This Just In—John Profumo Dies at 91

by Liberty and Power

British readers of a certain age, and maybe a few American readers as well, will remember the Profumo Affair, the sex-and-spy scandal that rocked Britain in 1963 and contributed to the Conservative defeat in October 1964.

Go here and here to read accounts of the scandal and John Profumo’s life. Like many poor souls, he was once a politician. However, from all accounts, he conducted himself with dignity in his resignation and subsequent life.

UPDATE: David Kynaston's obituary in the Financial Times is well worth reading.

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Andrew D. Todd - 3/11/2006

Another good book is:

Rebecca West, _The New Meaning of Treason_, 1964

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670507474/qid=1142033967/sr=1-17/ref=sr_1_17/104-4036115-4576736?s=books&;v=glance&n=283155

which has a chapter on Profumo. West's argument is that the Soviets sought to concoct a sex scandal in order to discredit the British government with the rather puritanical Americans.

I think it is useful to locate the Profumo scandal in terms of the politics of social class.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the mass political base of the British Conservative Party was the working man who objected to being bossed around by do-gooders. The late nineteenth century English Left had a strong affinity with Americans such as Jane Addams, Elizabeth Caddy Stanton, Carrie Nation, and Booker T. Washington. It was evangelical when it was not Marxist. This Left found expression in organizations such as Toynbee Hall, the Salvation Army, and the Barnardo Homes. The Barnardo Homes, in particular, were notorious for practically kidnapping children they considered to be neglected or abused, and shipping them off to Canada or Australia. The Left's message to the working man was that he must not drink. Especially, he must not get drunk. He must go to night school and learn to both read and write, and learn a skilled trade besides. This appealed to the rising middle class, as one would expect. The result was that the local barkeeper, or "publican," was also usually the local Conservative organizer. George Bernard Shaw's _Major Barbara_ brings this out, both in the original play, and in the film, made in 1941.

The English Left had its major sex scandals in the 1880's. Two examples would be Dilke and Parnell, progressive politicians who were pilloried for having affairs with married women. Frank Harris is a useful source for the Dilke case. He interviewed Dilke while the case was in progress, and Dilke explained to him why the Duke of Wellington's famous retort to Harriette Wilson, circa 1825 ("Dear Jenny, Publish and be dammed, yours, etc., Wellington"), was no longer applicable (Harris, My Life and Loves, v.2, ch. 10).

About the time of the Profumo scandal, the Conservative party shifted its mass base, and started catering to the lower middle class, or rather, a different strata of the lower middle class. Instead of the skilled industrial worker, they focused on the small upwardly mobile shopkeeper, someone like Margaret Thatcher's father. This set up the conditions for the Profumo scandal.

The potential of a sex scandal depends on the kind of class base which a politician is appealing to.

David T. Beito - 3/10/2006

According to Seymour Hersh in the Dark Side of Camelot (well worth reading), Kennedy's advisors were extremely worried that a similar scandal would taint his administration.