Sir Humphrey definitely is a devil. you might think him a straightforward trickster but every now and again he shows a flash of his true self

the devilish thing about Humphrey Appleby is that he's so close to correct. _most_ of what he does makes great sense. the ministers are blundering into a complicated apparatus, nitpicking at line items because it looks impressive to people who have zero understanding of how complicated a large system of government really is