Yes Minister was true!

Margaret Thatcher used to say that one of the reasons she loved Yes Minister was because how accurately it portrayed the civil service.

Now who remembers the episode called “A Victory for Democracy” (Yes PM, S1, E6) which has the Foreign Office portrayed as being totally anti Israel, voting to censure it at the UN even against the PM’s wish to abstain.

Well now read about how in real life “Foreign Office officials were so concerned about Margaret Thatcher’s pro-Israeli sympathies when she became Tory leader they wanted her to break off links with local Jewish groups”.

It gets better – “One official even suggested that she should give up her Finchley parliamentary seat in north London – with its large Jewish community – for somewhere more palatable to Arab opinion”.

Incredible. Explains so much though.