Talk:Rick Yates

Foreign Secretary

Making a note of this here since it might be worth mentioning in the article's BtS section. Since Yates' position was never actually clarified in Children of Earth itself, it seems mistaken assumptions or headcanon were used to fill in the blanks around the time this article was created:

• When this article was first created in 2009, Yates was referred to as Home Secretary.
• A few hours later, this was changed to Chancellor of the Exchequer.
• Just over a month later, this was changed to Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, the former of which has remained in the article.

Now, while Yates is never actually referred to as Foreign Secretary in CoE (he's always consistently referred to as an adviser or spin doctor in BtS interviews and the released script), he is referred to as such in The Men Who Sold the World, which was released two years after the Foreign Secretary claim was first added to the article. This might be considered a case of citogenesis, but unlike similar cases discussed at Talk:Geocomtex, Yates being Foreign Secretary in TMWStW doesn't actually contradict anything. It is a different story that takes place two years after CoE. However, there is still a possibility that this wiki influenced the decision to specifically name Yates as Foreign Secretary in the novel. BlueSupergiant ☎ 15:08, 3 September 2024 (UTC)