Chapter 217 04.0216: "The 40K version of "Yes, Minister" has started filming! "

"As you can see, some people have already started to slander us. These are the sample newspapers that I just led a team to seize from the illegal printing house that was closed down. Once these newspapers are circulated in the market, the consequences will be disastrous.

And I can’t guarantee that only the illegal printing house we seized was printing these contents.”

Horatio subtly hints that 'what goes around comes around.'

Sir Humphrey held his breath, took out a handkerchief from his bosom, and kept wiping the sweat from his forehead in a decent manner.

"Your Excellency," he called.

"W-what happened?" The frightened Minister Hank straightened his collar and tried to look calm, but he stuttered with chattering teeth even when he uttered just a few words.

"In my opinion, we are in great trouble now."

"I knew that the job the interior minister gave us would not be a good one. After all, I was once his opponent. But now it is more than a bad job."

"It's about losing your head," Bernard added cautiously.

"The motto of this interior minister is 'if we lose, we hold grudges; if we win, we take revenge.' In short, we are done."

Sir Humphrey was surprisingly calm at this time. He looked at the minister with a look that said, "It's up to you, Minister. You can't escape this anyway."

"If we fail this time, the Ministry of Administrative Affairs will be abolished in terms of administrative establishment.

As the direct person in charge, even if we just help to maintain order, we may lose our heads. The best result is to be demoted to a first-level clerk and sent to some management office, receiving a bland basic nutritional paste, and then facing a mountain of books and reprinting them by hand all year round, spending the rest of your life meaninglessly. "

The minister stretched his stiff neck and sighed uneasily.

"It is more likely to be transformed into a copying servitor, Your Excellency."

Bernard reminded professionally: "We may copy for hundreds of years, or even a thousand years. It all depends on when we become obsolete."

"Oh, come on, Bernard, this is awful."

"This is the situation now, gentlemen leaders," Horatio said.

"I think we are now... in the same boat. Isn't that right, dear minister, sir?" Horatio asked politely.

He had apparently eavesdropped on the conversation inside from outside the door and had a rough idea of ​​what had happened inside before he arrived.

"I think, maybe?" Sir Humphrey used a simple and short sentence, which was rare, and turned his inquiring eyes to Minister Hank.

Maybe he had come up with some clever idea to protect himself.

"Of course! Of course we are a whole." Hank glanced at Bernard.

Bernard understood the minister's meaning in a brief glance, and began with his signature hypothetical plan:
“Normally, a department’s permanent secretary only has advisory power.

Suppose, I am just making an assumption, suppose that this department is about to be disbanded, all people have to go through a unified planned personnel change to fill the grassroots vacancies that are bound to exist in other departments, from management positions to professional and technical positions, starting as first-class clerks.

In this situation, from my humble perspective, it is time to make big and bold decisions, which require going beyond common sense, empowering us with pioneering and innovative ideas, and inspiring us to do things beyond the conventional regulations." He bit the word "beyond" lightly, hinting at several people, especially the permanent secretary Sir Humphrey.

Bernard had worked with them for so long that he knew that any word that smacked of 'innovation' was a spark that would ignite a powder keg for Sir Humphrey, a senior conservative.

Sir Humphrey took a deep breath and gave Bernard a sullen look.

Bernard nodded slightly, touched his nose, bowed slightly to him, and stepped back behind the crowd.

"So, the situation we face is very clear, Humphrey. If we do it well, the Department of Administrative Affairs and ourselves will be safe, and we may even get a reward or a medal. Well, maybe it can be the Grand Imperial Sky Eagle Medal that you have been dreaming of. But if we don't do it well, everyone will definitely suffer together."

After so many years of fighting, wrangling and compromising with Humphrey, Minister Jim Hank knew too well what this capable Deputy Secretary liked and feared.

"I think the current situation may be just as you said." Humphrey maintained a stiff smile and bowed slightly. "When all of us are going to be in trouble, regardless of whether we have fulfilled our duties, the superiors only look at the results, not the process. So, just tell me what you have planned." Jim Hank shrugged, like a man sharpening his spear before a decisive battle.

He seized the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and secretly stabbed Sir Humphrey in the heart.

Sir Humphrey sighed sadly, then held his big notebook under his arm, with a helpless expression on his face, and said: "Well, first of all, we need to make a public relations emergency plan to buy time for us to design a formal public relations plan.

Therefore, I suggest that the Minister propose to his colleagues in the Ministry of Propaganda to intensify the propaganda offensive. As long as we take the initiative, we will be at the commanding heights of guiding public opinion, and we can guide public opinion to a place that is beneficial to us, just like guiding the water of a river.

Of course, we can provide the manuscripts, and the Truth Propaganda Department only needs to serve as the mouthpiece for recitation and reading.

Secondly, these emergency articles must look realistic, so we have to make the "stories" more realistic, at least more credible and eye-catching than those in the newspapers, so that the public will be willing to believe that our "stories" are more reliable.

Then, we must confine these contents within a framework, that is, the content of the story we write can only include the parts that we want to and can reveal to the outside world.

Most of the civilians are interested in official anecdotes, but we only need to add a lot of insignificant details about the internal government procedures, and they will find our "stories" more professional and credible.

In this way, we will not reveal too much truly critical information, and we will take the initiative to avoid the important issues in the narrative. In addition, we will cooperate with Mr. Horatio's official action propaganda to crack down on illegal newspapers, and appropriately disclose the absurd and decadent life of illegal businessmen. This means that we will lead public opinion by the nose and will not let them manipulate us. "

"Uh... put it simply." Minister Hank tried hard to accept it but was still confused. He blinked hard, frowned and thought, looking very painful.

"What I mean is, we should write more 'interesting but useless' nonsense stories and release them to the public to dampen their curiosity and desire to explore the internal affairs of the planet and divert their attention. In addition, we also need to..."

Sir Humphrey rattled off a long list of extremely professional countermeasures in one breath, which included the old-timer's in-depth understanding and grasp of the working styles of bureaucrats in various departments, the unspoken rules of collusion between officials and businessmen, the logic of guiding public opinion, and the psychology of the urban middle class.

"Well, it sounds like we are a studio that compiles officialdom novels, but I think what you say makes sense. Who else can write more realistically than us?" Minister Hank clapped his hands, looking like he thought he understood everything.

The minister's eyes suddenly rolled up, and some instinct suddenly took over, and he proposed an idea that he had come up with on a whim: "Then why don't we make a humorous political comedy? Let the people of the planet have something fun to watch every day, and their attention will naturally be diverted."

"Oh... I am amazed at your amazing wisdom, Minister." Sir Humphrey was choked by the minister's sudden inspiration and praised him stiffly.

"I think the minister's proposal seems, uh, really feasible. Just a few of us and an office can make the film." Bernard popped his head out from behind the crowd again, shrugged, and naturally interrupted the conversation to express his affirmation of the feasibility of the minister's proposal.

"No problem, Bernard, I'll leave this suggestion to you.

You can pick out some of the more entertaining content that we have worked with for so long and compile it into a script. We will start filming soon, so that the people can sit at home and watch the show peacefully, and don't cause trouble for us. But... what is the name of this show?" The enthusiastic Minister Hank fell into deep thought.

"I thought it might as well be called Yes, Minister."

The conversation between the three people made Horatio laugh so hard that he couldn't help but interject.

Political drama itself is part of politics and governance.

As a time traveler, he knew that when this classic drama was released, the streets of Britain were deserted and people were all at home watching the drama.

The number of marches, demonstrations and protests against the Thatcher government on the streets of Britain suddenly decreased by a staggering 80%!

After diverting attention, it greatly helped the British government divert people's attention from social contradictions such as the Falklands War, the Cold War Iron Curtain, and the Northern Ireland independence movement at that time.

Therefore, making a political comedy to divert the attention of the people of Abyss Port and pull their attention away from this incident and focus on other things might really be useful.

After all, those rumor newspapers have good sales because they satisfy people's curiosity about mysterious political affairs that used to be high-handed and like castles in the air, and they provide emotional value.

If the Ministry of the Interior collaborates with a film studio to produce a humorous political comedy and broadcasts it to the entire planet for free, who would spend money on those rumor-mongering newspapers that only provide entertainment?
"Oh, perfect, Mr. Horatio, that's a perfect suggestion! What a fitting name for an office comedy!"

Minister Hank applauded and praised highly.

Bernard smiled and continued to refine the idea into a feasible outline for the minister.

Sir Humphrey was left awkwardly twirling his heels in place, as if he was trying to dig a hole in the ground so he could hide away from the camera.

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(End of this chapter)