Yes Minister

 When Antony Jay first had the idea of showing off what really happens up top, I wrote to him and said.
" You realize that this exposure will make it even harder for us to do our job! While it's awfully fun serious to come home to see this on the TV, the fact is , that he will watch it too and can be expected to make our jobs much harder.

The rest of this note is fiction but in his long letter back to me, the wonderful Antony did address the dilemmas of telling the truth in that context.  His letter is better than any award or recognition I could have received for quietly doing my public service job for over 3 decades. 

"I mean Hacker will be alerted that he is really dumb and doesn't really know what he is doing. Far better perhaps to have him think he is God, without him realizing that he is not? KCMG   GCMG and all that !!
Hacker is always at his worst when he learns/sees the next step out of kindergarten.
Even after tutoring him many times in baby steps, it still seems the public are better off when we spoon feed him. Hacker is so prone to going off half cocked!
God help us make sure he does not realize what is really happening. 

Its diplomacy yes, but it's a lot more than that, We only stay in the job if we can prosecute the public good. ( The tragedy of our time in May 2023 is that there seems no place for us).   In my case, the job was the public good in relation to the hardworking soil water plants animals and sometimes, sadly, the less predictable but still to be dealt with freeloading "vermin ".

I am writing this mainly today as Prince Charles is about to become our figurehead of servitude ...... because there is a great new series on Netflix called "THE DIPLOMAT ".  Watch it !


You have a good day now and pray that our children will continue to be wise as serpents; finding ways to be really good at what they do; finding the substance and the substantial amongst the sentimental ( being good scientists, reporters and people persons) in spite of the fact that they have to work amongst wolves. 

The job: ( Please tell your children it's still available -- if not the most dangerous job in the world ) 
 To be as clever as they can be in prosecuting peace and the truth; flying and landing like doves . Almost invisible power agents in the crushing world of those grasping at power . ( also in film now like LINE OF DUTY and tough for today stuff like HAPPY VALLEY .

Labels: The Diplomat