Antony Jay Quotes
The fact that you needed to know was not known at the time that the now known need to know, was known. Therefore, those that needed to advise and inform the Home Secretary perhaps felt the information he needed as to whether to inform the highest authority of the known information was not yet known and therefore there was no authority for the authority to be informed because the need to know was not, at that time, known or needed.
This comedic example of bureaucratic double talk actually has a parallel in reality. See the Secretary of Defense on one of his tour de force statements: see linked quote(s).
Jonathan Lynn, English Political Satirist & Scriptwriter, Antony Jay, English Political Satirist & Scriptwriter, BBC TV Yes Minister, ~1982
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Although most listeners had to spend some time parsing this famous quote, it actually was not a new notion. See Copernicus in linked quotes.
In 1875 Benjamin Disraeli had an opportunity to purchase the Suez Canal for Great Britain from the Khedive of Egypt who was in great need of cash. However, Disraeli had to act very fast and there was no way to quickly move an appropriation of the then very large sum of 4 million pounds through Parliament. So he sent Corry to ask Lionel Rothchild, the British financier, for a loan until the government might raise the money. Rothchild asked, what would be the security for such a large loan. Rothchild immediately gave the loan.
1st Marquees of Halifax. This is a very important quotation because it still has much validity today. The “Prince” is the Monarch, King or Official Heading the State. Savile points out that if the Price does not take the time or make the effort to understand an issue and its complexity, he then must trust his advisors and their opinions rather than have any intelligent and knowledgeable views of his own. In modern times the advice applies to elected officials, executive and legislative. If they do not take time and make the effort to understand a complex issue, they cannot use their own judgment but must accept the judgment of staff, friends, colleagues, party leaders, lobbyists or members of committees who they hope are not also ignorant. In modern legislatures, there are so many different issues in so many areas, that it is very difficult to have the time to make the effort to study all the issues. This problem is compounded with politicians as they tend to spend large amounts of their time fundraising for their next election and simply do not have enough time to study issues. In the Congress for example, most members vote on bills that they have not even read and they end up trusting someone else’s judgment.
The Labor Department never would commit to a recommendation. The Job Corps leadership examined the insufficient data and made their best guess which for the most part turned out to be right as the Job Corps was the most effective youth job training program in the history of the country. It and Head Start were the only two of the anti-poverty programs that were still operational into the 21st century. Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand expressed the same idea more generally in {482001}.
- Born: April 20, 1930
- Died: August 21, 2016
- Nationality: British
- Profession: Writer, Broadcaster, Director
Sir Antony Rupert Jay, CVO was an English writer, broadcaster, and director. With Jonathan Lynn, he co-wrote the British political comedies Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (1980–88). He also wrote The Householder's Guide to Community Defence Against Bureaucratic Aggression (1972).
