The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Category: 2010-2014

  • My Old Man by Sir John Major – 13 September 2012

    The text of the press release issued on 13 September 2012 for Sir John Major’s book on the history of music hall.

    MY OLD MAN

    Published by HarperPress in UK on 13 September 2012, Australia on 01 October 2012 and Canada on 15 October 2012.

    The book’s ISBN is 978-0-00-745013-8.

    Former prime minister John Major takes a remarkable journey into his own unconventional family past to tell the richly colourful story of the British music hall.

    Music hall was one of the glories of Victorian England. Sentimental, vulgar, but patriotic and champion of the underdog, it held a mirror to the audiences’ hopes, fears and the general absurdity of life.

    Vast, smoke-filled auditoriums were packed every night throughout Britain. Popular performers, such as Marie Lloyd and Vesta Tilley, were among the highest-paid and most celebrated figures in the land.

    This was the world that John Major’s father Tom entered at the age of twenty-one as a comedian and singer. In ‘My Old Man’, the former prime minister tells his father’s story as a springboard for an entertaining history of the music hall, from its origins in Elizabethan times through to its heyday in the nineteenth century and eventual decline with the rise of radio and cinema in the twentieth century.

    Packed with colourful anecdotes, this warm-hearted account captures a golden, bygone age of entertainment.

  • Sir John Major’s Comments on the Olympics – 8 August 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s comments made in an interview on the Olympics, which took place on 8th August 2012.

    INTERVIEWER:

    [What is the legacy of these Olympics?]

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    The first legacy will be to make sure that all the buildings, all the facilities we now have are properly used.

    The second legacy is to make sure we take advantage of all the young people who now want to enter these sports, and bring them into sport.

    And the third legacy, something which is absolutely crucial to my mind, is that we actually look again at getting much more sport back in school. We are short-changing the kids. They have a right to a physical education, as well as an academic education, and over the last forty years that’s fallen away.

    INTERVIEWER:

    [What’s happened to cause this?]

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Sport was way down on the list, that was one of the reasons I established the lottery because sport and the arts were never going to get very much money from the Government. The whole country loves both of those things, and it needed funding, and the lottery has done that.

    One of the things I bitterly regret that I wasn’t able to do was to utilise money to put a full-time sports teacher in every secondary school and in every little cluster of primaries, because I think it’s going to be very difficult to persuade other teachers just to take sport. I don’t think that’s going to happen, so I do think that we do need to put teachers in the schools, and I think it’s an important national priority.

  • Sir John Major’s Comments on the Diamond Jubilee Weekend (II) – 5 June 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s comments on the Diamond Jubilee Weekend, broadcast live on the afternoon of 5th June 2012 on BBC1, with presenter Huw Edwards.

    HUW EDWARDS:

    I’m going to introduce my next guest, but we’re not going to see him yet. When he starts speaking you’ll know exactly who it is.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well Huw it’s a delight to be here.

    HUW EDWARDS:

    Sir John Major, good to see you, thank you very much. We were hearing from David Cameron just a short while ago.

    Good to have you with us, first of all, the day, what did you make of today?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Quite extraordinary, but then again it’s been an extraordinary two or three days, the whole country has been in the middle of a great party and people have come out in a way that I think very few people actually imagined. I’ve been around a very long time, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this before.

    HUW EDWARDS:

    Why has it happened?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think it’s a culmination of things. We live in a pretty cynical world sadly these days, and I think people have seen someone who has for 60 years has been the best example of selfless service that I think you can possibly imagine. And in some fashion that has now communicated itself to people and this opportunity has been a great opportunity for people to show what they think of the Monarchy and what they think of this particular Monarch.

    HUW EDWARDS:

    This is an amazing scene isn’t it?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    It certainly is.

    I can’t imagine hardly anyone else in the world who could draw crowds like this, here, we’re just looking up The Mall, but I’ve just driven from South London, it’s the same along much of the route, huge numbers of people just crowding in the streets holding flags, from the very elderly to little children barely able to toddle. It’s a very memorable sight.

    HUW EDWARDS:

    Lots of people Sir John today talking about 2002, and indeed, thinking back to 1977. What were you doing back in 1977 for the Silver Jubilee, do you remember?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I do remember, I was standing in the streets, like everybody else. I remember it very well indeed. Indeed, I remember the Coronation, which was another a great celebration of the time, it lifted the gloom of the post-war years in a truly remarkable fashion.

    HUW EDWARDS:

    You have a particular interest over and above the usual interest in today’s events because you are Chairman of the Diamond Jubilee Trust. What does that involve?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:
    The trust has been set up at the request of all the Commonwealth Prime Ministers and Heads of Governments, all 54 countries, and they’ve set up the trust to raise money to set up legacy projects to honour the Queen’s long reign.

    The Queen has said ‘please don’t make presentations to me’, if you wish to make a tribute, then donate your tribute to the Diamond Jubilee Trust, and we’re going to raise as much money as we can in this country and right across every country of the Commonwealth. From Governments, local Governments, individuals, people can donate via our web-site, and when we’ve raised as much as we possibly can in one year only, we’re then going to utilise it in a relatively small number of big projects to help people in need right across the Commonwealth.

    HUW EDWARDS:

    How will you decide how to spend that money?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    It will be an objective decision. But the sort of thing we have in mind, not final decisions, but the sort of thing we have in mind, why not Queen Elizabeth scholarships for the disabled? There are scholarship schemes all around the world, but I know of no scholarship scheme for the disabled. That would be a wonderful, permanent tribute.

    We’re looking at how we can restore sight to many people who are blind, they have cataracts, they have river blindness, their sight can be restored.

    We’re looking at schemes in cities, where people are short of nutrition and good food, to set up urban gardens, even in tower blocks and flats you can set up urban gardens to grow food, and that’s the sort of project we’ll be looking at, and we’ll be working with really great charities, like The Eden Project, Sightsavers, International Development Through Sport. We thought we could use sport, particularly for the young. The concept of teams rather than gangs, all across the Commonwealth that’s necessary.

    So it’s a huge range of ideas, first we have to raise the money, and once we have the money, as much as we can get and I set no target, as much as we can get, then we can disperse it on schemes in honour of the Queen, that will be badged as it were, to show that it’s in honour of the Queen and that will make a real difference to the lives of people who have much less than most of us.

    HUW EDWARDS:

    Sir John, as ever, great to talk to you. Enjoy the rest of the day.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I’m sure I will, thank you.

  • Sir John Major’s Comments on the Diamond Jubilee Weekend (I) – 5 June 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s comments on the Diamond Jubilee Weekend, broadcast live on the morning of 5th June 2012 on ITV, with hosts Phillip Schofield and Julie Etchingham.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    One person who will be making his way to St. Paul’s very shortly is Sir John Major. He was of course one of her Prime Ministers and also patron of the Diamond Jubilee Trust and he has been very busy throughout the weekend but has kindly found time to join us here.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Pleasure, good morning.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    Let’s start with the Duke, and you saw that gentleman there in the Mall giving the Duke his best wishes, as much as everybody does at this moment.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think that everyone is worried about how the Duke is, but he’s pretty strong and he’s pretty tough. I’ll tell you what was fantastically moving last night, when the crowd here at the concert started chanting Philip – ‘Phil-ip, Phil-ip’, it was just magical and you could see that the Queen was very moved by that. But he’s a strong man, yesterday morning he was out riding, so he’s tough and I’m pretty confident he’ll be fine.

    JULIE ETCHINGHAM:

    You’ve been at the heart of all of this planning for this amazing event, patron of the Diamond Jubilee Trust, what have you made of what you’ve seen so far over this weekend?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    It’s been an absolutely magnificent national party, and I think it’s quite extraordinary, last night in The Mall was just an unforgettable sight. Tens and tens of thousands of people there. And all over the country there have been village parties, and perhaps in the cities meeting their neighbours whom they’ve never met before. The Queen will be very pleased about that. So I think it’s just been a magnificent national party.

    JULIE ETCHINGHAM:

    It’s not just a national thing is it, the Queen herself has been extraordinarily keen to make sure that the Commonwealth is embraced in all of this. You, above all people, who have worked so closely with her know just how much the Commonwealth means to her.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    A great deal. When the Queen became Queen there were 8 members of the Commonwealth, there are now 54. Wherever you go in the world, I travel a good deal of my time around the world, and the Queen these days is iconic, wherever you go, people know about the Queen, they’re fascinated about the Queen, they’ll talk about the Queen, if they talk of the Queen, they mean about our Queen, so it’s quite extraordinary.
    That’s right the way across the Commonwealth, but actually beyond that as well. You see this fascination with the Royal Family, you saw it with Prince William’s wedding, you’ve seen it on other occasions, there’s an absolute fascination with the British Monarchy.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    What happens to the Commonwealth then? Looking well, well into the future, is this something she holds together as the glue?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Her father, King George VI, was instrumental in beginning the Commonwealth when it had just a handful of members, it has grown up with the Queen. It’s now deeply rooted, there are intangible roots, it’s almost like the British constitution, it isn’t written but you know what it is, and you know what it means.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    What does it do?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    It does a great deal. In terms of the relationship, it’s helpful for trade, it’s helpful for personal relationships, you see it on the sporting field. Diplomatically it can be extremely useful, and often is. So although it’s intangible, you can’t write down the Commonwealth does this, the Commonwealth does that, it’s a very powerful invisible force.

    JULIE ETCHINGHAM:

    Of course Sir John, you were one of the Queen’s 12 Prime Ministers.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    There are lots of us, only one of her.

    JULIE ETCHINGHAM:

    Which she has reflected on of course with a glint in her eye on occasions, but you of course would have had those weekly audiences and you were Prime Minister at one of the most difficult periods of the Queen’s reign for her, and her ‘Annus Horribilis’. What are your reflections and memories of those weekly audiences?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well I think one has a great many memories of them but I think what people would be most surprised about is how informal they are, you sit down exactly as we’re talking now, just two people, surrounded more often than not by half a dozen corgis or more, they’re usually present.
    But usually almost everything, everything, is up for discussion, it’s entirely free and frank and relaxed. And I think were people to listen in they’d be quite surprised both at the breadth of the conversation; and equally, they ought not to be, it’s very much a two-way conversation.
    The Queen has been Queen, as we know, for 60 years, she’s been having these meetings since Churchill, there’s not much she hasn’t seen before, there isn’t much she doesn’t know, there’s not much that her advice isn’t very well worth listening to.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    A lot of people who have met the Queen have commented how remarkable it is how much she takes in, she may appear like she’s looking regally over something but in actual fact she’s taken note of every single point. When it came to those meetings with her, she’s very astute, she’s remembered a lot.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    She’s remembered a lot, she’s also extremely well briefed. Don’t forget the Queen sees State Papers, they’re not just restricted to Ministers, the Queen sees them as well. So there’s nothing that happens in front of house as it were, or behind the scenes, that the Queen isn’t aware of.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    What about your time in Balmoral, how different is that to the office [Buckingham Palace] behind you?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I remember being at Balmoral on one occasion, there was a crisis, there usually was I remember, I was on the phone to a foreign Prime Minister, it was the Italian Prime Minister and after a while he said, “what on earth is wrong with this line, I can’t hear a thing?”. It was the bagpipes, I had been there a few days and utterly forgotten that they were being played, but they were. I’d shut them out, but he couldn’t. A very difficult conversation with him.

    JULIE ETCHINGHAM:

    How do you think that the Queen has moved the Monarchy on? Just to reflect on that difficult period in 1992, when she was very honest and open about it publicly, about having to acknowledge a difficult year, how did she reshape the Monarchy? Was it a subtle, incremental thing?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think that’s a very good description, it was subtle and incremental.

    I mean the Monarchy is both a part of our nation and slightly apart from our nation, and that is the way our nation likes it. And the Queen has seen it change, it has evolved, it’s a much more sympathetic Monarchy than I think it was in days gone past. Slightly less regal in some respects, much more human, much more in touch.

    You’ve seen the extent over the last few days to which the Queen is happy in crowds, whether it’s at the Derby where perhaps she’s as happy as anywhere, and on other occasions. And I think that’s partly what has brought nation and Monarchy so close together at the moment.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    Is that change led by her?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Certainly that’s led by her, but I think you only have to look at younger members of the Royal Family to see it’s not restricted to her. I don’t know how many mentions there were, for example, last night of Prince Harry, but quite a lot, and he, Prince William and Prince Charles, and Prince Charles’s speech last night was very moving indeed and I thought his programme the other day produced some wonderful films, some spectacular moments.

    So I think that the nation and Monarchy have got to know one another even better over the last 72 hours.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    She’s the widest travelled Monarch ever, she’s travelled around the world, circumnavigated, indeed the first Monarch to do that. But the one country that was closest to her is the one that’s closest to us, and that trip to Ireland was really a very important moment between the two countries.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    It was remarkable, absolutely remarkable. All the way through the Irish troubles, there was this curious mixture of people who wanted to kill and murder, and the innate friendliness of the Irish. It was always a curious conundrum that those two things could run almost in parallel and when the peace process began in the early 1990s and many people doubted that we would actually get to where we are.

    JULIE ETCHINGHAM:

    We have some images now, remarkable, even the choice of colours, the outfits she wore, everything resonated.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I don’t suppose that I was the only one with tears in my eyes when I saw those images.

    JULIE ETCHINGHAM:

    It was that emotional for you, you were so deeply involved in that process?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well, lots of people were, yes I was, but so were lots of other people, no one person or handful of people brought that about, it was a huge number of people, including many unsung and completely unknown. But the final confirmation that things were so different was the Queen’s hugely successful visit to Ireland, about which she felt very strongly.

    Many people might have been cautious about going, I think it’s to the credit of the Prime Minister that he said straight away “go” and that even if he hadn’t, she’d have probably of pushed pretty hard to do. And it was fantastically successful. And things have changed for good now.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    Thank you and I’m very conscious we’ve got to get you to the Service.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    It would not be well received if I was late.

    PHILLIP SCHOFIELD:

    No, so in which case, thank you very much indeed.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Thank you both.

  • Sir John Major’s Comments on Lloyd Scott – 24 May 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s comments on Lloyd Scott, who was raising money for The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust. The comments were made on 24th May 2012 and the event started on 28th May 2012 from The Mall.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Lloyd is fast becoming a national institution – and deservedly so. I am enormously grateful to him for supporting The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust in this way, and wish him every possible success in his tremendous endeavour.

  • Sir John Major’s Speech at the Carlton Club – 15 May 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s speech, in May 2012, held at the Carlton Club to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Sir John was introduced by Baron Freeman, who as Roger Freeman was the MP for Kettering from 1983 until 1997 and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1995 until 1997.

    BARON FREEMAN:

    Members of the Carlton Club, and their guests.

    Thank you for coming for the Jubilee dinner, it’s a great privilege to introduce our former Prime Minister, and a tremendous supporter of the Carlton Club, both personally and in his many responsibilities in Government.

    And so it’s a great pleasure to introduce and ask Sir John Major to say a few words about our Jubilee dinner celebrations.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Roger, thank you very much and good evening to all.

    As you can see I’m a touch under-dressed. I’m going elsewhere, less glamorous, maybe a bit more hard-working, I think you may have more fun than I will this evening. But my apologies for being less well turned out than the rest of you.

    I was coming in through this door a few moments ago and I recalled a conversation I had with Boris Yeltsin about twenty years ago. We were walking in the Kremlin, I said to him, “Boris, tell me in one word, what is the state of Russia”, he replied “good”. I was surprised, it was falling to pieces. I said “tell me in two words”. He said, “not good”.

    We, I think, are immediately in front of what is going to be a very good, very memorable, very remarkable weekend with the Queen’s sixtieth anniversary Jubilee.

    As I look around, and I hope it’s not unkind to say, I can see quite a number of people amongst us who will remember the Queen acceding to the Throne and will remember King George VI dying.

    I remember very plainly, I was 10, I remember my mother coming into the kitchen with tears in her eyes and saying “the King is dead, we have a Queen now”. And it was very different, suddenly at the end of those grey, dreary post-war years with the hardships and the rationing for so many people, we had a young glamorous Queen, with a young husband and a young family and the future suddenly looked rather different.

    She presented a new beginning, she offered that most elusive of all human emotions, hope. And those of us who were around at that time will remember that emotion very well indeed. And it seemed suddenly to be coming true. Very shortly afterwards we had a bonfire of many of the war and post-war controls, Rab Butler and the Government got rid of so many of them, they just suddenly disappeared.

    Then some very remarkable things happened, on the very eve of the Coronation, Edmund Hillary got to the top of Mount Everest in a quite remarkable feat, which no-one had thought given what had happened in the past would ever be done.

    And then we won back the Ashes. I may have been only 10, but I remember Denis Compton sweeping the ball backwards to square and thousands of people running onto the pitch, we had won the Ashes for the first time since the early 1930s. It seemed that all things were possible.

    Old favourites at last got their due, Stanley Matthews won the cup final for Blackpool, perhaps the most popular footballer this country has ever had. In a remarkable game when his team were losing 3-1 and he turned it around and they won. It was the new Elizabethan Age.

    And then miracles of miracles, a few months later, on a grey day at Oxford, with no pre-preparation Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway eased Roger Bannister round to run a mile in under four minutes for the first time in history. It seemed in this new Elizabethan Age that all things were possible.

    I personally remember the Coronation very well. My family, God knows how, scraped together enough money to buy a little black and white television. It was about ten inches, the pictures were dubious, but they came through occasionally. And most of the street crowded into our tiny little bungalow to watch those flickering pictures on the screen, it seemed then to be a miracle. Aged ten I watched them in between trips to make the tea and bring it back for what seemed the whole street who were there.

    And how things have changed in the reign of Elizabeth. World population has doubled, extra-ordinary, has doubled, it took us 1900 years from the time of Christ to increase world population by a billion, we now do it every 12 years, that’s why it has doubled under the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. In her reign, man has been put on the moon and we have reached far out to the skies.

    Things that were a miracle then are conventional necessities today but no young couple would think of marrying without actually having in their home. It was 25 years after the Queen had been on the throne that the first microwave came out. At then it was about 200 to 250 pounds for a microwave. So things have changed very dramatically, we may grumble sometimes, times at the moment are tough, not just tough in this country but tough almost everywhere and the difficult economic scenario overseas reflects back at home as well, and our difficulties reflect overseas.

    And so we grumble. And sometimes we complain about what the situation is, but however rose-coloured our glasses are about the past, so much has changed. And so much in the way in which we live our lives has changed for the better. We live longer, our health is better, our nourishment is better and child mortality is minute compared to what it was. So many changes and all to the good.

    And yet in a very material way, the Queen hasn’t changed at all. Of course, the Monarchy has evolved, and of course, the Queen is older than she was. Even Queens can’t hold birthdays at bay as the years come around.

    But in many material ways she hasn’t changed. As a 21 year old Princess Elizabeth, she pledged herself to the service of the nation and to the Commonwealth. My, how she has kept that promise over the last sixty years. In that way, she hasn’t changed at all, with a remarkable example of duty and selflessness and a commitment to public service. And I have been privileged to see her behind the scenes from time to time. And I can tell you that she’s every bit as remarkable as she seems from a distance, quite extraordinary. She is, we tend not to think of it.

    I travel around the world for six months every year, the Queen is the most famous woman anywhere in the world. When people in any far corner of the world talk of the Queen, they mean our Queen. In every single part of the world she is the central image that people across the world have of Monarchy as an institution.

    And consider what she has done, and what she has lived through, what you are celebrating this evening, at this particular dinner, in the last sixty years she has met every significant figure in the world, she is a living encyclopaedia of history. Almost impossible that in the whole of history that anyone has met quite so many people, even in times gone by. Even Queen Victoria, who reigned for slightly longer than our Queen could not have matched the people she met, for travel did not permit her to do so. So the Queen’s record in this respect is unique.

    And now we celebrate a very remarkable anniversary of hers. And those people who are the sneerers and the knockers will find what a tiny minority they are in our country when the whole country comes out to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.

    And what does the Queen say of this anniversary? In history it is entirely traditional that people present things to their Monarchs at great anniversaries. And what the Queen has said, “I would not wish to have any gifts or any presentations but I would like any gifts or presentations which people wish to offer as a tribute to me to go to the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust”, of which I’m honoured to be Chairman.

    That trust was set up by all the heads of Government in the Commonwealth in Perth a few months ago. The purpose is to raise as much money from Governments, from local Governments, from companies, from foundations, individuals, to raise as much money as they can, and then the Queen would like it to be spent on projects that will be a legacy to her reign and will improve the lives of Commonwealth citizens in every single part of the Commonwealth.

    You might say ‘why the Commonwealth?’, and I emphasise for those that doubt it, that includes us in the UK, we will also get a slice of that money. So please don’t hold back on the donations. Anyone accessing our web-site, www.jubileetribute.org may found it perfectly easy to make any size of donation you’d like.

    So, why the Commonwealth? I think the answer to that is very simple. When the Queen came to the Throne, how many members of the Commonwealth do you think there were? The answer is eight. Eight members of the Commonwealth, there are now 54. The Queen and the Commonwealth have grown up together, and she is an essential part of it.

    To see her at a Commonwealth Heads of Government conference is to see a quite remarkable sight as people crowd around to see the Queen, meet the Queen, talk to the Queen and be photographed with the Queen.

    Do no doubt for one moment the enormous value of the Monarchy to Britain’s position in every part of the world, and most especially, within the Commonwealth. In 1952, when King George VI died and the Queen ascended to the throne, Truman was President, Churchill was Prime Minister and Stalin was in the Kremlin. It sounds like ancient history, but yet she has lived through every part of it. Even more incredibly, every day, every week during those 60 years, she has seen State papers, seen them and read them and built up a vast accumulation of knowledge that the head of MI5 and MI6 could only gasp at in admiration.

    And then a few years ago, the Queen Mother died, 102, and a much loved figure. But when she died, in a curious way that happens sometimes in countries such as ours, the Queen stood out alone, she became iconic. Not only in our country, but in every country of the world. She became, quite literally on the death of her mother, the mother of the nation.

    Anybody under the age of 70 would not remember, not really remember, anybody else on the Throne. They, and she, have grown up together. She, and the Duke of Edinburgh, who has been such a tremendous support to her, are a constant in everybody who is under the age of 70. And today, I think that the Monarchy is as secure in the affections of the nation as at any time I can remember in my lifetime or as in any time.

    We had in the 90s the ‘Annus Horribilis’, actually as I recall, the Queen and I had ‘Annus Horribili’ at the same time. It all seems such a long time ago, but I’m certainly not yet in a position to celebrate my Diamond Jubilee.

    Let me just say something else about the Queen, she is remarkable, but she isn’t remarkable just because she is the Queen. She is remarkable for her own virtues and assets. She has enormous common sense, she has the common sense of the English country-woman, if I might put it that way. Anyone who has seen her walking her dogs in the rain, early in the morning in mackintosh raincoat and wellington boots, will know exactly what I mean when I say she has the common sense, and many of the attitudes and instincts, of an English country-woman.

    Take it from me, I had the privilege of sitting with her every week for seven years, when we discussed all manner of things, both international and domestic. She’s a very wise lady. And how many people are there who have been in a position of public eminence, where the cameras of the world are focused on them every day, who still retain the affection of their nation after sixty years?

    The shelf-life of most personalities, of any sort, whatever they are involved in, is far, far, shorter than that. They move like fire-crackers up in the air, they fizzle for a while, and then they fall back to earth. But the Queen has gone on from strength to strength.

    I will give you one illustration of why. I remember a banquet in 1995, a very grand banquet, of which President Mitterrand and President Clinton were both attending, it was the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day. I looked at the table plan, President Mitterrand, not the most reserved of men, and also President Clinton, also not especially reserved, were both sitting way below the salt at the Queen’s long table. And my private secretary suggested to courtiers that this perhaps wasn’t the best placement there might have been.

    “Ah” he was told, “but it is protocol, members of the European royal families sit next to the Queen”. I thought this was perhaps mistaken. And in a manner in which I won’t bore you, with the message was delivered to the Queen that this was a bad idea. It changed instantly, and what was it the Queen said? I will tell you exactly what the Queen said, “You’re quite right, I should sit next to President Clinton and President Mitterrand, after all I can sit next to my cousins at any time I like”.

    I am, and always will be, very supportive, and indeed when you have your back turned to a Cecil [referring to a painting behind him at the Carlton Club], it is very wise to be supportive of the Monarchy.

    I think we’re here because we’re all supportive of the Monarchy, not just the Monarchy as an institution, but supportive of this particular Monarch as well. Let the knockers and the carpers have their hour in the sun from time to time. Get out of the familiar chattering circle of Whitehall and Westminster and get out into the counties and the cities of the United Kingdom, and you will see how deep and how secure and how enduring are the roots that sustain our Monarchy, and in particular, this special Monarch.

    And so tonight, on an evening when you are gathered here to celebrate that sixty years, and I am sadly going off to do some work, on the night you are gathered here, I would like to promote a toast that I think that we can all join in with a great deal of pleasure.

    The toast is to someone who has served our nation as well in my judgement as anyone in our long history of 1,000 years

    As anyone in our long history, the toast is,

    Her Majesty the Queen

    Thank you very much.

  • Sir John Major’s Comments at the Funeral of Lord Newton of Braintree – 12 April 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s comments made at the funeral of Lord Newton of Braintree (Tony Newton, former Leader of the House of Commons and Secretary of State for Social Security) on 12th April 2012 in Coggeshall, Essex.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I don’t think there’s anywhere else I’d have wished to be today, nor many other people I saw in the church. Tony was a very special person, so I very much wished to be here.

    INTERVIEWER:

    [Sir John was asked how he would remember Lord Newton]

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    With very great affection, we worked together for a long time and we had a lot of fun together, people forget that. In politics you form very close alliances with some people, we worked together in departments, we worked together across departments and I’ve so many memories of working with him.

  • Sir John Major’s Comments on HM the Queen – 6 February 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s comments on HM the Queen, made for the BBC programme “The Diamond Queen”, a third part series presented by Andrew Marr.

    PROGRAMME 1/3 – First broadcast on Monday 6th February 2012 on BBC1

    [25.33 minutes in – Referring to the weekly audiences with the Prime Minister]

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    It’s simply two people sitting down talking in an entirely relaxed and informal way. But they cover everything. The Queen as a Head of State has a right to know what is happening, has a right to know what her Prime Minister has in mind to do.

    PROGRAMME 2/3 – First broadcast on Monday 13th February 2012 on BBC1

    [26.43 minutes in – Referring to the reform of the Monarchy – Andrew Marr asked whether Sir John was worried about the status of the Monarchy during the early 1990s]

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I was concerned at the shower of criticism and unpopularity that the Monarchy was facing in the short-term. I wasn’t worried about the long-term for two reasons.

    Firstly, we have seen this before, Queen Victoria being an obvious example, very unpopular for a very long period of time after Prince Albert died.

    Secondly, the roots of the Monarchy are so deep, that even in a period of unpopularity it can sustain that and come through at the end of it.

    [49.19 minutes in – Referring to foreign state visits]

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think people may not realise around the world what an iconic figure the Queen is. The highlight of the state visit is the Buckingham Palace banquet. It does an enormous amount of good.

    Can you quantify it? Very difficult.

    Does it matter? Yes.

    Is it in the British interest? Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

    Would we lose something if it wasn’t there? We certainly would.

    PROGRAMME 3/3 – First broadcast on Monday 20th February 2012 on BBC1

    [7.55 minutes in – Referring to his own memories of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953]

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I was ten at the time and I remember my family scraping together their savings and buying a small black and white television to watch it. But it was hugely exciting, everybody was really uplifted. For most of the adults present it was the first great event since the dreary days of the war and the tough days that immediately followed, but it was symbolic of a new life people thought.

  • Sir John Major’s Comments on the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust – 6 February 2012

    Below is the text of Sir John Major’s comments on the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, published on the 6th February 2012 on the official web-site at http://www.jubileetribute.org/.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:
    As Her Majesty The Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee she does so as the second longest serving Monarch in a thousand years of British history.
    Her Majesty The Queen is Head of a Commonwealth of two billion people, in fifty-four nations over five Continents. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth last October, it was unanimously agreed to establish The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, to honour Her Majesty’s lifetime of duty, and create an enduring legacy to her sixty years of service.
    The Trust, which was launched officially on 6th February 2012 – the 60th Anniversary of Her Majesty’s Accession – aims to raise funds from Governments, individuals, organisations and industry, to invest in projects that will make a real and lasting impact on the lives of people – of all generations – throughout the Commonwealth.

  • Sir John Major’s Interview on the Andrew Marr Show – 5 February 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, broadcast live on 5th February 2012.

    ANDREW MARR:

    We were looking at that extraordinary Irish visit there. And of course the process began when you were Prime Minister, although Tony Blair picked it up and went further forward with it. How conscious were you when you were doing that, that this might be difficult for the Royal Family? They’d lost Lord Mountbatten, they’d seen these terrible scenes of carnage not very far from Buckingham Palace in the old days.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well of course when we began it in the early 1990s with Albert Reynolds, who was then the Irish Prime Minister, of course I discussed it with the Queen at our private meetings. I have no intention of telling you how it went, but of course the Queen was aware of what we were doing. And we had two objectives, both of which I think the Queen approved of. The first was to stop the slaughter that we were seeing in Northern Ireland, the indiscriminate murder that had gone on for far too long; and, secondly, to normalise relations between the United Kingdom and Ireland and North and South within Ireland. And I think the Queen approved of both of those. And the visit she made to Ireland, I think set the final seal on a relationship that has wholly changed in the last twenty years. Ireland are our nearest neighbour, they should be a close and enduring friend, and I think that is the circumstance we now have.

    ANDREW MARR:

    One of the things that certainly I came across a lot was people talking about the Queen’s religious side of her character, and therefore forgiveness being absolutely central to what she is for.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    The Queen’s a wise lady. She understands different views. She’s never been perturbed by people who’ve had different views to her. She understands them, she has her own clear view, so certainly she would have understood that point very well. And I think the fact she is Head of the Church in the United Kingdom, she would fully understand other people’s convictions in a different church. That wouldn’t phase her in the slightest.

    ANDREW MARR:

    So she understood and in fact she was encouraging those very, very difficult early talks with the IRA?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I’ve no intention of telling you what was said privately. Let me simply say the Queen was fully informed and you have seen from the visit and what others have said how she feels about the outcome.

    ANDREW MARR:

    A lot of people are very interested about not what is said during those meetings, but are they really useful to Prime Ministers? David Cameron said that you know it was a chance during the week to really ask himself what he was up to in a sense because he was just in front of one person.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    They’re very useful. I mean where else can you talk to one person in total certainty that it’s entirely secret; that nobody is going to talk to anybody else about what is said? So they’re very free, they’re very frank, they’re very useful. And of course the Queen has been there for sixty years, her first Prime Minister was Winston Churchill. Most of the present cabinet weren’t born when the Queen became monarch. So there’s very little she hasn’t seen and very little she doesn’t understand, and anyone who doesn’t listen to her view and consult her where necessary is missing a huge opportunity.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Well we’re allowed just a little clip of you with the Queen. I think you’ve just come back from Russia at this moment. Let’s look at that.

    [Clip from Elizabeth R shown which was broadcast in the 1990s]

    ANDREW MARR:

    A nice little clip there. So these things are terribly important. You know she’s obviously very interested in her constitutional role, so that’s the Irish side. What about Scotland now because you know we’re at the edge of some difficult decisions about Scotland? I mean whatever happens, she will be Queen of Scots. I just wondered what you thought of Alex Salmond’s kind of comment that the United Kingdom would carry on because the union of crowns would carry on?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well I’ve no intention of mixing the Queen and politics and I think you know that, but I think I heard Alex Salmond say last week that whatever may happen in Scotland – and I have my clear views about what should happen, that whatever may happen in Scotland, the Queen would remain Queen as far as the Scots are concerned, and I think that is absolutely the view of, I would imagine, the vast majority of Scots.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Unlike any other country, we have someone therefore at the apex of the system who’s been there for sixty years. Does she have a sort of reasonable recall of the previous crises, all the ups and downs? I mean she’s been through the Cold War, she’s seen all this you know.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Andrew, you don’t forget crises, believe you me. You don’t forget crises and neither does the Queen.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Yes.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    She remembers them very well. And in some cases within the Commonwealth, I mean she has this special affinity for the Commonwealth, and I think for two reasons. Firstly because King George VI, her father, to whom she was evidently very close indeed, was significant in setting up the Commonwealth in the first place. And, secondly, because she has grown up with the Commonwealth. When it began, it had eight members. It now has fifty-four. So she’s very close to it. And often when we discussed, she would not only know something about the country in the Commonwealth we were talking about or the head of state, but their father or their mother and often there were occasions where background information was extremely useful.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Yes. We saw Prince William in that quote, in that clip earlier on there, speaking very, very eloquently about the Queen and Ireland. He’s of course now down in the Falklands in his helicopter. But you’ve in some respects watched him grow up because you were involved when he was younger. Just give us your sense of how he’s evolving in the role that he’s got now.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Oh I think if you travel abroad, you can see a different perspective and you can see that the Duke of Cambridge and the Duchess are becoming iconic around the world. I think they’re a tremendous bonus for the Royal Family at the present time and I think the way they have conducted themselves has been absolutely without fault, and I think most people can see that. Clearly his career is very important to him, as it is to Prince Harry. He’s carrying out his role extremely well and I think that’s what people admire and respect.

    ANDREW MARR:

    But for all those people who kind of perhaps rather glibly open the papers and say “Oh well, can we not have him as our next King?” …

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    No, no.

    ANDREW MARR:

    As a constitutionalist explain why not.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    No, no. Constitutionally not. The Queen took an oath at the Coronation that she would remain as Queen for the rest of her life. When, hopefully many years hence, the Queen is no longer with us, Prince Charles will become King. There can be no question of skipping a generation. It simply isn’t going to happen. It’s a piece of newspaper sophistry from time to time. After the Queen will come Prince Charles. After Prince Charles will come Prince William. That is I think a matter that is settled and is beyond doubt.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Now tomorrow I think, you are going to be launching a huge charitable project: the Diamond Jubilee Trust. Can you tell us a little bit about that? I don’t want to spoil your fire for it, but tell us a little bit about it and what you hope to achieve.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    We’re establishing tomorrow the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust. It was agreed that it would be set up by all the Heads of Government at the Commonwealth at their recent meeting in Australia, and I’m greatly honoured to have been asked to chair it.

    The purpose of the trust is to raise money across the whole of the Commonwealth, I hope governments, companies, individuals will all contribute. We will raise this money just for a single year and then we will spend it on appropriate projects across the whole of the Commonwealth, including of course the United Kingdom. We’ll enter I hope into partnerships with people, so that we can leverage, so we can increase the amount of money we have had donated, to use it for the sort of projects I think that most people would approve of.

    ANDREW MARR:

    So we’re talking about projects involving children and disadvantaged groups?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Yes, no detailed decisions have been taken, but that sort of project. And it will all be there specifically as a legacy to the Queen and her long reign and her long service to the Commonwealth. I don’t think people who haven’t seen her with the Commonwealth, heads of government, can possibly understand what it’s like. There’s a very good relationship, she is iconic to them. And she and the Duke of Edinburgh – and the Duke has been quite superb of course throughout her reign – she and the Duke of Edinburgh are enormously popular across the Commonwealth and it’s unsurprising that when there was a suggestion from the heads of government of a tribute that the Queen would like the sums raised to be dispersed across the Commonwealth, including – as I say – the United Kingdom.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Of course the Falklands are part of the Commonwealth. Prince William down there at the moment and a huge amount of kind of jumping up and down and shouting in Buenos Aires.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think there’s bound to be a certain amount of shouting. I think that’s what it will amount to – shouting and no more.

    ANDREW MARR:

    And no more. Alright, for now thank you very much indeed, Sir John Major.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    My pleasure.

    [Break for news]

    ANDREW MARR:

    Sir John Major is still here and we’re going to talk a little bit just at the end about Syria because we’ve used enormously strong language at the United Nations yesterday, as have the Americans, about the Russians and the Chinese. I just wanted you know your perspective on actually what can happen, because it seems that the international community is now badly stuck.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think there are two things that are happening. Certainly we’ve seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle and I don’t think it’s going to stop at the borders of Syria. So I think this is an issue that is going to continue. I think two things are happening at the moment. First, we are moving perilously close to a full-scale civil war. Secondly, I think Syria is becoming a pariah state. And if I can add a third thought. I don’t think in these circumstances that the Assad regime will survive. How much damage it will do in the short-term, I can’t say. How long it will survive is unknown, but I don’t think it will be a credible government for all that much longer. It has no support, except no doubt for Iran and for China and for Russia, beyond that no-one can possibly sanction what they’re doing.

    ANDREW MARR:

    And is there anything more do you think that a country like Britain can do, you know to avoid the break-up and the fall of the regime – if that’s what’s going to be happen – being too bloody, being too disruptive – not least I suppose to Israel which is next door, of course?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well I think there are several thoughts related to that. Firstly, I think those in China and Russia might search their consciences about their veto. They are effectively giving a green light to a pretty bad regime to murder people, and I think one needs to put it bluntly so they understand what they have done and so the world understands what they have done. As far as what other nations can do, it’s possible to apply sanctions through the European Union, it’s possible to apply sanctions through nation states, it’s possible to use diplomacy. I think all those measures should be used and used as a matter of urgency and I don’t think the United Nations should leave this matter. If China and Russia have vetoed it once, let us see if they will at some stage veto it again as public pressure and international condemnation builds up.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Good final thought. Sir John Major, thank you very much indeed for joining us today.