Jonathan Lynn & Anthony Jay Quotes

Humphrey Well, Prime Minister … one hesitates to say this but there are times when circumstances conspire to create an inauspicious concatenation of events that necessitate a metamorphosis, as it were, of the situation such that what happened in the first instance to be of primary import fraught with hazard and menace can be relegated to a secondary or indeed tertiary position while a new and hitherto unforeseen or unappreciated element can and indeed should be introduced to support and supersede those prior concerns not by confronting them but by subordinating them to the over-arching imperatives and increased urgency of the previously unrealised predicament which may in fact now, ceteris paribus, only be susceptible to radical and remedial action such that you might feel forced to consider the currently intractable position in which you find yourself. tJim is nonplussed. tJim What does he mean, Bernard? tBernard I, um – I, er, think that he’s perhaps suggesting the possibility that you, um, consider your position. Resign, in fact, Prime Minister.
Jonathan Lynn & Anthony Jay
Jim Is there no other way? tClaire We could just say no to him. tJim Can’t risk that. Collapse of conference, collapse of backbench support, collapse of Cabinet. Collapse of my career. The biggest disaster since Dunkirk. tHumphrey I think not, Prime Minister. tJim Name a bigger one. tHumphrey The Freedom of Information Act.
Jonathan Lynn & Anthony Jay
Humphrey Not another czar, please, Prime Minister. In the last three years we’ve appointed an Enterprise Czar, a Youth-Crime Czar, a Welfare Supremo, a Pre-School Supremo, an Unemployment Watchdog, a Banking Regulator, a Science and Technology Supremo and a Community Policing Czar. If you go on like this you won’t need a Cabinet. tJim Perfect! tHumphrey Perfect? Prime Minister, we even have a Twitter Czar! tBernard His appointment was announced as a Tweet. tHumphrey What’s he supposed to achieve? tJim The same as the others: at least twelve column inches in every paper.
Jonathan Lynn & Anthony Jay
I went on to explain that it is an honour, and also that we need a transport policy."If by 'we' you mean Britain, that's perfectly true," he acknowledged. "But if by 'we' you mean you and me and this Department, we need a transport policy like an aperture in the cranial cavity.
Jonathan Lynn & Anthony Jay
Clarification is not to clarify things. It is to put one’s self in the clear (Sir Humphrey Appleby)
Jonathan Lynn & Anthony Jay