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Reader question: Please explain “inner circle”, as in this sentence: Only the inner circle has the leader’s ear that things start going wrong. My comments: In other words, only the inner circle heard the bad news from “the leader” in a relatively timely fashion, the inner circle being the leader’s closest friends, most ardent political allies and staunchest supporters. Politics being politics, all of these people may betray him but before they do, they remain the leader’s closest friends, ardent political allies and staunchest supporters. Hence, his inner circle. If you are a political leader surrounded by throngs and throngs of your supporters in a public square, for instance, the ring of people closest to you is the innermost circle, including bodyguards and other flunkies or hangers-on. Inner, you see, means further in, more in than in – Inner city, for instance, the area that is immediately close to the city center. Inner, as opposite to outer, which means further out, outer space, e.g. Inner, in short, suggests closeness, confidence and intimacy. Hence your inner circle of friends are your most trusted friends, whom you’ll invite to your home for dinner, for instance, or whom you confide in. This is obviously a privileged and exclusive group. Exclusive to outsiders, that is. If only the inner circle of guests is invited to a closed door meeting, for example, that suggests a greater majority of other guests don’t get to get in. They are left out in the cold. Or at least that’s what it sometimes feels to be left out of the inner circle. | 
