The pundits are convinced that Peter Mandelson’s friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein is the ‘biggest British political scandal since the Profumo affair’. The latest tranche of the Epstein files, released last week, revealed the extent of the pair’s sordid association. But what’s striking to me (and I could probably do the Profumo affair as my specialist subject on Mastermind) is how both wholesome and glamorous the Profumo affair was in comparison.

The teenage girls involved in the 1960s scandal – pretty, smart Mandy and beautiful, wild Christine Keeler – were far from trafficked, unlike the lost girls preyed on by the repulsive procuress Ghislaine Maxwell for her paedophile puppet master. Both had left their homes (Mandy’s respectable, Christine’s abusive) in search of adventure of the kind only the fleshpots of London could provide. Working as showgirls in Soho, they had a whale of a time – and when the society osteopath Stephen Ward took it upon himself to become their Professor Higgins (with added orgies), they were living the dream.

If anything, Profumo ended up with a better reputation than he started with

This cast of characters had an appeal, albeit shady, that the Epstein affair woefully lacks. John Profumo met Christine Keeler at Cliveden........

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