How to spot Sir Humphrey’s schemes

Apart from a loyal army and a strong police force, the primary requirements for political power are (a) legal authority, (b) taxation revenues, (c) organisational size and (d) permanent tenure of office. Politicians certainly do not have (c) and (d), and although they may have (a) and (b) in theory, those two have long been effectively appropriated in practice by the permanent officials. As a result a general election, which is presented as a choice as to which political party will run the country, is much closer to a contest between rival marketing consultancies pitching for the civil service account for the next five years. In the course of ten years’ research for Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister Jonathan Lynn and I came across a number of techniques and strategies that can be employed to frustrate unwelcome initiatives. Among the most popular were:

1. Fixing key meetings at awkward times and reassuring ministers that they don’t need to be there.