History WMG / YesMinister

** Sir Humphrey's 'master' was Sir Arnold. Who did, in fact, tell Sir Humphrey not to uncover anything. So who were Sir Arnold's true masters... ?

As is revealed in the episode "One of Us", he once conducted an enquiry into the conduct of a fellow-civil servant called Sir John Halstead and found that he'd done nothing wrong ... only for Halstead to later be revealed (via a posthumous confession) to have spent much of his career passing secrets to Moscow. Stands to reason that Sir Humphrey was instructed by his ''real'' masters in the Kremlin to find nothing untoward about Halstead, thus allowing him to continue spying for Mother Russia.

As is revealed in the episode "One of Us", he conducted an enquiry into the conduct of a fellow-civil servant called Sir John Halstead and found that he'd done nothing wrong ... only for Halstead to later be revealed (via a posthumous confession) to have spent much of his career passing secrets to Moscow. Stands to reason that Sir Humphrey was instructed by his ''real'' masters in the Kremlin to find nothing untoward about Halstead, thus allowing him to continue spying for Mother Russia.

[[WMG: Hacker's Party is a Fictional "British Centrist Party"]]

** This troper thinks this is 100% the case - in the same way that the Ministry of Administrative Affairs was invented to give scope to write episodes that touch all subjects rather than one real life area (similar to [=DoSAC=] in ''The Thick of It''), the minister of ''Yes, Minister'' would have had to have been a centrist who could not be identified as either Labour or Tory in order for the show to effectively and credibly poke fun at both left and right.

** Unlikely. Malcolm Tucker wasn't a civil servant, he was Director of Communications. If anything, he and Sir Humphrey would have clashed, which certainly would have been worth seeing. But this troper would be surprised if ''Series/TheThickOfIt'' isn't the future of ''Series/YesMinister''.

** This troper thinks this is 100% the case - in the same way that the Ministry of Administrative Affairs was invented to give scope to write episodes that touch all subjects rather than one real life area (similar to [=DoSAC=] in ''The Thick of It''), the minister of ''Yes Minister'' would have had to have been a centrist who could not be identified as either Labour or Tory in order for the show to effectively and credibly poke fun at both left and right.

[[WMG: Yes, Minister exists in the same world as Series/TheThickOfIt.]]

Administrative Affairs eventually gets folded into what becomes DoSAC. An aged Sir Humphrey and Malcolm Tucker teaming up on someone? Epic.

* We know that the series take place in an AlternateUniverse where, instead of Margaret Thatcher, the British PM during the 1980s was the unseen PM of Jim Hacker and then Jim Hacker himself. We also know that the Conservative and Labour Parties exist and are prominent (they've been mentioned once). Finally, Hacker is clearly a complete Centrist. However during the episode in which he becomes PM, Hacker is described as the leader of the "centrist" wing of his Party. If he were a Conservative, that would make him clearly right-leaning, and if he were Labour, that would make him slightly left-leaning. In this AlternateUniverse, there existed in the 1980s a third major Party, the British Centrist Party (probably encompassing the real world Liberal-SDP Alliance combined with moderate elements from Labour and the Tories). And that Centrist Party won the elections during the 1980s. Interestingly, since that "centrist, pro-EU, pro-free-market" stance is very similar to Blair's New Labour and Major and Cameron's Tory Party, it's very likely that Hacker's Centrist Party remained in power since the 1980s, throughout the 1990s and 2000s until today (possibly with Centrist PM's Major, Blair and Cameron).
** This troper thinks this is 100% the case - in the same way the DAA is invented to give scope to write episodes that touch all subjects rather than one real life area (similar to DoSAC in TTOI), Yes Minister was written in the middle of a faily solid Tory Period, so to have a credible minister that the script can poke fun at left and right, it had to be from a middle ground.

* We know that the series take place in an AlternateUniverse where, instead of Margaret Thatcher, the British PM during the 1980s was the unseen PM of Jim Hacker and then Jim Hacker himself. We also know that the Conservative and Labour Parties exist and are prominent (they've been mentioned once). Finally, Hacker is clearly a complete Centrist. However during the episode in which he becomes PM, Hacker is described as the leader of the "centrist" wing of his Party. If he were a Conservative, that would make him clearly right-leaning, and if he were Labour, that would make him slightly left-leaning. In this AlternateUniverse, there existed in the 1980s a third major Party, the British Centrist Party (probably encompassing the real world Liberal Democrats and the right wing of the Labour Party as well as the left wing of the Tories). And that Centrist Party won the elections during the 1980s. Interestingly, since that "centrist, pro-EU, pro-free-market" stance is very similar to Blair's New Labour and Major and Cameron's Tory Party, it's very likely that Hacker's Centrist Party remained in power since the 1980s, throughout the 1990s and 2000s until today (possibly with Centrist PM's Major, Blair and Cameron).

** Sir Humphrey is not exactly clued up on Scotland; told he will be visiting there on government business, he describes it with horror as "remote!" to which Hacker points at the map of Britain, and directs him to look about two feet directly upwards from Potter's Bar upmarket commuter town just outside London where Sir Humphrey lives and by implication about as far outside London as he normally cares to go).

* We know that the series take place in an AlternateUniverse where, instead of Margaret Thatcher, the British PM during the 1980s was the unseen PM of Jim Hacker and then Jim Hacker himself. We also know that the Conservative and Labour Parties exist and are prominent (they've been mentioned once). Finally, Hacker is clearly a complete Centrist. However during the episode in which he becomes PM, Hacker is described as the leader of the "centrist" wing of his Party. If he were a Conservative, that would make him clearly right-leaning, and if he were Labour, that would make him clearly left-leaning. In this AlternateUniverse, there existed in the 1980s a third major Party, the British Centrist Party (probably encompassing the real world Liberal Democrats and the right wing of the Labour Party as well as the left wing of the Tories). And that Centrist Party won the elections during the 1980s. Interestingly, since that "centrist, pro-EU, pro-free-market" stance is very similar to Blair's New Labour and Major and Cameron's Tory Party, it's very likely that Hacker's Centrist Party remained in power since the 1980s, throughout the 1990s and 2000s until today (possibly with Centrist PM's Major, Blair and Cameron).

* We know that the series take place in an AlternateUniverse where, instead of Margaret Thatcher, the British PM during the 1980s was the unseen PM of Jim Hacker and then Jim Hacker himself.
We also know that the Conservative and Labour Parties exist and are prominent (they've been mentioned once).
Finally, Hacker is clearly a complete Centrist. However during the episode in which he becomes PM, Hacker is described as the leader of the "centrist" wing of his Party. If he were a Conservative, that would make him clearly right-leaning, and if he were Labour, that would make him clearly left-leaning.
In this AlternateUniverse, there existed in the 1980s a third major Party, the British Centrist Party (probably encompassing the real world Liberal Democrats and the right wing of the Labour Party as well as the left wing of the Tories). And that Centrist Party won the elections during the 1980s.
Interestingly, since that "centrist, pro-EU, pro-free-market" stance is very similar to Blair's New Labour and Major and Cameron's Tory Party, it's very likely that Hacker's Centrist Party remained in power since the 1980s, throughout the 1990s and 2000s until today (possibly with Centrist PM's Major, Blair and Cameron).

Finally, Hacker is clearly a complete Centrist. However during the episode in which he becomes PM, Hacker is described as the leader of the "centrist" wing of his Party. If he were a Conservative, that would make him clearly right-leaning and if he were Labour, that would make him clearly left-leaning.

Interestingly, since that "centrist, pro-EU, pro-free-market" stance is very similar to Blair's New Labour and Major and Cameron's Tory Party, it's very likely that Hacker's Centrist Party remained in power since the 1980s, throughout the 1990s and 2000s until today (possibly with Centrist PM's Major, Blair and Cameron).

* An added possibility is that Malcolm Tucker was Sir Humphrey's protege, though I can't quite recall the latter's opinions on Scots.

[[WMG: Sir Humphrey is a [[Series/DoctorWho Timelord]].]]

* We know that the series take place in an [[Alternate Universe]] where, instead of Margaret Thatcher, the British PM during the 1980's was the unseen PM of Jim Hacker and then Jim Hacker himself.
We also know that the Conservative and Labour Parties exist and are prominent (they've been mentionned once).

In this [[Alternate Universe]], there existed in the 1980's a third major Party, the British Centrist Party (probably encompassing the real world Lib-Dems and the right wing of the Labour as well as the left wing of the Tories). And that Centrist Party won the elections during the 1980's.
Interestingly, since that "centrist, pro-EU, pro-free-market" stance is very similar to Blair's New Labour and Major and Cameron's Tory Party, it's very likely that Hacker's Centrist Party remained in power since the 1980's, throughout the 1990's and 2000's until today (possibly with Centrist PM's Major, Blair and Cameron).

** To keep history on track.

[[WMG: Yes, Minister exists in the same world as TheThickOfIt.]]

* An added possibility is that Malcolm Tucker was Sir Humphrey's protege, though this troper can't quite recall the latter's opinions on Scots.
** Unlikely. Malcolm Tucker wasn't a civil servant, he was Director of Communications. If anything, he and Sir Humphrey would have clashed, which certainly would have been worth seeing. But this troper would be surprised if ''TheThickOfIt'' isn't the future of ''YesMinister''.

[[WMG: Sir Humphrey is a [[DoctorWho Timelord]].]]

Hey, someone had to say it.

** Unlikely. Malcolm Tucker wasn't a civil servant, he was Director of Communications. If anything, he and Sir Humphrey would have clashed, which certainly would have been worth seeing. But this troper would be surprised if ''TheThickOfIt'' isn't the future of ''YesMinister''.

** Unlikely. Malcolm Tucker wasn't a civil servant, he was Director of Communications. If anything, he and Sir Humphrey would have clashed, which certainly would have been worth seeing. But this troper would be surprised if ''TheThickOfIt'' isn't the future of ''Yes,Minister''.

* An added possibility is that Malcolm Tucker was Sir Humphrey's protege, though this troper can't quite recall the latter's opinions on Scots.

Administrative Affairs eventually gets folded into what becomes DoSAC. An aged Sir Humphrey and Malcolm Tucker teaming up on someone? Epic.

An aged Sir Humphrey and Malcolm Tucker teaming up on someone? Epic.

[[WMG:Hacker is the Muggle Prime Minister from ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince''.]]