"A friend of mine in the Civil Service was promoted to Principal Scientific Officer. The following day two workmen turned up in his office, replaced his piece of carpet with a larger one, replaced his chair with a more expensive version, replaced his desk with a much larger one and as they left one told my friend "We'll drop off the hat-stand tomorrow" "
Not the scientific Civil Service I knew! I spent almost all my career on RAF stations and, whereas I reached that same exalted rank, the accommodation was basic and not "to scale". Quite simply, the Met.Office had better things to do than fight for status symbols ........ the RAF we served alongside were not office-wallahs, and make-do and mend, 'be nice to the SWO, be nice to the MTO, be nice to the carpenters' was the way we coped regarding accommodation. Too busy to notice the surroundings!