Foreign Office

yes burner yes Burnett I wondered if I could have a word yes Bernard with both of you yes what about sin George's Wapner well the p.m. seems to be completely in the dark good excellent anything else well I wondered if there was anything he doesn't know well I hardly know where to begin Bernhard no I mean anything important well he has the Foreign Secretary to tell you yes I know so he seems to think the Foreign Secretary doesn't know the whole story I should hope not are you implying that the Prime Minister ought to know what's happening well he hears the Prime Minister is Bernhard but it's simply too dangerous to let politicians become involved with diplomacy diplomacy is about surviving until the next century politics is about surviving until Friday afternoon 57 independent countries in the world we've dealt with them for years there's hardly an MP who knows anything about any choice show them a map of the world most of them have a job finding the Isle of Wight kitchens can't be that ignorant sit down Bernhard where is the Upper Volta what's the capital of Chad what language do they speak in barley the President of Peru what is the national religion of Cameroon bird huh you should stand for Parliament what I mean is if it's a democracy shouldn't people sort of discuss things a bit of course full discussion and shouldn't I have the facts of course not they don't want them facts complicate things all of the press the people in their elected leaders want to know is who are the good isn't her the bad news the problem is that the interests of Britain nearly in what was involved doing deals with people what the public think of about is and not helping the good is occasionally when it doesn't help us so we avoid discussion of foreign affairs or rather we keep all discussion inside the Foreign Office then we produce one policy for the foreign secretary which represents our considered view and he can act upon it no options no no alternatives no no what if he's not satisfied well if pressed we look at it again and come up with a different view of course not we come up with the same what if he demands option well it's obvious bird the Foreign Office will happily present him with three options two of which are on post inspection exactly the same applies further which is totally unacceptable like bombing Warsaw or invading France which was still we occasionally encourage the fallen secretary to produce his own policy then we tell him that it will inevitably lead to World War three perhaps within 48 hours I see and sorry to appear stupid Oh perish the thought but in my experience ministers are somewhat concerned about the effect of policy on domestic political opinion now our system doesn't seem to allow for that of course not we take the global view we ask what's best for the world most ministers would rather you asked what's the Daily Mail leader going to say Oh burnin we can't have foreign policy made bike Yabo's like Fleet Street editors or backbend gem bees cabinet minister Bennett ministers we take the right decisions let them sort out the politics later yes come in mrs. Whitmore thank you and if the foreign secretary still won't accept the Foreign Office view well it's freaking freaking knowledge resign treat the Prime Minister like this surely he's right to worry about some Georgia's after all it is a democracy not for long this is a flash telegram the East Yemen are preparing to invade in support of the Marxist guerrillas when I talk yes no it's moderately bad news for the governments of San Jorge ISM it is very good news for the guerrilla the island is Bernhard you're reacting like a politician I'm sorry what are we gonna do to help them no but what if some Georgia's appeals to us but we give them every support short of helped Prime Minister insists we help them then we follow the four-stage strategy what's that well standard Foreign Office responds in a time of crisis in stage one we say nothing is going to happen stage two we say something may be going to happen but we should do nothing about it well stage three we say that maybe we should do something about it but there's nothing we can do what we say maybe there was something we could have done but it's too late

Channel: Angel Badillo

Views: 233,935

Rating: 4.9062004 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: VOdnISwLkSs

Length: 4min 48sec (288 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 13 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/wildgurularry]

The full series of "Yes Minister" is really worth watching.

[u/dedalus05]

I miss Paul Eddington, and Nigel Hawthorne especially.

"VEEP" and "The Thick of It" were excellent shows, but neither came close to "Yes, Minister" & "Yes, Prime Minister".

Anyone not familiar should search them out and give them a chance.

EDIT - The Minister gets written testimony that his Govt is supplying armaments' to terrorists. He's trapped. He must be seen to act, to he inform the Prime Minister. This would put everyone in a pickle, not least the PM and the British Arms Industry. What do to? "The Rhodesia Solution"

[u/nemodat99]

They make strong points

[u/MassSpecFella]

I love this show.

[u/Irishane]

It's really amazing how relevant this show remains even after 30-40 years. Politics don't change

[u/iagounchained]

The laugh track is extremely annoying.