ceemage | John Profumo 1915-2006 (Reply)

John Profumo 1915-2006.

All the mainstream media obits will focus on 1963, but I'd rather remember him as the last of the 41 Conservative rebels who voted against Neville Chamberlain's government in May 1940, paving the way for Churchill to take over. Almost certainly the most important vote in the House of Commons of the 20th Century.

Profumo had only been an MP for a few weeks, and decided to vote against at the last minute. This, of course, went down very badly with the Whips Office - whilst they don't like MPs voting against, if they know you're going to do it, they can at least include you in their figures of "irreconcilable rebels." But to vote against without telling them is the ultimate sin. So Profumo was called in for a dressing-down by the Chief Whip the next day, who told him, _"You will never be more ashamed than of what you did last night."_

And yes, I can see at least two levels of irony in that statement.