A perfect example of office politics around the Prime Minister
Sir Humphrey lost the tug of war about office rellocation. He learned that even as the head of the civil service (non-elected office), he is still not the one who is calling the shot ultimately, the Prime Minister (elected office) is.
Part 1
No 10: here refers to 10 Downing st., British Prime Minister's office
Gents' loo: toilet, wash room
4:40 Politicians are simple people.....
6:10 Top qoute, the speech to confuse and persuade...., the power struggle starts
To butt in: to cut in, to chime in
sack: to dismiss, to fire
Part 2
1:00 The Prime Minister fights back....
4:00 Exploring the alternative to Humphrey, or is it really. Everybody in civil service is a master of Obfuscation
Part 3
at 2:08 The art of probing, and the art of diffusing
at 6:28 The top quote, protesting the lost battle
The complete script is here
http://www.yes-minister.com/ypm1x01-1x04.srt
starting from section 1314
Top 5 Quotes
- Sir Humphrey: "Prime Minister, I must protest in the strongest possible terms my profound opposition to a newly instituted practice which imposes severe and intolerable restrictions upon the ingress and egress of senior members of the hierarchy and which will, in all probability, should the current deplorable innovation be perpetuated, precipitate a constriction of the channels of communication, and culminate in a condition of organisational atrophy and administrative paralysis which will render effectively impossible the coherent and co-ordinated discharge of the functions of government within Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."
Jim Hacker: "You mean you've lost your key?" - Jim Hacker: "Bernard, I want you to put Dorothy back into her old office."
Bernard Woolley: "You mean, carry her there?" - Jim Hacker: "People can wait in the lobby or in the state room."
Sir Humphrey: "Some people. But some people must wait where other people cannot see the people who are waiting. And people who arrive before other people, must wait where they cannot see other people who arrive after them being admitted before them. And people who come in from outside must wait where they cannot see the people from inside coming in to tell you what the people from outside are going to see you about. And people who arrive when you are with people that are not suppose to know you have seen, must wait somewhere until the people you are not suppose to have seen, have seen you.
Jim Hacker: "Sounds like an entire Whitehall farce going on." - Sir Frank Gordon: "Ah, when I say not overstretched, I was of course talking in a sense of total cumulative loading taken globally, rather than in respect of certain individual and essentially anomalous responsibilities that, logically speaking, are not consonant or harmonious with the broad spectrum of intermeshing and inseparable function, and could indeed be said to place an excessive and supererogative burden on the office, where considered in relation to the comparatively exiguous advantages of their overall centralisation."
Jim Hacker: "You could do part of Humphrey's job!" - Jim Hacker: "Why did you allow Sir Humphrey to come in here when I explicitly told you not to?"
Bernard Woolley: "Well, I couldn't stop him."
Jim Hacker: "Why not?"
Bernard Woolley: "He's bigger than me."
