The 'Island', St Ives
October 13, 2015
It is Tuesday evening and I am watching 'Yes, Minister'. Do you know what 'Yes, Minister' is? I didn't know what it was but now that I am watching it, I know. At least I think that I know. First of all, it is a rerun (it aired on BBC in 1980 through 1984). And it's hilarious. A new Prime Minister seems to have been put into office and now he has to figure out who his 'ministers' are going to be. So he makes his assistants go about talking with possible candidates for 'minister', and then the assistants tell the future 'minister' he is going to be one. The trouble is, everybody seems to want to be one but nobody truly and honestly knows how.
There is a deal of confusion as all of this talk and chatter goes on. They are all horribly buried in paper work and red tape because the civil servants are actually running the country, and civil servants just love burying everyone in paper. The ministers complain, but somehow red tape has the effect of energizing them. My favorite moment was when there were 6 of these men all trying to solve some unsolvable problem while crammed inside a tiny room on a train. It started with 2 of them, and then one by one other politicos squeezed in to join the argument. Hilarious.
All of this - the paperwork, the red tape, the ceaseless chatter, and the confusion - is strangely like our own politics, only our politicians take themselves much more seriously. Something like 'Yes, Minister' would probably never be allowed on the air back home. People might come to realize just how much of what goes on in our own congress is sheer buffoonery (and of course, we can't have that).
See you along the way!
the SconeLady
Excerpt from an episode of 'Yes, Minister':
Hacker: Don't tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers: the Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by people who actually do run the country; the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; the Financial Times is read by people who own the country; the The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.
-credit, Wikipedia
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