Nothing new
Just in case one was to think the slightly heated atmosphere in the higher circles of government which the Hutton Inquirty has exposed, compares badly with the calm reassurance of the permanent civil service in earlier times, here is a classic of advice during the Suez Crisis."The tenor of debate at the time is illustrated by the attitude of Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, Permanent Under-Secretary at the FO and thus supposedly a source of calm and expert advice. Kirkpatrick told one doubter that 'the PM was the only man in England who wanted the nation to survive; that all the rest of us have lost the will to live; that in two years' time Nasser will have deprived us of our oil, the sterling area fallen apart, no European defence possible, unemployment and unrest in the UK and our standard of living reduced to that of the Yugoslavians or Egyptians.'"
posted by Matthew @ 8/29/2003 12:25:00 PM
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