62 years ago today, Lord Denning published his verdict on the Profumo affair – a minor sex scandal made far worse by subsequent lies. What lessons does the ensuing collapse of Harold Macmillan’s government have for politicians today? Asks Eliot Wilson

Today in 1963, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning, published his 70,000-word report on the “circumstances leading to the resignation of the former secretary of state for war, Mr JD Profumo”. Commissioned by the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, Denning had written it in three months, and it was a best-seller: 4,000 copies were sold in the first hour, eager customers queueing outside HM Stationery Office. It eventually sold 105,000 copies.

The Profumo scandal is only half-remembered now, more than 60 years ago: sex, spies, a corrupt Establishment and the winding-down of a Conservative government out of touch with a changing Britain. By the time Denning’s report was published, the Beatles had twice been at number one; at Number 10, Macmillan was 69 years old, a First World War veteran who hammed up the pose of a languid Edwardian aristocrat. It was starting to look out of time.

The bones of the scandal are straightforward. John Profumo had been elected as the youngest MP in the House in 1940; a sterling war record followed which saw him a Brigadier at 31, and although he lost his seat at Kettering in the........

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