinet Office with a brief that ranged across the whole of government. ibid.
Robin Butler fell out with Blair over the new prime minister’s plans to give Number 10 much greater power and control over cabinet ministers. ibid.
‘Sources close to the prime minister’ told the media that Tony Blair had lost confidence in his cabinet secretary. ibid.
Since 1735 a terraced house in Whitehall has been the residence of a remarkable succession of British prime ministers. Michael Cockerell, The Secret World of Whitehall 2/3: Behind the Black Door
The Number 10 flat in the attic is far from grand. ibid.
By tradition that prime minister’s chair is the only one with arms. ibid.
There’s no written constitutional definition of the job of prime minister. ibid.
Heath soon ran into a range of economic and trade union problems. ibid.
Callaghan said he saw himself as Moses. ibid.
Hezza was the first minister to walk out of Cabinet in a hundred years. ibid.
Blair had brought in a slew of other advisers to Number 10. ibid.
The wars were to weaken Blair and hasten his departure from Number Ten. ibid.
Brown became increasingly indecisive in Number Ten. ibid.
Cameron was determined to run Number Ten very differently from Blair and Brown. ibid.
The people who live in the dark – the special advisers. Michael Cockerell, The Secret World of Whitehall 3/3: The Network
It’s the civil servants who have always been and remain the beating heart of the private office network. ibid.
Lloyd George made Number 10 the prototype for a private office in every Whitehall ministry. ibid.
Tony Blair was determined greatly to strengthen the political side of the Number Ten private officer. He brought in a record number of thirty advisers. ibid.
These days the Prime Minister of Britain is the first among SPADs. ibid.
There is increasing concern about the government’s competence. Ed Miliband, PMQs
The fallacy that public choice economics took on was the fallacy that government is working entirely for the benefit of the citizen. And this was reflected by showing in the programme Yes Minister … that almost everything the government has to decide is a conflict between two private lots of private interests – that of the politicians and the civil servants trying to advance their own careers and improve their own lives. And that’s why public choice economics which explains why all this was going on was at the root of almost every episode of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. Antony Jay, creator of Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister
I’d prefer to call you minister, Minister. Yes, Minister: Open Government, Bernard, BBC 1980
And government is about not answering them. ibid. Sir Humphrey
Open government – that’s what my party believes in. ibid. Jim
You can be open or you can have government. ibid. Sir Arnold
The prime minister giveth and the prime minister taketh away; blessed be the name of the prime minister. ibid. Sir Humphrey
Could we hush it up? ibid. Jim to Sir Humphrey & Sir Arnold
Buranda is central to the government’s African policy. Yes, Minister s1e2: The Official Visit, Jim to Sir Humphrey, with Bernard
Humphrey, we have got to slim down the civil service. Yes, Minister s1e3: The Economy Drive, Jim to Sir Humphrey
Suppose everyone went around saving money irresponsibly all over the place? ibid. Sir Humphrey to Bernard
Government doesn’t stop just because the whole country’s been destroyed. ibid. Sir Humphrey to Jim, Weasle & Bernard
I told the nation how splendid you were and I was right ... Let’s see your proposals … And here are mine. Yes, Minister s1e4: Big Brother, Jim to Sir Humphrey
Have you redrafted the redraft of your draft? Yes, Minister s1e5: The Writing on the Wall, Sir Humphrey to Jim
I don’t want the truth. I want something I can tell parliament. ibid. Jim to Sir Humphrey
You know the PM’s motto? In defeat, malice. In victory, revenge. ibid. PM’s political adviser to Sir Humphrey
Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least the last five hundred years – to create a disunited Europe. ibid. Sir Humphrey to Jim
You’d be paranoid if everybody was plotting against you. ibid. Jim
This has to be stopped at once. Well if he talks to the underlings he may learn things we don’t know. Our whole position could be undermined. Yes, Minister s1e6: The Right to Know, Sir Humphrey to Bernard
Don’t you realise what would happen if we allowed the minister to run the department? ibid.
Outside debate, public scrutiny – is that what you want? ibid.
38,650. One should appreciate the significance of significant. ibid. Sir Humphrey to Jim, with Bernard
On occasion there are some things it is better for a minister not to know. ibid.
You are not here to run this department. ibid.
Daddy’s in politics. He has to be ingratiating. ibid. Jim’s wife to daughter, with Jim
You see if they have all the facts instead of just the options they might start thinking for themselves. ibid. civil servant to Bernard, with Sir Humphrey
It’s appalling. Shameless. It’s their parents you know. They don’t bring them up properly. Just let them run wild then feed them all this trendy middle-class anti-establishment nonsense. ibid. Jim to Sir Humphrey, with Bernard
Perhaps there are some things it is better for a minister not to know. ibid. Sir Humphrey to Jim, with Bernard
Bernard, the Official Secrets Act is not to protect secrets, it’s to protect officials. Yes, Minister s1e7: Jobs For the Boys, Sir Humphrey
The report’s foresight had some insight in the light of hindsight. ibid. Bernard to Sir Humphrey
You see the ideal Quango appointee is a black Welsh disabled woman Trades Unionist. We’re all looking round for one of them. ibid. Sir Humphrey to Sir Desmond Glazebrook
What is it that I don’t know? ibid. Jim to Sir Humphrey
It takes two to Quango, minister. ibid. Sir Humphrey
Are you a member of Bupa, sir? Yes, Minister s2e1: The Compassionate Society, driver Roy to Jim
Oh it’s got staff – five hundred administrators. Just no patients. ibid.
Another leak. This isn’t a department, it’s a colander. ibid.