C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993)

Parkinson was one of the most perceptive and skillful writers about management and organizations. Thus, I jumped at the chance of rescuing this cheap old Penguin booklet from the obscurity of a used book store. Management writers and consultants often have rather shockingly conservative political views. Parkinson, however, letting his metaphorical hair down, comes from a whole other planet. Harold Wilson's electoral success in 1964 must have sent him over the edge.

This is the story of the show more Labour party as told by its enemies. If Parkinson had kept his text fair and balanced, this might have worked. He does not seek a fair assessment, however. He airbrushes out both the situation of Labour and the country and belittles its achievement in order to trumpet his grudges, two of which seem to be his main grievances. Firstly, he accuses Labour of having lost the Empire. Secondly, he faults Labour for the near extinction of Parkinson's favored party, the Liberals. One just has to look at Parkinson's own views why an alliance between the Liberals and Labour was unlikely. In foreign policy, he sees the American Civil War as a big mistake, as it crushed the planter class. Irish independence, he also finds a grave mistake, as it robs the British rentier class of income. In domestic policy, he pleads to increase the misery of the poor in order to have them strife more. In sum, a highly unsympathetic British mix between Marie-Antoinette and Barbara Bush.

The booklet is an anti-Popper pamphlet pleading for inequality and monarchy. A naval historian of bourgeois origin, he fears the classless society, the destruction of the very fabric of British society. for which he is willing to sacrifice most of his liberal positions. Fortunately, history turned out to be different both from what he feared and what he wished for. Reading this, I don't expect Parkinson to have enjoyed the 1970s much. show less

Държавната администрация и политиката по управление на държавата биват бистрени по телевизията всеки ден, но много малко се знае за вътрешния начин, по който учрежденията и правенето на политика работят.

Самите държавни учреждения са един свой си свят на бюрокрация, show more движещи се по собствени закони и не са (като примерно фирмите) ограничени от задължението да допринасят измерима полза или не. Напротив - колкото техни проекти да се провалят, те биват награждавани с още пари. Вижте за пример... всяка държавна програма.

Политиката също е, иронично, скрита от нас - какво говорят самите политици публично често никак не е свързано с това какво и как говорят помежду си. "Правенето на политика" се случва в уединени кабинети, на четири очи или на закрити срещи.

Сирил Паркинсън се е заел с голяма доза хумор и ирония да хвърли малко светлина върху това как работят държавните институции и политиката отвътре. На два пъти му се е получило.

Книгата се състои от няколко есета, всяко на различна тема. От тях най-известно е първото, относно как и защо държавната администрация постоянно се увеличава на брой, даже работата й да намалява. То е и най-истинско и забавно. Другото есе, заслужаващо внимание е за работата на комисиите: смешно-тъжната реалност на "колективното" вземане на решения във всякакви комитети, комисии, бордове. show less

Mostly humourless (unlike some of his other efforts), though Parkinson makes some interesting observations regarding the development of socialist thought (yes, there is such a thing) in England. Parkinson takes the view that socialism, as an ideal, was mostly dry by the 1930s, and that little development had occurred since then to the point of writing (the late 1960s). Some of Parkinson's comments on industrial unions are by now obsolete, though less so with civil service unions. There's a show more quite interesting analysis of the co-operative movement as well. I don't think a book this hostile to socialism would be published by a mainline publisher today. show less

This is the fifth in Parkinson's Richard Delancey series, taking up the story directly where Touch and go stops. We follow Delancey through an on-shore interlude during the Peace of Amiens, followed by service with the Channel Fleet once hostilities resume. The author finally allows him to fall in love, but we also have a bit of yachting on Windermere and an encounter with the pioneer steam tug Charlotte Dundas on the Forth-Clyde canal.

For my money, this is a rather weaker book than Touch show more and go -- the story is a series of largely unrelated incidents, there's rather too much reliance on improbable espionage and secret weapons, not enough straightforward naval material. The love interest is very perfunctorily handled, and Delancey's Fiona never seems to emerge as a character in her own right in the way that Aubrey's Sophie and Hornblower's Lady Barbara do.

What Parkinson doesn't seem to have understood is that Forester could get away with the "behind French lines" stuff because his readers all knew he meant "Hitler" when he said "Napoleon"; O'Brien gets away with it because he is good at it, and has taken the trouble to establish in Maturin a character whose background goes well with intelligence work. Parkinson just seems to chuck it in for no obvious reason, other than that he can't think what to do with Delancey as a frigate captain. show less