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Comment by appstateguy | Hacker News Reader

Yes, but remember cabinet members are called secretaries — it's right in their titles (e.g., Secretary of State). The President's Chief of Staff has enormous power.

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Sir Humphrey: Well briefly, sir, I am the Permanent Under Secretary of State, known as the Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your Principal Private Secretary. I too have a Principal Private Secretary and he is the Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary. Directly responsible to me are ten Deputy Secretaries, 87 Under Secretaries and 219 Assistant Secretaries. Directly responsible to the Principal Private Secretaries are plain Private Secretaries, and the Prime Minister will be appointing two Parliamentary Under-Secretaries and you will be appointing your own Parliamentary Private Secretary.

Hacker: Can they all type?

Sir Humphrey: None of us can type. Mrs Mackay types: she's the secretary.

(Yes, it's a comedy show, but the titles are correct)

Yes Minister was a comedy show like HBO's Silicon Valley is a comedy show -- a farcical quasi-documentary

Yes, Minister was fed leaks from British government that became plotlines.

My favorite is the episode about the Channel Tunnel, in which the French security services plant a bomb to test the British security and gain a diplomatic gain. I thought that was completely ridiculous, just good idea for finishing up a good plot.

Thirty years after, when the official papers of the time were released, what do we discover..?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/03/french-bomb-...

The President's cabinet are all heads of departments in the Executive branch. They are advisors and implement policy. The word Secretary in a "Secretary of ___" cabinet title is not at all the same as an "office secretary" where duties might include scheduling, answering phones and ordering office supplies. Not even close.

By contrast he Chief of Staff in the White House is a cabinet-level "Official" and it's not even a requirement that the President have one. That should be an indication:

>"The duties of the White House chief of staff vary greatly from one administration to another and, in fact, there is no legal requirement that the president even fill the position. However, since at least 1979, all presidents have found the need for a chief of staff, who typically oversees the actions of the White House staff, manages the president's schedule, and decides who is allowed to meet with the president."[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Chief_of_Staff

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