The Complete Yes Minister

3 ideas

1. Sequential technique for burying an unwelcome report

   An inconvenient report is neutralised in escalating steps. First, withhold it 'in the public interest'. If that fails, cast doubt on the evidence ('inconclusive', 'open to other interpretations'), then call the recommendations an insufficient basis for decisions, and finally discredit the author as biased, grudge-bearing or angling for a knighthood or consultancy, so each fallback attacks a different layer: access, data, conclusions, credibility.

2. 'Courageous' is the civil service's warning word

   Official vocabulary grades a proposal by its electoral cost rather than its merit. A 'controversial' decision will lose you votes, while a 'courageous' decision will lose you the election, so praising a minister's courage is how an official warns him off. The difficult decision is therefore the one that is politically costly, not the one that is intellectually hard.

3. The fully staffed hospital with no patients

   Hacker discovers a new London hospital that employs around 500 administrative and ancillary staff but has no patients, because funding cuts left no money for doctors and nurses. It shows an institution optimising its own process metrics while abandoning its purpose.

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