{"id":2894,"date":"2009-02-21T18:33:42","date_gmt":"2009-02-21T23:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=2894"},"modified":"2009-02-21T18:33:42","modified_gmt":"2009-02-21T23:33:42","slug":"yes-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/yes-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

The secret diary of the Minister for Folding Deckchairs<\/a><\/p>\n

Our private secretaries were waiting for us. Mine is a pleasant young woman called Jessica. I am also entitled to a car and a driver. Entirely pointless since the No159 and No3 buses run past my door.<\/p>\n

Jessica explained the situation is complicated. Red boxes – lead-lined so that if the Minister is blown up, the Government’s papers will survive – cannot be carried on public transport. Second, there will be times when a vote is called without warning and we will need to get to the House quickly. Third, I might be glad of a lift home at 3am after an adjournment debate.<\/p>\n

She also explained that the funding of the Government car pool is geared to encourage maximum use of the car. The drivers are on a low basic wage and dependent on overtime. Jessica said I will need a mobile phone, a pager and a fax at home. I offered mild resistance, but fear I shall have to give way. The first of what will no doubt be many little defeats at official hands.<\/p>\n

While we were talking, in strolled JP. He made a little show of being pleased to see me.<\/p>\n

‘Thank you for having me,’ I said. ‘Glad you decided to join us,’ he said drily. The sarcasm remained in the air long after he departed. Of course, he must know that I turned down the wretched job.<\/p>\n

Outside, I ran into Labour MP Frank Field. He confirmed that the Government car service was a job creation scheme.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Life imitates art:<\/p>\n

[youtube= http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kMbHTM07jBA]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The secret diary of the Minister for Folding Deckchairs Our private secretaries were waiting for us. Mine is a pleasant young woman called Jessica. I am also entitled to a car and a driver. Entirely pointless since the No159 and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[256],"tags":[2227],"class_list":["post-2894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}