Manuela Perteghella, Stratford-upon-Avon and John Profumo

Liberal Democrat Voice is doing sterling work posting the maiden Commons speeches of all those new Lib Dem MPs. It's a particularly valuable feature if you write a satirical column about the party that purports to be the diary of an Edwardian peer from Rutland who has somehow survived into the 21st century.

One of the new MPs featured today is Manuela Perteghella from Stratford-on-Avon, who reminded the house:

Although I am proud to be the first female MP for Stratford-upon-Avon, I am not the first to bring Italian heritage to the role. That distinction belongs to another of my predecessors, John Profumo, who beat me to it - although I plan on a much quieter stay in the history books.

This gives me a chance to recommend Bringing the House Down, David Profumo's book about his parents - John Profumo and the actress Valerie Hobson.

Accounts of the Profumo Affair often suggest that John Profumo was a future prime minister whose political career was ended by scandal. But David makes it clear that his father was not a good minister and had done well to get as far as he had.

But John kept his sense of humour through it all. As Tim Adams' Guardian review of Bringing the House Down records:

He recounts a telling little story of wheeling his father into Edward Heath's memorial service not long before his death: 'It's the great and the good - and us,' Profumo senior noted.