Yes, Prime Minister - The Key

As someone who has spent all of their professional life in a political environment The Key, the fourth episode of the first series of Yes Prime Minister, represents an excellent introduction to understanding the competing tensions when governing in the United Kingdom.

For those unfamiliar with the series, the three main protagonists are Jim Hacker the Prime Minister, his Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley and the Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby.

The three characters are pivotal in ensuring that Britain is governed, yet each have different objectives and it is these differences that are most starkly drawn out in The Key.

Furthermore, The Key sees the introduction of a new character Dorothy Wainwright, the Prime Minister's political adviser. Dorothy has her own agenda which she seeks to protect and is just as important a player as Hacker, Sir Humphrey and Bernard.

The plot to The Key is basically a turf war between the civil servants and politicians over not one but two keys to power.

The first key is the theoretical key of the office occupied by Dorothy which enables her to observe the activities of political colleagues and civil servants alike. Sir Humphrey desperately wants to reclaim this room for the civil service in order to weaken Dorothy's grip on the Prime Minister.

The second key is that of the actual key to access the Prime Minister's Private Office. Sir Humphrey consistently ignores the fact his position does not necessitate that he has access to this office, and so Hacker, on the advice of Dorothy, decides to enforce procedures to stop Sir Humphrey entering the office at will.

The corner of the civil service in this turf war is fought principally by Sir Humphrey yet it is not the elected politician Hacker who is fighting the politician's corner most vehemently but the party political appointee Dorothy Wainwright.

Effectively Hacker and Woolley are caught between the two. Whereas for Sir Humphrey and Dorothy the fight is about preserving their respective positions, both Hacker and Bernard are unfulfilled in their objectives and both realise they need political and civil service support in order to achieve their aims.

Hacker is a new Prime Minister looking to implement his "grand design" yet is up against resistance from the civil service. Bernard is a high flying career civil servant who is aiming for the top yet is caught between the short term need to please his immediate master the Prime Minister as well as the more long term objective of satisfying his civil service superiors who will ultimately determine Bernard's career trajectory.

Despite being in conflict, Dorothy and Sir Humphrey are effectively two sides of the same coin. Both have reached the summit of their ambitions and therefore seek to preserve both the purity and influence of the institutions they represent, as well as their own personal position.

The episode ends very much as it begins with nothing much changing, Dorothy retains her room and Sir Humphrey gets his key back. Both positions are preserved.

However, due to Jim Hacker and Bernard's use of the political and bureaucratic skills at their disposal the events of the episode underline that power ultimately resides with the Prime Minister and his Principal Private Secretary when managing the competing tensions between politicians and civil servants.

It is these competing tensions that are fundamentally the backbone of governing in the United Kingdom.

Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure

Amongst the albums considered influential to alternative music in the 1990's, one of the most overlooked is Roxy Music's second album For Your Pleasure.

Ferry, Eno et al combine to produce one of the most exhilarating insights into debauched suburban dystopia of the 1970's.

This small town glamour aesthetic is felt strongest on In Every Dream Home a Heartache, the stand out track half way through the album.  Bryan Ferry's paean to a plastic inflatable sex doll. 

"Immortal and life size; my breath is inside you"

There is something truly compelling and sinister about Ferry's delivery in this song.  Is the doll purely an object for sexual pleasure or does it represent something far more darker?  Does Ferry's "perfect companion" with "skin like vinyl" represent a lack of fulfillment in human relationships generally?

"I blew up your body; but you blew my mind"

In Every Dream Home a Heartache also provides one of the most dramatic endings of any Roxy Music song.  A multi layered song that deals with our own personal isolation in an unforgiving universe.

For Your Pleasure is far more than a one trick pony however. Whereas the likes of Strictly Confidential, The Bogus Man and the title track are amongst Roxy Music's most experimental work, Editions of You, Grey Lagoons and Do the Strand are up there with their easily accessible output. 

"One thing we share; is an ideal of beauty"

For Your Pleasure's influence on 90's alternative music was greatest on bands that may be considered "intellectual romantics".  Bands who dreamed of escape to the big city.  Searching for a twisted glamour and decadence as depicted by the cover image of For Your Pleasure.  Pulp and Suede were the most successful, yet the impact can also be found on bands with more modest success such as Strangelove, Denim and Marion.

"The memory of your face; deep in the night; plying very strange cargo"

Ferry approaches Beauty Queen with a nonchalant swagger clearly later imitated by Brett Anderson and Jarvis Cocker.  Along with David Bowie, early period Roxy Music is one of the first truly successful attempts in British popular music to perfect an image for beautiful losers and draw people to the outsider chic. 

Songs like In Every Dream Home a Heartache would not appear out of place on 90's albums like Dog Man Star, and like that more contemporary example, For Your Pleasure signified the untimely end of a successful musical association.

In both cases, fans were left wondering what might have been.  For our pleasure, we have to console ourselves with what is left.

Welcome to Up On The Catwalk!

I am probably very late to this blogging game, however, I have just woken up to the idea that I have strong and definite opinions on various aspects of popular culture and that I want to share them with cyberspace and the world.

I understand that in order to make a successful blog you need to have a niche and I can confirm my manifesto for Up On The Catwalk is to regularly review music, television and films from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.

As my world view is from the United Kingdom most of my cultural reference points come from there, yet I hope that people will be able to use this blog to enhance their own popular culture interests, and generate debates and discussions no matter where you come from.

I hope you enjoy taking the time to visit Up On The Catwalk!

Tom