Yes, Minister - Sir Humphrey's Stalling Technique

how are you enjoying being in opposition i enjoy being in government well not as much as i expected actually well not at the moment humphrey got you under control it's so hard to get things done did you manage to get things done oh almost nothing oh boy now mind you i didn't i didn't cut it on to his technique until after i'd been there a year and then there was the election technique stalling technique stalling technique it comes in five stages first of all you tell you that your administration is very new and there's lots of things to be getting on with tell me that this morning uh quite sure then if you still persist whatever your idea is you'll say something like i as minister i quite appreciate the intention certainly something ought to be done but are you sure this is the right way to achieve it i must make a note of this now if you are still undeterred he will shift his ground he will shift from uh uh telling you how to do it to when you should do it you know i mean he'll say uh now minister this is not the right time for all sorts of reasons what do you expect ministers to settle for that uh well lots do and if you don't well uh he'll simply say that the policy has run into difficulties such as uh technical political legal now legal are the best sort of course because you make those totally incomprehensible and with any luck this stalling technique will have lasted for about three years and you'll know that you're the final stage when he says now minister we're getting very close to the run-up to the next general election are you sure you can get this policy through three years has it taken three years uh well because humphrey will do absolutely nothing at every stage unless you chase him and you've got far too much to do you see it's what they call creative inertia what's the policy you're trying to get through anyway well i'm trying to make this national integrated database bit less of a big brother oh my god is that what it is and i suppose he told you it's all quite new was he yes my dear fellow we spent years on that we had a white paper almost ready for publication when they called election i've done it all but what about administrative problems there aren't any i solved them did you tell you that you couldn't see any of the previous papers yes no wonder he's about to say clean don't you know what his next move is going to be no how many red boxes have they given you home tonight three four five did you tell you not to worry too much about the fifth one yes right i'll take a bet you will find at the bottom of the fifth box a little memo which explains exactly why any new moves on the database must be delayed now if you don't find it he won't do another blind thing but in six months time he'll say that he has told you all about it look tom you were in office for years you know all the civil service tricks oh not all oh boy just a few hundred how do you defeat them how do you make them do something they don't want to do my dear fella if i knew that i wouldn't be in opposition

Channel: Karthik Subramaniam

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Id: PcghKtd-yP0

Length: 3min 19sec (199 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 15 2020