The Complete Yes Prime Minister

That egotistical near-twit, the Right Hon. James Hacker, once Her Majesty's Minister of Administrative Affairs, has become, of all things, Prime Minister. He's been P.M., at least, on the popular BBC series and now repeats his performance in this new spinoff. A sequel to last year's Complete Yes Minister, this is a full and witty record of a party hack's tenure at Number Ten, and in many ways it's more entertaining than the shows now playing on PBS (marred by execrable English laugh-tracks). It's as if C.P. Snow had written Monty Python scripts. Much of the satire, often sarcastic and ironic, is transported without too much difficulty across the Atlantic, where a political whitewash is as possible in the White House as it is in Whitehall. We are presented with government by personal popularity poll, one in which the task of the Foreign Office is to protect other nations from its own countrymen, where security means to keep it secret from our enemy that we can't keep secrets, and where the job of the Ministry of Defence is to make the people believe that they are defendable while, of course, any potential enemy knows better. It's all bunkum and cant, according to editors Lynn and Jay. As they tell us, if the Lord had intended politicans to think, he would have given them brains. Throughout, there's the eternal battle between the elected leaders (who talk in cliches till the cows come home ) and the permanent Civil Service (who, behaving like arrogant masters, believe it is essential to keep politics out of government ). Despite national trials, Downing Street intrigues, and endemic ineptitude, the P.M. and Britain muddle through, thanks to plot devices that include a lot of plain good luck. Like Machiavelli's The Prince this may not be a laugh riot, but there are lots of sly comments on the art of governance. If British humor is an acquired taste, this sardonic volume is worth the acquisition. (Kirkus Reviews)