Plus ca change…

I've been watching a lot of Yes, Minister, and Yes, Prime Minister recently: the witty, farcical and cynical 1980s comedy set in the higher reaches of politics and the Civil Service.

Every single episode is still totally relevant to modern government: how to achieve, avoid or appear to achieve cuts/action/moral behaviour, how to deal with the press, foreigners, the public, corruption, defence posturing: pronouncements from the current regime could have been cut and pasted from the show.

Here's a favourite bit on opinion polls:


And bankers:

In honour of the News of the World Phone Hackers, some Jim Hacker

I love the fact that this entirely accurate assessment of British newspapers and their control over the political class is delivered by the fictional Prime Minister, Mr. Jim Hacker. The News of the World is the Sunday edition of The Sun).



and if that doesn't float your boat, here's some Miss Kittin and The Hacker:

University lobbying - 70s style

This is how they did it then, and no doubt how the élite universities do it now:



In honour of the government's decision that they don't need actual scientists on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, I wanted to post a clip from 'The Challenge', a wonderful Yes Minister episode in which Dr. Cartwright explains to the hapless minister that experts are kept away from ministers because they just complicate the issue with their inconvenient facts and knowledge. But it's not on Youtube. Damn.

The Tories put up a 'facts about fees' website which was so misleading that I won't link to it, but I will link to what academics do best: taking apart those 'facts about fees'. Very instructive.

You should also read this great article about 'the death of the public university in England' (thanks to Ms. E-Mentor). Wales and Scotland are fine because they're not ruled by Tories or Lib Dems.