I Quit! Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Profumo

John Profumo was the Secretary of State for War in Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's Cabinet from 1960 to 1963. In mid-1961 he was introduced to 19-year-old sex worker Christine Keeler with whom he had a brief relationship, unaware that she was also having a relationship with Yevgeny Ivanov, a senior naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy in London. Consequently Profumo was advised by the security services to end this relationship, which he did.

However a couple of years later a firearms incident at Keeler's flat resulted in a police investigation, and the press soon got to hear of Profumo's misdemeanor; however fear of libel actions kept the journalists quiet. Eventually a Labour MP took advantage of Parliamentary privilege, which gave him immunity from legal action, and named Profumo in the House of Commons. Profumo then made a personal statement in the House, saying that he knew Keeler but denying that there was any "impropriety" in their relationship.

With the press picking holes in Profumo's story the Prime Minister threw him to the wolves, and he was forced to admit that he had lied to the House. He resigned in June 1963 even though there was no evidence that any breach of security had occurred.

Profumo retired into private life and became a volunteer at Toynbee Hall, a charity based in the East End of London. He spent the rest of his life working for this organisation and raised large amounts of money for it. He was awarded a CBE in 1975.

Macmillan's government was fatally wounded by this scandal. Macmillan himself resigned in late 1963, and the Conservative Party was subsequently defeated in the 1964 election. The incorrect answer options are all members of Macmillan's cabinet.

Keeler was a beautiful young woman. Photographer Lewis Morley took a nude photograph of her sitting astride a plywood chair, the back of which obscured most of her body. The photograph is now famous as is the chair, which is a crude imitation of the Model 3107 chair by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen. The chair used in the photoshoot is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Answer: Geoffrey Howe

Sir Geoffrey Howe was a clever, able politician and very much a "one-nation" Conservative. He was usually mild-mannered - in fact in 1978 the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey famously said that being criticised by Howe was "like being savaged by a dead sheep".

Despite his high offices in the Conservative administration he found many of Thatcher's attitudes and policies intolerable; their relationship was not helped by Thatcher leaving him out off the loop on many decisions, briefing against him, dissing him in public and downgrading his work. Eventually on 1 November 1990 he resigned.

He gave his resignation speech in the House of Commons on 13 November, and it was dynamite. One particular riposte to Thatcher was based on comments she'd made in a speech the previous evening, when she likened herself to a cricket batsman who was facing hostile bowling but who was hitting the bouncers out of the ground (note for non-cricket players - bouncers are deliveries targeted at the batsman's head; the batsman should duck them rather than attempting to play them because of the risk of being injured or slicing a catch). Referring in his speech to Thatcher's malign influence on negotiations with the EU, Howe said "It's rather like sending our opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find that before the first ball is bowled, their bats have been broken by the team captain". He ended his speech with an appeal to his former cabinet colleagues: "The time has come for others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties, with which I have myself wrestled for perhaps too long".

Events moved rapidly after Howe's speech: Michael Hesseltine stood against Thatcher in an election for Leader of the Conservative Party, and even though Thatcher won the vote it was clear that her support in the Party was draining away. So after 11 years in power she resigned on 27 November - just 14 days after Howe's speech. Her successor as Prime Minister, John Major, saw an immediate upsurge in support for the government in the opinion polls.

Answer: The Teapot Dome Scandal

President Warren G. Harding's tenure in the White House from 1921 to 1923 was characterised by corruption in high places. Tasked with ensuring the uninterrupted supply of oil to the Navy from oil fields in Wyoming (including one called "The Teapot Dome"), in 1922 Interior Secretary Albert Bacon Fall accepted bribes and zero-interest loans from oil companies to award them contracts, often with no competing bids. However, his sudden increase in wealth - equivalent to about $9 million in 2024 - prompted enquiries from the press and eventually from the Senate.

Fall was very good at covering his tracks, and after a couple of years the Senate's investigation was going nowhere. However in 1927 a crucial piece of evidence incriminating him was discovered, and in 1929 he was found guilty of accepting bribes. He resigned and was jailed for a year, but no other party was convicted of any offence.

The incorrect answer options are all other major scandals in US politics.

Answer: Taiwan

Having founded the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 1986 charismatic politician Chen Shui-bian became President of Taiwan in 2000, defeating the Kuomintang governing party that had held power for over 50 years. However rumours of corruption soon started to spread, and by 2006 his approval rating in the opinion polls fell to 20% after the details of a series of scandals emerged, centered on his wife and son-in-law. These led to massive public demonstrations.

His DPP party suffered a heavy defeat in the 2008 Legislative Election in January, leading to his resignation as leader of the Party. In May he lost the Presidential Election, after which he was immediately arrested. After two years of investigation, he and his wife were convicted of accepting $9 million in bribes and embezzling over $3 million of public funds. They were both sentenced to life imprisonment, subsequently reduced to 20 years. Chen was released on medical parole in 2015 and has since become a radio programme host.

Answer: Rape and sexual harassment

Moshe Katsav was convicted of rape and sexual harassment after he originally complained to the Attorney General that a former female employee was blackmailing him. However upon being made the subject of an investigation, she alleged that Katsav had raped and harassed her and up to ten other women when he was Minister of Tourism. The Attorney General announced in January 2007 that he would consider charging Katsav with these crimes at the end of his tenure of office, when he would no longer be immune from prosecution.

At a press conference, Katsav accused the media of persecuting him, and said that he would step down only if he was indicted. Eventually his lawyers reached an agreement with the Attorney General that Katsav would resign his post and plead guilty to several charges of sexual harassment, and then would receive only a suspended jail sentence. He would also pay compensation to two of his victims, but the original rape charges would be dropped.

Having resigned from the Presidency, in 2008 Katsav cancelled the plea deal and was then prosecuted. In late 2010 he was found guilty of rape, sexual harassment, and obstruction of justice; he served five years in prison.

Answer: Mark Felt, Deputy Director of the FBI

Mark Felt was an FBI agent for 31 years, the last year as second-in-command of the agency. In this role he had access to files relating to Watergate from the very day of the burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters on 17 June 1972. He passed on much relevant information to Bob Woodward, advising the journalists what leads to pursue - "follow the money!". Over the next two years the magnitude of the scandal increased exponentially, and it eventually became clear that Nixon knew of the burglary and took part in its attempted cover-up. Arriving at this situation, Nixon's position was untenable, and he resigned on 9 August 1974.

Felt's motivation for his actions remain unclear. His family described him as an "American hero", saying that he leaked the information for moral and patriotic reasons. It's also been said, however, that he acted out of resentment after being passed over for the Directorship of the FBI in favour of a candidate with no law enforcement experience.

After he retired Felt had legal battles to fight over his involvement with surveillance and conducting searches without warrants in the FBI. He was found guilty of these charges but pardoned by President Reagan. Felt died in 2008, having earlier confirmed that he was indeed "Deep Throat".

The people in the incorrect answer options were all heavily involved in Watergate, and all of them served time in prison for criminal offences they had committed related to the scandal.

I vividly remember the TV coverage of Nixon boarding a helicopter on the White House lawn on the day of his resignation. Despite his disgrace, he was grinning broadly and flashing V signs. The man had no shame.

Answer: He pretended to have drowned while swimming

On 20 December 1974 Stonehouse left a pile of his clothes on a Miami beach and walked away. The authorities immediately assumed that he'd gone for a swim and had drowned - in fact the newspapers even published obituaries fir him.

In fact, what he'd done was to fly to Australia with his secretary, Sheila Buckley, using false names and biographical information. Hoping to start a new life, he managed to transfer a substantial amount of money from his UK bank accounts. Unfortunately, a bank teller became suspicious and tipped off the police, who at first thought he was Lord Lucan, who'd disappeared a fortnight before having murdered his children's nanny.

Stonehouse was arrested in Melbourne on 24 December 1974 and extradited to the UK. However, he continued to sit as an MP, even after being charged with 21 charges of fraud, theft, forgery and conspiracy to defraud. In October 1975 he made a self-serving statement in the House in an attempt to explain his behaviour. This didn't help, and in August 1976 he was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud. Only then did he resign as a Privy Counsellor and an MP.

Subsequently he made a bit of a career for himself in the media but died in 1988. Some years later it emerged that in the 1960s he'd been a spy for the Czechoslovak military intelligence!

Answer: Chris Pincher

Boris Johnson's tenure of the office of Prime Minister from July 2019 to September 2022 led to one of the most corrupt administrations in the history of UK politics. It has to be said that this originated at the highest level, as Johnson's understanding of concepts such as "truth", "honesty" and "transparency" was at best shallow. This was exemplified in his prevaricating, mendacious and disingenuous responses to questioning over the Partygate scandal, when staff in 10 Downing Street routinely got together for parties in violation of COVID-19 public health restrictions.

However the incident that brought about his downfall concerned one of his Whips, Chris Pincher. It had been known in the Conservative Party for many years that Pincher had a habit of sexually assaulting male MPs and staff in the Commons and elsewhere. As well as making the rather tasteless quip mentioned in the question, Johnson also referred to him as "handsy". He'd been briefed about Pincher's behavior in 2019, but he'd ignored these allegations when promoting him to Deputy Chief Whip

Following Pincher's resignation, Johnson stated that he had been unaware of allegations against him when he'd appointed him to his post. However, a top grade former civil servant then went public, saying that Johnson's statement was not true. This forced Johnson to admit in an interview of 5 July 2022 that he'd made a "bad mistake" by not acting on the information. Hearing this, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak immediately resigned, followed over the next 24 hour by at least 60 other ministers, parliamentary private secretaries and Party officers. On 7 July Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative Party.

And then we got Liz Truss!

Answer: He shot Scott's dog, killing it

Scott had brought his dog with him, a Great Dane called Rinka. Newton shot the dog in the head, then turned his gun on Scott, only for the gun to misfire. Newton jumped into his car and drove away, while Scott contacted the police.

The origins of this event dated back to 1961, when Thorpe had begun an on-off relationship with Scott. After a few years Thorpe was obliged to make third-party payments to Scott to keep him quiet about the affair, and as Thorpe rose in his party's ranks this became more and more dangerous.

Eventually Scott told his story to a number of high-ranking members of the Liberal Party, but an official enquiry dismissed Scott's allegations. By this time the media were on the track of the case, and the "Sunday Mirror" obtained a briefcase containing compromising letters and photographs. In the meantime, Scott was demanding more and more money.

Eventually Thorpe cracked and commissioned Newton to dispose of Scott. This failed, but by this time the whole sorry business was public knowledge. On 10 May 1976 Thorpe resigned as Liberal leader. In March 1979 he lost his seat as an MP, and in May 1979 he stood trial for conspiracy to murder. Astonishingly he was acquitted after the trial judge delivered a very biased summing-up to the jury. However his reputation was totally destroyed, especially when a BBC investigation in 2014 revealed the true extent of the conspiracy.

Answer: The Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands

After Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands on 2 April Lord Carrington resigned his position on 5 April. In a totally honourable way, he took full responsibility for the complacency of the Foreign Office where senior civil servants had totally failed to foresee this development. The Foreign Office had also been sending contradictory messages about its intentions to Argentina, for example by doing nothing about the landing of a group of Argentines on South Georgia in March, and by announcing the scrapping of HMS Endurance, the Royal Navy ice patrol vessel that patrolled the South Atlantic.

Thatcher asked him to stay on but he refused; he felt that he and the Foreign Office were not trusted by other senior members of his party. He was an effective and able Foreign Secretary who'd been badly let down by his senior civil servants. His honourable behaviour in offering his resignation was soon to become a thing of the past.