A quieter model

For decades, prime ministers’ closest aides and advisers acted noiselessly and as far away from the lights of publicity as possible. They rarely aired their views and maintained “institutional silence,” even after the end of their service. They were more effective by avoiding the kind of overexposure that has so often seduced the residents of the Maximos Mansion.

Those were different times, however, with less media temptation. Returning to that model of quiet, even anonymous, staffers may be the way forward in the inevitable reshuffle of the prime minister’s inner circle.