Sir Humphrey Appleby is meeting with his subordinate Sir Frank Gordon, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury. Sir Frank is worried about Jim Hacker’s proposal to use some of the savings from his “Grand Design” for a £1.5 billion tax cut. They both agree that the whole system of government depends on them controlling the Prime Minister and the Chancellor respectively, and ensuring a degree of mistrust between them. Sir Frank points out that the notion of a tax cut is the one thing that unites the politicians and he had great difficulty getting the Chancellor to eventually oppose it. Sir Humphrey advises that low productivity within the economy could be seen to be more important. However, according to Sir Frank it is the fault of the British worker for being “fundamentally lazy". Sir Humphrey then dashes off to catch up with an England cricket match.

A drunken Sir Humphrey relaxes in his box at the cricket match, courtesy of the British Tobacco Group. He chats to Gerald, one of BTG’s directors, and asks a favour on behalf of the Royal Opera House, which needs more funds. Gerald is happy to oblige and mentions that he happens to be meeting the Minister for Sport later that afternoon. Sir Humphrey asks if Dr Peter Thorn, the Minister for Health, will be attending, but Gerald tells him that he has refused, apparently because he has sided with the anti-smoking lobby.

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Wikipedia