Whatever happened to the Profumo principle? After John Profumo, the British politician, was disgraced in the Christine Keeler call girl scandal in 1963, he resigned and spent the rest of his life doing penance, including cleaning the toilets of an East End charity.

It has been replaced by the Goodwin principle, as defined by Sir Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland. Sir Fred is hanging on to his £650,000-plus a year pension despite condemnation from politicians, including Gordon Brown, the prime minister, that it is a lavish reward for failure.