In truth I was delighted. But Harold Wilson, offended by a speech in which I had attacked the public schools, exiled me to the Foreign Office to do penance as minister of state. I was wrong. Joining the privy council did, however, improve my formal status. And that is the privy council's principal purpose.
Membership is a medal.
Old politicians wear the distinction as if it were part campaign ribbon and part wound stripe. Harold Wilson once assured Richard Nixon that, because he was addressing ministers who had taken the privy council oath, he could speak freely about nuclear strategy. No doubt the secrets of the Pentagon remained secure. Quoting those words from the privy council's oath is certainly an offence and possibly treason. I can, however, reveal that, during the rehearsal which preceded the main event, the secretary to the council felt it necessary to explain why he was anxious about what was to follow.