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One of the oldest examples of a civil service is the Chinese bureaucracy which during the Tang dynasty relied decreasingly on aristocratic recommendations and more and more upon promotion based on written examinations. The Chinese civil service became known to Europe in the mid-18th century and it is believed to have influenced the creation of civil services in Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_service
Dora Jackson celebrated 77 years in the Public & Commercial Services Union in 2002. At the age of 101 she was probably the union’s longest serving member. Dora successfully passed all the civil service exams and in 1919, at the age of 18, was taken on as a permanent clerk. A strong supporter of the suffragette movement, Dora remained a political activist, feminist and social reformer all her life.
Public & Commercial Services Union
Yes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister were British sitcoms transmitted by the BBC between 1980 and 1988 and set in the private office of a government Minister. The program famously caricatured the archetypal British civil servant. Yes, Minister came sixth in a 2004 BBC poll to find 'Britain's Best Sitcom'. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister were jointly placed 9th.
Source: Wikipedia
The British civil service was at its largest in 1976 with approximately three-quarters of a million servants employed. By April 1999 this number had fallen to a record low of 459,600 due to privatization, outsourcing and cutbacks. The number has again risen somewhat since then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_service
Service: in economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. Service provision has been defined as an economic activity that does not result in ownership, and this is what differentiates it from providing physical goods. It is claimed to be a process that creates benefits by facilitating either a change in customers, a change in their physical possessions, or a change in their intangible assets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Services
Career Opportunities by The Clash
See lyrics
Civil Servant, civil service and public service are all listed as .
Source: Oxymoron List
The National Health Service is an of Have anaesthetic...rot in hell
Source: Anagram Genius
The following sentences are all :
Working for the IRS is a hard job because it is so taxing.
Old postal workers never die, they just visit the old stamping grounds.
A postal worker was always stamping her feet whenever they would letter.
Source: http://punoftheday.com/
The Naked Civil Servant, (1968) Quentin Crisp, 222 pages, HarperCollins, ISBN 0006540449. Quentin Crisp's witty and wise account of the first half of his life.
The book was made into a British television drama, 90 minutes long and produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It was originally transmitted on December 17, 1975. John Hurt stars as Quentin Crisp. It was directed by Jack Gold, written by Philip Mackie and produced by Verity Lambert. The production was placed fourth in a poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute to find the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century.
Source: Wikipedia
The man who will follow precedent, but never create one, is merely an obvious example of the routineer. You find him desperately numerous in the civil service, in the official bureaus. To him government is something given as unconditionally. (Walter Lippmann)
If I have done the public any service, it is due to patient thought. (Isaac Newton)
He who is hungry is never a good civil servant. (Chinese)
There are three kinds of person that you must not challenge: civil servants, customers and widows. (Chinese)
Who serves the public, serves no one. (Italian Proverb)
Who serves the public serves a fickle master. (Dutch Proverb)
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