Major was something of a disappointment but he did have a small
majority, which makes it easy for boat rockers, manipulators with agendas and
brown envelopes. This can be good thing; it all depends on what they are
trying to do to us or even, just possibly for us
John Major ex Wiki
Early in his term, Major presided over British participation in the
Gulf War
in March 1991 and claimed to have negotiated "Game, Set and Match for Britain"[2]
at the
Maastricht Treaty in December 1991. Despite the British economy then being
in recession, he led the Conservatives to a fourth consecutive election victory,
winning the most votes in British electoral history (14 million) in the
1992 general election, albeit with a much reduced majority in the House of
Commons. He is the most recent Conservative leader to win an outright majority
of constituencies in a general election. Major's premiership saw the world go through a period of political and
military transition after the end of the
Cold War.
This included the rise of the
European Union, an issue which was already a source of friction within the
Conservative Party owing to its importance in the
decline and fall of Margaret Thatcher. Major and his government were
responsible for the United Kingdom's exit from the
Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after
Black Wednesday on 16 September 1992, after which his government never
gained a lead in the opinion polls. Despite successes such as the revival of economic growth and the beginnings
of the
Northern Ireland Peace Process, by the mid-1990s, the Conservatives were
embroiled in ongoing
"sleaze"
scandals involving various MPs and even cabinet ministers. Criticism of
Major's leadership reached such a pitch that he chose to resign, and be
re-elected, as party leader in June 1995. By this time, the "New"
Labour Party was seen as a reformed and fresh alternative under the
leadership of
Tony Blair;
and, after eighteen years in office, the Conservatives lost the
1997 general election in one of the largest electoral defeats since the
Great Reform Act of 1832. After the defeat, Major resigned as the leader of the party, and was
succeeded by
William Hague. He has since retired from active politics, leaving the
House of Commons at the
2001 general election. He is now the oldest living former British Prime
Minister. With the
Carlyle Group later.
QUOTE
Sir John Major,
KG,
CH,
ACIB (born 29 March 1943) is a
British Conservative politician who served as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997, during which time he
was also
Leader of the Conservative Party. He held the posts of
Foreign Secretary and
Chancellor of the Exchequer in the
Cabinet of
Margaret Thatcher, and was the
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Huntingdon from the
1979 general election to the
2001 general election. Although Major proved "a great disappointment to
Thatcher", he was her preferred choice as successor as she expected to "continue
in control of the country as a backseat driver".[1]
UNQUOTE
Less disastrous than Blair. The 'sleaze'
that followed on with Blair made Major's lot look like
amateurs. A lot of it was Propaganda.