Sex & the Class War

The Profumo scandal was re-examined last week from the viewpoint of applied political science and the class war:

> Prime Minister Harold Macmillan candidly admitted to the Daily Express that "the young voter is bored with me" and that the "young ministers I put in a year ago may want to get rid of the old gentleman at the top." During the height of the scandal, said Mac, it was "touch and go" for several days on his "chucking it all in." Added Mac: "If it had not been for my wife and loyal staff here, I don't think I could have got through. But I soon decided that there was one essential duty to perform. I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts." *

> In the letters column of the intellectual, leftist New Statesman, Christine Keeler and Marilyn ("Mandy") Rice-Davies were being analyzed in the somewhat different role as standard bearers of the proletariat. "Here was a section of working-class girls being sold as instruments to satisfy the sexual needs of the upper class," wrote Mathematician Hyman Levy, "while at the same time, there were no upper-class girls being recruited to satisfy the sexual needs of the working class." Levy was ironically seconded by Teacher M. L. Swan: "With a few fortunate exceptions--gamekeepers and other comrades who have infiltrated the enemy's camp--we are prevented by a gigantic class conspiracy from enjoying the daughters of our rulers and employers. If the phrase 'equality of opportunity' is to be more than a figure of speech in Britain today, this discrimination must go." Aristocrats already "open their houses to the public at a small charge," added Swan. If they want to prove their interest in social reform, they need only consider "a slight extension of the services normally provided."

* Which led the New York Herald Tribune to Swiftly headline its story: REGIME WON'T FALL, BRITON SAYS TARTLY

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