Editing Yes Minister (section)

===Politics===
Lynn joined the [[Cambridge Union Society|Cambridge Union]] in his first year at the University of Cambridge because he thought that he might like to enter politics. "All of the main debaters there, aged 20, were the most pompous, self-satisfied, self-important bunch of clowns that I've ever clapped eyes on. They were all behaving as if they were on the government front bench, and 20 years later they all were: [[Michael Howard]]; [[John Gummer|John Selwyn Gummer]]; [[Kenneth Clarke]]. I thought at that point that the only way that I could ever contribute to politics is making fun of the politicians."<ref name="bbs"/>

The series, then, intended to satirise politics and government in general, rather than any specific party. The writers placed Hacker at the centre of the political spectrum, and were careful to identify his party headquarters as "Central House" (a combination of [[Conservative Central Office]] and Labour's [[Transport House]]). The terms "[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]" and "[[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]" are scrupulously avoided throughout the series, favouring terms such as "the party" or "the government" and "the opposition".<ref name="ymBBC"/> In the first scene of the first episode, "[[Open Government (Yes Minister)|Open Government]]", Hacker is shown at the declaration of his constituency result wearing a white [[Rosette (decoration)|rosette]], with other candidates sporting the red and blue rosettes associated with the two leading British parties. The one exception to this neutrality occurs very briefly in "[[The National Education Service]]", when Sir Humphrey explains to Bernard how the policy of [[comprehensive school|comprehensive education]] is retained through successive governments, using different arguments according to which party is in power. Even there, Humphrey does not reveal which party Jim Hacker represents. Despite this, the overall thrust was towards government reduction rather than expansion. The episode "[[Jobs for the Boys]]", for example, rejected [[corporatism]]. Throughout the period of ''Yes Minister'' and ''Yes Prime Minister'' the incumbent government of the United Kingdom was Conservative with the government led by [[Margaret Thatcher]] (although the pilot was produced before she came to power). Hacker's predecessor as Prime Minister was unseen and unnamed, but established as male.

In a 2004 documentary, [[Armando Iannucci]] compared ''Yes Minister'' to [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' in how it has influenced the public's view of the state. Although Lynn comments that the word "[[Spin (public relations)|spin]]" has "probably entered the political vocabulary since the series,"<ref name="lynnweb"/> Iannucci suggests that the show "taught us how to unpick the verbal tricks that politicians think they can get away with in front of the cameras."<ref name="bbs"/> The series depicted the media-consciousness of politicians, reflecting the [[public relations]] training they undergo to help them deal with interviews and reading from [[Teleprompter|autocue]] effectively. This is particularly evident in the episode "[[The Ministerial Broadcast]]", in which Hacker is advised on the effects of his clothes and surroundings. The episode "[[A Conflict of Interest]]" humorously lampoons the various political stances of Britain's newspapers through their readers (although this material was not original):<ref>There are various versions of the "''Times'' is read by the people who run the country" patter, which has been attributed to an anonymous advertising copywriter: see, for example, J. M. & M.J. Cohen, ''The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations'' (revised ed. 1995), 3:31. It appears in ''Using the Media'', by [[Denis MacShane]], London 1979; MacShane attributes this to [[Trades Union Congress|TUC]] President [[Cyril Plant]] in 1976</ref>

{{blockquote
|'''Sir Humphrey:''' The only way to understand the Press is to remember that they pander to their readers' prejudices.
'''Hacker:''' Don't tell ''me'' about the press. I know ''exactly'' who reads the papers: the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' is read by people ''who think'' they run the country; ''[[The Guardian]]'' is read by people who think ''they ought'' to run the country; ''[[The Times]]'' is read by the people ''who actually'' do run the country; the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' is read by the ''wives'' of the people who run the country; the ''[[Financial Times]]'' is read by people ''who own'' the country; the ''[[Morning Star (UK newspaper)|Morning Star]]'' is read by people who think the country ought to be run by ''[[Soviet Union|another country]]''; and ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' is read by people who think ''it is''.

'''Sir Humphrey:''' Prime Minister, what about the people who read ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]''?<br />
'''Bernard:''' ''Sun'' readers don't care who runs the country, as long as [[Page Three|she's got big tits]].}}

[[Adam Curtis]], in his three-part TV documentary ''[[The Trap (television documentary series)|The Trap]]'', criticised the series as "ideological propaganda for a political movement",<ref>Adam Curtis. ''The Trap: What Happened To Our Dreams of Freedom, Part 1 – F. You Buddy'' [Television Production]. BBC. Quoted text at 0:35:34</ref> and claimed that ''Yes Minister'' is indicative of a larger movement of criticism of government and bureaucracy, centred upon [[public choice]] economics. Jay himself supported this: 
{{blockquote|The fallacy that public choice economics took on was the fallacy that government is working entirely for the benefit of the citizen; and this was reflected by showing that in any [episode] in the programme, in ''Yes Minister'', we showed that almost everything that the government has to decide is a conflict between two lots of private interest – that of the politicians and that of the civil servants trying to advance their own careers and improve their own lives. And that's why public choice economics, which explains why all this was going on, was at the root of almost every episode of ''Yes Minister'' and ''Yes, Prime Minister''.<ref>Adam Curtis. ''The Trap: What Happened To Our Dreams of Freedom, Part 1 – "F&#k You Buddy"'' [Television Production]. BBC. Quoted text at 0:36:07</ref>}}

Jay, however, has elsewhere emphasized that he and Lynn were interested first and foremost in the comical possibilities present in government and bureaucracy and that they were not seeking to promote any agenda: "Our only firm belief on the subject was that the underlying conflicts between ministers and ministries were better brought out into the open than kept secret".<ref name="Informed Sources">{{cite journal |last1=Jay |first1=Antony |title=Informed Sources |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v02/n10/antony-jay/informed-sources |journal=London Review of Books |date=22 May 1980 |volume=02 |issue=10 |access-date=6 May 2020}}</ref>