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.

2. Saying people were unable to attend when they had never actually been asked.

Most popular

Stephen Daisley

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3. Suppressing reports that conflicted with departmental advice or challenged departmental policy.

4. Falsely claiming that undesirable actions were prohibited by statute, or that desirable ones were demanded.

5. Leaving political advisers off circulation lists of sensitive documents (on imaginary ‘security’ grounds).

6. Reporting objections from people or organisations who do not actually object at all.

7. Subtly altering instructions and agreements when writing minutes and reports.

8. Setting up interdepartmental committees to examine controversial proposals.

9. Wide circulation of proposals for comment and suggestion (never chased up for a response).

10. Sending ministers around the country, indeed the world, for ceremonial reasons, to represent the department or the government.