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Considering that Hacker ends up winning by the end of the episode, does that mean he was responsible for the first British victory over the French since 1815?

'Only fools and Horses' is pretty funny as well (but yes, no 'political' nonsense).

Toast?

Fuck*ng over the British ! It's a joke. We love you rosebeefs.

It may as well have been written last week.

It's hard to imagine President Brandon speaking this eloquently...

Hacker "the French are our trusted allies". Sir Humphrey "the French are our mistrusted allies"

Pretty sure all the episodes were about them working together to defeat the French.

you mean Anglo-Franco ... I'd bet they had a difference on that too :P

But then would you bring them to France or the UK for judging? Knowing the UK negotiators that point alone would take years.....

@@peterhuys2413The country they committed the crime in.

Before Brexit there was a French custom post on the British side (which you basically strolled through) and nothing on the French side (off the train and go on your merry way) while the British custom post on the French side grilled you to within an inch of your life and then there was another British customs post on the British side that did the same. So it was the British that were obsessed with frontier authority rather than the French who barely cared. I don't know how it works now post Brexit. When I lived in Italy you could buy a ticket from a machine at Termini and go virtually any where in Europe on a whim. The only people that seemed to care about borders are us and the Swiss.

Except he gave it to Frost not to the lawyers

"Humility", aka indecisiveness and "argh give them the lot"... no thanks we had a PM like that... weakest and wobbliest besom ever -_- .

No this is why you don't give decisions like leaving the EU to the general population, because they really don't have a clue about things like how difficult it will be and what the effects will be. The pro Brexit politicians were basically the pm here, but noone listened to Humphrey.

@@mavsworld1733 I don't think they are mutually exclusive. It really does take a special kind of talent (Boris Johnson) to make the worst of a bad situation (Brexit).

@@jm15xy Definitely, I think that Boris can screw up even the best of ideas.

French railways are rule of the left,so no problem.

As long as there are no two trains using the same track, coming from opposing directions, there´s no problem. That´s for traffic control to sort out.

not only that but he was trying to help jim instead of manipulating him.

This program is a bit misleading it portrays Jim as the protagonist despite being a spineless politician with no real firm opinions or real convictions while pretending to be Churchill the exact opposite. On the other side Humphrey is seen as the bad or the antagonist the civil service foot dragging quasi corrupt burocrat. This crates the illusion to an impressionable suffice that all politicians are by and large good people would be able to get along to do the right thing if the civil service was not in the way. When the reality is politicians do more harm than good and sometimes it’s up to the burocrats to pick up the pieces of their ministers cockups and keep everything running despite being obnoxious self serving inefficient foot dragging unelected unaccountable buerocrats.

@@internetpleb4854 interestingly, the few times jim actually wins it's a bad thing he achieved.

Not really. None of these things are insurmountable issues. I'm guessing he has an ulterior motive.

@@blazypika2 I find that very hard to believe.

What leo said. Plus, giving an international organization jurisdiction would have wide-ranging consequences, e.g. the EU would have to establish criminal tribunals to prosecute those who committ crimes abroad. This would, even today, be outside the scope of the Union's competences. (Not to mention that giving the EU jurisdiction would have been no less controversial than e.g. giving France full jurisdiction. Ref #Brexit)

@@StianOby Isnt the EU one of the guarantee parties for the Good Friday Agreement ?

Plus the EU wasn't what it is today and didn't have sovereignty in any meaningful sense and no set legal jurisdiction, until of course the later treaties in the 90s and 2000s

The EU has no Civil Law and no police. Law enforcing isn't one of their competences (appart from very specific cases).

That depends: do you want a neutral party in charge or the EU?

Show was ahead of its time

Or sign a contract for a tunnel to be built and designed in 5 years at 3 billion then have the French come back 3 years later and say it’s going to take 30 years and 10 billion; oh and we haven’t designed anything yet or started the building, but it’s the same contract and you just have to put up with it .

The writing on this show was and still is all of the above.

Never forget "novel" and "imaginative" for working papers

I love that exchange about conscription Hacker has with Bernard: "Er, isn't conscription a rather courageous policy, minister?" [terrified] "is it?"

I'm getting a lot of Jeeves from Humprey's stealth-insults

"Courageous would lose an election" lol

What about football and the LSE

Humphrey had experience with Jim's handling things himself when both were at the DAA. To his credit, it was usually Humphrey who had to step in and sort things out because Jim's ideas were often ill-conceived and ill-considered. To his debit, Humphrey is generally opposed to change. Sometimes, however, Humphrey doesn't necessarily oppose change but wants to see it implemented in a careful and method manner. After all, he's been in government service long enough to see the same policies proposed, adopted, and implemented, only to see them repealed when they fall out of favor.

‘Stimulating Approach’ - thats almost a ‘courageous decision, Minister’

@@Mnogojazyk True...yet the VERY best episodes (IMO) are when they team up to confront an "external" threat... those are gold. To stray into the real world for a moment.. the wonderful book "Eggs or Anarchy" about the Minister of Food in WW2 Britain (and his Ministry of course) reminded me immediately of those episodes. (He started somewhat at odds with his PPS... but by the time he moved on to other responsibilities their relationship was not just strong..but very warm as well...)

The French hate German generals

The reality is that french (language) has and was always going to fade behind English as the international language of trade and diplomacy due to America’s status as “leader of the free world”

@@ilcorvo9559 Part of the reason the French are so bitter.