TV Quote of the Day (‘Yes, Minister,’ on Balancing Public and Private Interests)

[To save a financially troubled soccer club, James Hacker floats the idea of selling an unpopular local art gallery, the Corn Exchange Art Gallery, to private interests.]

Sir Humphrey Appleby [played by Nigel Hawthorne, facing camera]: “Now minister, I do hope that you've considered the implications of your new appointment on the subject you're discussing?”

James Hacker [played by Paul Eddington, shown from behind]: “Rescuing a football club?”

Sir Humphrey: “No, I was wondering how it would look if, as cabinet minister responsible for the arts, your first action would be to knock down an art gallery?” —Yes, Minister, Season 3, Episode 7, “The Middle-Class Rip-Off,” original air date Dec. 23, 1982, teleplay by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, directed by Peter Whitmore

More than 40 years ago, British TV audiences would have howled at the massive irony of the “first action” in the above quote. “Impossible!” they would have scoffed.

Today, across the ocean, more than a few Americans are wincing at a President who, without so much as a by-your-leave, has knocked down an entire wing of the White House. That even puts in the pale the same President’s appointment of himself to chair the board of the Kennedy Center.