Yes Minister
As the Home Secretary - Theresa May - and a former Whitehall mandarin - Brodie Clark - battle over who knew what and when - and who said what to whom.
But the whole affair descended yesterday into a 'Yes Minister' farce - with the use of precise but at the same time wonderfully opaque language - so beloved of senior civil servants.
Apparently, the relation of border controls has been going on for years - even under the last Labour government.
So the civil service just assumes - when it suits them of course - that things continue as 'normal' unless the new government or a new minister - says otherwise.
But since knowledge is power in these situations - the politicians actually need to know what's going on - before they can give or withhold their approval for a particular course of action.
In this case the former top civil servant - Brodie Clark - seems to have cooked his own goose.
By admitting in a BBC interview that he was "surprised" that ministers were unaware biometric fingerprint passport checks had been relaxed at Heathrow - and that he should have checked "more thoroughly" what Theresa May knew at the time.
So on one reading of the situation - the civil servant has been 'economical' with the truth.
While at the same time not misleading anyone - at least in terms of providing misinformation - or telling an outright lie.
Which sounds like a scene straight out of Yes Minister.
Where Sir Humphrey runs rings around the hapless politicians - through the use of clever mental gymnastics - and civil service double-speak.
