Old British journalism warhorse Bill Deedes, heading for his 94th birthday, can still do the business. Here he is writing about government secrecy, as it used to be done:

“My sister Hermione Phipps, who died this week, had spent all her professional life, including the war years, in MI5, tactfully described in the family circle as ‘the Foreign Office’. I have no idea what she did, for, in a long and happy association, we never discussed her work. There was a day in the 1950s when I was a junior minister in the Home Office, and we were called on to decide whether or not to admit a certain individual to this country. I was advised to consult MI5. The voice that responded to our telephone call was my sister’s. We never subsequently talked about even this minor coincidence. She belonged to an age in which the confidential business of the state remained confidential.”