Few men working in the City could have been anything less than delighted by former governor of New York Eliot Spitzer's spectacular fall from grace, although those of us - ie all of us - who rushed to the Emperors Club VIP website to see what all the fuss was about agreed that the fuss was most certainly worthy of our attention. Similarly, is there anyone out there who wouldn't have briefly swapped places with John Slattery's Roger Sterling in Mad Men, if only for 20 minutes with Christina Hendricks' Joan Holloway?

If there has never been a political drama that quite echoes the sexually charged milieu of the Golden Globe-winning series, that's because politicians have a habit of publicising their dirty laundry long before it can be satirised. Which is why we commissioned Oliver Marre to compile the "GQ Politics Quiz" (page 129), 30 questions that touch on everything from sleaze ("Which recent Labour minister had his manhood described as a 'cocktail sausage' by his secretary?") and soundbites ("An inverted pyramid of piffle") to drugs ("The sons of which two ministers have been investigated by the police?") and gay sex (did anyone mention Jeremy Thorpe?). The problem is, of course, that our quiz merely scratches the surface (we know an anecdote about that, too, although not one we can publish), and that to do the subject justice we may have to do this on a regular basis. As the chief whip said to the sketch writer.

Which reminds me of one of my favourite tangential political jokes. A pretty young diary secretary comes in to see her minister, looking for all the world as though she has the weight of it on her shoulders. Secretary: "Well, minister, there's good news and there's bad news." Minister: "Give me the good news." Secretary: "Well, you're not infertile."

Enjoy our political indiscretions, enjoy the issue.

Dylan Jones, Editor, GQ