The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Category: 2012

  • Sir John Major’s Interview on the Andrew Marr Show – 16 September 2012

    The text of Sir John Major’s interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, broadcast live on 16th September 2012.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Back here, twenty years ago to the day Black Wednesday blew a hole through the Conservative Government of Sir John Major – a man who had one of the most unusual family backgrounds of any modern Prime Minister. His mother and father – a man born during Queen Victoria’s reign – were music hall artistes, and Sir John grew up on tales of their unconventional life. Well music hall is in many ways a lost world, killed off by the cinema and by television and radio, but perhaps its spirit lives on. Sir John Major’s written a book about it all. We’ll be talking about that, today’s politics, and much more. Sir John, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Morning, Andrew.

    ANDREW MARR:

    You called this book My Old Man. And that really is where it starts, because your father wasn’t just a music hall artiste; he topped the bill in some of the great music halls of the time. He was a substantial figure in his way.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well he was in music hall for about thirty years, from 1900 to 1930, and he certainly topped the bill at the second tier theatres. I wouldn’t claim at all he was one of the greats of the music hall, he plainly wasn’t, but he and his then wife, Kitty, very dependable, very good, always working, on the bill with most of the greats at some time or another; and then formed their own show and then they topped the bill for a long time. So yes, he passed on many stories about those days.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Now it is a lost world, we’ll never know quite what it was like to hear these people because they weren’t recorded, or most of them weren’t recorded, until very late on. But just give us a sense of the range of performers who you describe in this book.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I learned quite a lot about it at my father’s bedside when he was very old and ill. I was his audience as a small boy, he was in mid-sixties when I was born. He would talk to me about his life on the stage and all the greats both that he had worked with and that perhaps he’d seen and not worked with. But music hall had a huge range. It might be singing comic songs – that’s the staple part of it – comedians, animal acts, monologists, black-face acts. Almost anything you could think of as variety today would have been part of music hall then.

    ANDREW MARR:

    And you argue that quite a lot of what we think of as quintessentially British humour from the age of sort of radio and television – you know The Goons and Monty Python and all the rest of it – has its origins in people like Dan Leno, some of those patter merchants on the musical stage?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. I mean if you actually look how they performed, what they did and what we know of it, a great deal of it has been handed down. Humour is continuous – what amuses the British psyche a hundred years ago tends to tickle it today – and, yes, it has been handed down. And they were astonishing characters, if you look at their background and their life stories, some of them are full of pathos, they came from nowhere. Some never got anywhere and their lives were full of hardship. Others had huge success, earned vast sums of money, perhaps spent it and then ended up dying young and often destitute. These stories are very remarkable stories of pretty remarkable people.

    ANDREW MARR:

    It struck me that they were quite like the stories of so many kind of would-be rock stars touring the country, hoping to make it, a few of them make it and maybe take too many drugs and drink and so on later on. But it’s also a bit like the sort of popular culture you see in so much television even now, the sort of dance shows and so on.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Nothing’s new and a great deal of it is repetitive. What I think is different was in those days music hall was the entertainment. There was very little to compete with it, as there is so much today, and it sunk deep into the British psyche. In the 1840s, for example, when it began, that was a terrible decade when the country might well have come to revolution. It turned revolution, potential revolution in the 1840s, into a patriotic roar of joy twenty years later. And of course it had its great days at the height of empire – hugely proud, hugely patriotic, hugely pro-British – but it fed mainly upon the lives of the people who actually attended those, and the great artists reflected those lives and sang back to them their lives and talked about their lives. It was empathetic across….

    ANDREW MARR:

    So quite hard-edged actually a lot of it, yes?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Very hard-edged. I mean some of the social commentary has the force of a pile driver, particularly artists we don’t remember today like Jenny Hill – very early feminist, talked very much about the lives of people who were downtrodden and why they were downtrodden. Well worth reading about her.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Revisiting her?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Absolutely worth revisiting her.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Okay. Let’s turn to politics rather more recently. I mentioned Black Wednesday.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    The music hall is much more fun.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Much sunnier perhaps than Black Wednesday. Nonetheless, that was a sort of existential crisis really in many ways for this country. Twenty years on, we are still looking at Europe and are particularly concerned about what is happening to the Euro project now. How dangerous do you think things remain because it’s you know the longest, most boring crisis I can remember?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well there are two things that are inextricably linked of course. Firstly there is Europe and the Euro crisis, and then there’s the state of the British economy. You can’t regard those as wholly separate entities, you have to look at the two of them. If you take Europe first, Europe has continually evolved. It’s evolved a good deal further towards centralisation because of economic failure in Europe over recent years than anybody imagined in this timescale; and what you’re now seeing out of failure, not success, is the Euro core looking to integrate further, much more towards a federal structure.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Which this country, in your view, could have nothing to do with really?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well if you recall you mentioned Black Wednesday. You might also have mentioned that at Maastricht, I opted sterling out of the Eurozone because I didn’t think the Eurozone would work without fiscal union as well as economic union, and so we are apart from that, thank goodness, and we will stay apart from it. But if the Eurozone, as I believe, continue to integrate over the next ten years, you’re going in essence within ten years – this isn’t going to happen overnight – within ten years you’re going to have a Euro core that is to all intents and purposes federal. Now if that happens to a portion, a core of the European Union, it changes that core’s relationship with the rest of the European Union. And if they do that, the rest of the European Union may feel that it is appropriate to change their relationship with the core and with the European Union as a whole. I think that offers an opportunity for us to clean up one of the long running sores of British politics, which is the nature of our relationship with Europe.

    ANDREW MARR:

    And that would have to be a referendum and so on if it was a treaty and all the rest of it?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well if it was a treaty, of course it would.

    ANDREW MARR:

    It would have to be, right.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    And it would be a treaty in due course.

    ANDREW MARR:

    So therefore. Let me ask about the British economy directly at the moment because these are grim times. I mean this is the third quarter of technical recession, the Chancellor incredibly unpopular. You’ve been through a period where you know you are just buffeting through a hard time. What’s your analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the economy; and what’s your advice?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well, firstly, it would be very surprising if the Chancellor wasn’t unpopular. The Chancellor has to do unpopular things. But I think it’s worth making the point that David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg aren’t imposing these cuts out of some malign wish to hurt people. They’re imposing these cuts because the last Government left the cupboard bare. The money was gone, the gold was gone. They had no choice but to take tough medicine, and I think people need to understand that is why they are doing it. That said, of course it’s unpopular and you must expect the Chancellor to be unpopular. Nothing surprising at all about that.

    But since I’m no longer in politics, I can say something that perhaps as a politician I wouldn’t. You mentioned Black Wednesday. Around about that time, Norman Lamont was taken to pieces by commentators for suggesting there were green shoots, but in retrospect, we can see that Norman was right. Recovery begins from the darkest moment. I’m not certain but I think we have passed the darkest moment and I will tell you why. There are some oddities in the figures at the moment. Why in the depths of this recession is employment growing, why is industrial production going up, why has the stock market risen? I could list a number of other things.

    There are things happening out there that will become apparent and we don’t quite know why or how. My guess – and this is something a minister can’t say but I can – my guess is in due course we will find that we pass the bottom, that that last revision of GDP when we had a 0.5 per cent reduction is less bad than we thought it was, and that we are starting on what will be a slow road to recovery. I think that is beginning to happen and I hope that is the case, but I believe it is going to turn out to be so for a vast range of reasons.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Meanwhile, party conference season, you don’t have to be involved in it anymore, but there is another Conservative Prime Minister, there are more kind of whisperings and challenges and so on. Of course he’s got Boris Johnson bouncing around, which you never had. Do you think the Conservative Party needs to calm down and settle down or do you think this is an inevitable part of you know the bad year?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well, there’s nothing surprising about people being critical when times are tough. That is true in the Conservative Party, is true in the Liberal Democrat Party, it’s been true in the past. You saw those divisions in the 80s in the Conservative Party with wets and dries. You saw it in the 90s between, well, on the general issue of Europe. You’re seeing it again, it is an inevitability of politics. But I would have thought if the Conservative Party has learned anything in the last twenty years, it’s learned that regicide is not a good idea.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Well has it? That’s the question.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think it has and I think the concept of people challenging David Cameron is an extremely good newspaper story, fills huge numbers of columns. And Boris is a very attractive and able and intelligent politician doing a supremely good job I think in London, but Boris isn’t in Parliament. Boris hasn’t said he wishes to become Prime Minister, quite the reverse.

    The belief that suddenly everything is going to change – you’re going to have a leadership challenge and you’re going to have a replacement of Prime Minister – I just think that isn’t in the real world. We aren’t. David Cameron is Prime Minister, he’s going to remain Prime Minister and he’s going to contest the next election and I very much hope he’s going to win it.

    ANDREW MARR:

    And so your message to all of those backbenchers who are constantly contacting newspapers and saying they want to kill the Prime Minister, they’re getting names on bits of paper, all the familiar stuff – your message to them?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    My message to them is look at history. Disunity costs votes. Unity helps a Government achieve the changes in our economy that we wish to see. There’s good for the nation, good for the economy, good for them and good for the next election.

    ANDREW MARR:

    And they should belt up?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Your words, not mine.

    ANDREW MARR:

    All right. After the death of Princess Diana, you were guardian for the Princes. Now they’re both back on the front pages again. These pictures have caused an absolute furore in this country and it seems that St. James’s Palace, the Prince is actually going to go to court in France to take action against the publishers and, who knows, also the photographers concerned. Do you think that’s an overreaction or do you think that’s fair enough?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think it’s absolutely right. I think it’s absolutely right, so that people in future know where the boundaries should be. I mean the boundaries have plainly been crossed. I mean I don’t think we need mince words about these photographs. The way they’ve been obtained is tasteless. It is the action of a Peeping Tom. In our country, we prosecute Peeping Toms. That’s exactly what they’ve done and they’ve been peeping with long lenses from a long way away. They’re very distasteful and I’m absolutely delighted. I have often in the past been critical of the British media. I thoroughly applaud the fact that they won’t touch these pictures with a barge-pole. I think they deserve credit for not doing so and it’s a pity that other people overseas have lower standards.

    ANDREW MARR:

    And if you bumped into Mr Berlusconi this morning, you’d presumably have a few words for him too?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    It’s very unlikely and it might not be a very good conversation.

    ANDREW MARR:

    It might not be a very good conversation. The more general media climate of course, the British papers are waiting for the outcome of the Leveson Inquiry and so on. What would you like to see?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well I gave my evidence to Leveson, I considered it carefully, I prepared it carefully, I gave lengthy evidence. I’ve no intention of either adding or subtracting to it.

    ANDREW MARR:

    All right.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Leveson heard evidence from every conceivable point of view. I didn’t hear it all. I’m content to wait and see what he recommends.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Prince Harry is obviously in a place of danger, Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed that they are attacking that camp and they have killed considerable numbers of people to try and get at him. Do you think it’s right that he is out there? The danger is always that he’s putting other people’s lives at risk. You know we understand that he wants to get out there and fight and do his duty, but is there a danger that by putting him into such a place we’re unnecessarily endangering others?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think there are several points to consider. The first is that Prince Harry trained with his colleagues, he will wish to serve with his colleagues. He most emphatically would not wish to move. The second point, I think it would be a huge propaganda triumph for the Taliban if Prince Harry were to be moved. And, thirdly, I think there’s a great deal of an attempt to create public relations in the posturing of the Taliban at the present time. The army knows what it’s doing. It will determine whether there is a risk to those serving with Prince Harry, as well as Prince Harry, and it will make its judgements based on that. I don’t think advice from external quarters on that will either be well informed or valuable.

    ANDREW MARR:

    And there’s been some talk about pulling out troops early from Afghanistan. Would that help the situation in any way?

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Well I don’t think it’s related. I don’t think you can relate that point …

    ANDREW MARR:

    Sure, to the Harry one. Sure.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    … to the question of Prince Harry. I think there is a credible case for looking at when we actually withdraw troops. The moment that President Obama said he was going to withdraw troops in 2014, the Taliban were on notice as to when the NATO troops would leave and a large part of the Taliban, if they have any sense, probably moved into North West Pakistan and are sitting there in that lawless wild west part of Pakistan waiting to come back after the troops have left. Having given notice of a date upon which we leave.

    ANDREW MARR:

    That’s difficult.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think you have changed the game and changed it totally.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Sir John Major, for now thank you very much indeed.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    My pleasure.

    [Break for news. Andrew Marr asked if the spirit from the Paralympics could be bottled].

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    I think it would be marvellous if we could. I mean, we saw some things at the Olympics that I think we thought we’d lost from the British character, the extent of the volunteers. The sheer, and I know it’s an old-fashioned word, the sheer patriotism of the British nation for the British athletes.

    I was fortunate enough to see a lot of the Olympics, and I think the moment I remember most was when the Paralympians came on in the opening ceremony, there had been an hour and a half of athletes parading. Suddenly the British team appeared, and as soon as the first British athlete appeared the whole of that 80,000 stadium were on their feet cheering. I freely confess that I had tears in my eyes and I don’t think I was the only one.

    ANDREW MARR:

    Were you surprised, because the Paralympics has always been, in the past, a slight downbeat after the main Olympics. This time the enthusiasm continued at the same level.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    Absolutely. You will have forgotten this, but 27 years I was Minister for Disabled People.

    ANDREW MARR:

    I had forgotten it, you’re quite right.

    SIR JOHN MAJOR:

    And I was absolutely thrilled to see it and there was a little vignette. I was talking to a foreign Paralympian athlete and he said “we have never seen anything like this. Who asked all these people to come?” and I said, “nobody asked, they came and they paid”. And they were thrilled with the size of the audience.

  • 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.