Shameless comebacks show we are in the age of chutzpah

ALMOST 30 years ago, former secretary of state for war John Profumo sat beside the Queen at a dinner at Claridge’s marking Margaret Thatcher’s 70th birthday. It was an episode his Financial Times obituary described as an “almost Tolstoyan story of hubris, punishment and redemption”.

His presence at the dinner marked a decades-long rehabilitation through his charitable work – a discreet second act that followed his 1963 resignation after he lied about a scandalous affair.

I had looked up Profumo’s obituary following the comeback tour of former UK prime minister, Liz Truss, to publicise her book, Ten Years to Save the West. I wanted to remind myself that some people quietly atone for their mistakes. When I read of the Claridge’s dinner, it was easy to imagine Truss elbowing Profumo aside to thrust her book into the monarch’s hands for a selfie.