The John Profumo / Prince Andrew analogy is weak

The analogy between the Profumo affair and the Andrew scandal (today’s Times) is weak. John Profumo was a highly regarded Minister with an admirable record of service. A future Prime Minister held in high regard. His brief fling with Keeler was out of character and silly rather than serious. But the times were a-changing. Satire had been born and the baby boomer generation, of which I was part, had the courage to laugh at its elders. Macmillan was the first Prime Minister to be portrayed on the stage (by Peter Cook in “Beyond the Fringe” ) and Private Eye had been launched. 

Macmillan was a decent and able man, but a Victorian in a modern age. His own wife Dorothy was unfaithful but it didn’t greatly worry him and he ignored it. Before Profumo he was feeling low and contemplating standing down. The scandal might have accelerated the process but it wasn’t its primary cause.

Andrew Lownie’s biography of Andrew and his wife reveals a man who couldn’t hold a candle to Profumo. His admirable service in The Falklands aside Andrew is revealed as a dysfunctional serial adulterer and a pompous snob full of self-regard. The encounters with Virginia Roberts and the links with Epstein were far from exceptional lapses of morals and good taste. Profumo’s liaisons with Christine Keeler, by comparison, were in truth pretty harmless. 

3 thoughts on “The John Profumo / Prince Andrew analogy is weak

  1. John Profumo was a decent man who dedicated the rest of his life to charity service. Helping homeless people. Andrew is a waste of space. A dissolute pompous entitled a** hole. Indulged by his mother at the cost of her other siblings.

    Comparisions with others is laughable, except perhaps many other spoiled rich kids whose lives did not end well.

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