The Complete Yes Prime Minister

Editors Note

Hackers unexpected elevation to the Premiership, which occurs at the end of the first chapter of this volume, created almost as many problems for his editors as it did for Britain. He was determined that his diaries should portray his period in office as a series of triumphs, even though the task would have defeated a far more skilful diarist. History dealt somewhat roughly with Hacker as Prime Minister; but readers of his full diaries will see some justice in this, since Hacker as an author dealt even more roughly with history. It may be that the office of Prime Minister encouraged him -- as in others -- a progressive separation from reality, and a breaking down of the barrier between fact and imagination as he dictated, alone with his customary glass of Scotch and his cassette recorder, a version of the days events in which he relived his successes and reinterpreted his failures.

Grateful though we are for the honour of editing and transcribing these extensive tape recordings, we were astonished to discover that, at times, Hacker seems to have decorated and rearranged past events in order to present himself in a favourable light. Indeed, surprising though it may be to a modern reader, he seems positively confident that this goal can be achieved. We cannot believe that any politician would rearrange past events deliberately in order to distort the historical record, and so we have had to assume that Hacker had some strange defect of mind that frequently led him to ask not What did I do? but What is the most impressive explanation of my actions that cannot be disproved by published facts?

The reader of political memoirs will know that most politicians memoirs are models of fairness and accuracy, suffused with generosity of spirit, making no attempts to justify past errors. Politicians generally write of their colleagues with a warmth and admiration which is only equalled by their modest deprecation of their own contribution to government. They seldom try to pretend or suggest that every measure they proposed turned out to be successful, nor do they claim to have warned against every decision that led to disaster. Politicians are a noble breed of men, who by their dedication and selfless public service have made Britain what she is today.

Indeed, the sad task of the editors of most political memoirs is to compel the politicians, who have the deepest reluctance to comply with this demand, to inject sufficient controversy, distortion and malice into their books for the publisher to have a chance of selling the serial rights to the Sunday Times.

Why was Hacker different? Perhaps the most likely explanation is that elevation to high office actually made him come to see language in a different way. Politicians are simple, direct people. They are accustomed to saying what they mean in a straightforward manner. But prolonged exposure to the Civil Service, as personified by Sir Humphrey Appleby, may have led Hacker to see language not as a window into the mind but as a curtain to draw across it.

Hacker devoted a great deal of time to talking into his cassette recorder. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that he had a sort of love affair with it. Finally it was the only thing in the world that was willing to listen to him uncritically. And not only would it listen -- it would repeat his own ideas and thoughts to him, a quality that Prime Ministers find very reassuring.

Hackers recollections would thus be a very imperfect record of his period at Number Ten Downing Street were it not for the other documentation which has so generously been made available to us. Once again we have made copious use of the voluminous Appleby Papers, which contain Sir Humphreys private diaries, letters and memoranda, and we would like to express our gratitude to his widow, his trustees, his executors, and the Public Record Office which has generously released all possible documents under the Thirty Year rule. We are especially grateful also to Sir Bernard Woolley GCB, formerly Hackers Principal Private Secretary at Number Ten Downing Street and eventually Head of the Home Civil Service, who has again given us his own recollections and checked this volume for historical accuracy, a thankless task indeed. The responsibility for all errors, whether of omission or commission, remains entirely our own.

Hacker College, OxfordMay, 2024 AD

Jonathan Lynn

Antony Jay