The Major Years

Quoted from arryarryarry

Just another lying cheating male masturbator who treated the British people with contempt.

In line with the likes of Blair, Brown, Camoron, May and Johnson.

You have to ask yourself why someone would ever want to be a politician. I worked on election campaigns for Labour in the 60s and 70s and realised that they do not need to be clever, just cunning. They can get away with lies and deceit because their politics means 50% of the voters are supporters who will take no notice and the other 50% expect it anyway. They just brush off the awkward stuff.I saw Tony Benn do it, Tony Crossland and George Brown. But in those days it was at least face to face and they had open meetings.

Major was/is a quiet operator but he was not a fool. He won the 1992 election by reading the mind of people’s fear of Labour and that forced the Blair/Brown pact and policies to make Labour electable in 1997.

What I remember most of the 90s politically is the deliberate use of mass media to create an image. There was the alliance of Blair with Murdoch and the rapid rise of the media manipulators, Mandelson and Campbell. For the first time I thought people were being conned in their millions by clever presentation that made the Saatchi stuff of Thatcher’s years look amateurish. The one quote from 1997 that sticks in my mind? "I think most people who have dealt with me think I am a pretty straight sort of guy, and I am,“

Shocking....he deserved the win in 1992, not so in 1997. It took a decade for the party to recover any credibility, and he whilst not totally to blame, was in part not strong enough. When you are waking up to MP's being found dead, naked with oranges stuck in somewhat bizarre places, dont be too surprised when you are turfed out of office.  Surrey Cricket man as well....tosser.

For what it's worth, my opinion is that people look back at governments through the eyes of the press. This is where I personally have a problem, since the majority support the conservatives and always put a blue spin on things. Gone are the days where newspapers reported the news of the day in a neutral fashion. The Murdoch press in particular will always support the tories to the point where it has become nothing more than the mouthpiece for the tories. It is very difficult to get a balanced view of Thatcher, Major, and Blair for example

.It also depends on what you want from a government. The one thing Major will be remembered for is privatising British Rail. He was the architect behind it. I also remember that he had avery slim majority, which meant he was held to ransom by  his own MPs, and found it very difficult to get things through Parliament without a fair amount of "horse trading".In the end the Tories ran out of steam, and the country was ready for change that Blair gave them. Major was seen as dull and unimaginal,  and didn't have new ideas, or if he did he struggled to get them through parliament. He did abolish Thatcher's hated poll tax, but increased VAT from 15% to 17.5% to pay for a reduction in income tax. So high earners had a tax cut while we paid an extra 2.5% on everything we bought.

In the end even the press turned against him and Blair got a landslide victory.

Quoted from mimma

For what it's worth, my opinion is that people look back at governments through the eyes of the press. This is where I personally have a problem, since the majority support the conservatives and always put a blue spin on things. Gone are the days where newspapers reported the news of the day in a neutral fashion. The Murdoch press in particular will always support the tories to the point where it has become nothing more than the mouthpiece for the tories. It is very difficult to get a balanced view of Thatcher, Major, and Blair for example

.It also depends on what you want from a government. The one thing Major will be remembered for is privatising British Rail. He was the architect behind it. I also remember that he had avery slim majority, which meant he was held to ransom by  his own MPs, and found it very difficult to get things through Parliament without a fair amount of "horse trading".In the end the Tories ran out of steam, and the country was ready for change that Blair gave them. Major was seen as dull and unimaginal,  and didn't have new ideas, or if he did he struggled to get them through parliament. He did abolish Thatcher's hated poll tax, but increased VAT from 15% to 17.5% to pay for a reduction in income tax. So high earners had a tax cut while we paid an extra 2.5% on everything we bought.

In the end even the press turned against him and Blair got a landslide victory.

The Murdoch press was very anti-Tory in the 1990s and well into the second Blair government. Blair was consorting in New York with Wendy remember. I think Spitting Image did more damage to Major though especially after Maastricht and the dalliance with Edwina.

I always loathed Blair but especially when he and Mowlam took the credit with Clinton for the NI agreement when all the groundwork was done by Major. Not that I agreed with the agreement but I especially disagreed with the manner it was done.

I thought a key moment in Major's reign was when Chris Patten (set to be his new Chancellor) didn't get in at the 92 election, so Norman Lamont stayed as Chancellor for an extra year or so. Lamont was blamed for the ERM events, and then became a rebel against Major when he left the government.

Another factor was the premature death of John Smith as Labour leader, as Smith was seen by the media as safe but boring, whereas Blair, 10+ years younger, had a wider appeal nationwide, and made the most of countless Tories crises. See 'Back to Basics'.  Pre-social media, the Currie thing didn't come out for years but it explained a lot about why Major couldn't lead his party, it must have been an open secret in Westminster.

Quoted from ex-merseymariner

I thought a key moment in Major's reign was when Chris Patten (set to be his new Chancellor) didn't get in at the 92 election, so Norman Lamont stayed as Chancellor for an extra year or so. Lamont was blamed for the ERM events, and then became a rebel against Major when he left the government.

Another factor was the premature death of John Smith as Labour leader, as Smith was seen by the media as safe but boring, whereas Blair, 10+ years younger, had a wider appeal nationwide, and made the most of countless Tories crises. See 'Back to Basics'.  Pre-social media, the Currie thing didn't come out for years but it explained a lot about why Major couldn't lead his party, it must have been an open secret in Westminster.

Good point about Smith. good man. His appeal was broad within the party but maybe not so broad in the country.

True about Lamont but I have doubts that any Euro business really meant too much to the average voter. It was too technical and though Labour was just as split but they covered it much better with personalities, slogans and above all some killing skewering by Mandelson and co. during the mid 90s. They made that contrast between the brown envelopes, sleaze and greyness on the one side and the open government, whiter than white and an ethical foreign policy on the other. Truth never entered into it. Within weeks the Bernie Ecclestone charade laid the lies bare but as there was no coherent opposition for the next 10 years or more either in parliament or inside the party Blair had a free run all the way to Iraq. (With a little help from Princess Di. )

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

The Murdoch press was very anti-Tory in the 1990s and well into the second Blair government. Blair was consorting in New York with Wendy remember. I think Spitting Image did more damage to Major though especially after Maastricht and the dalliance with Edwina.

I always loathed Blair but especially when he and Mowlam took the credit with Clinton for the NI agreement when all the groundwork was done by Major. Not that I agreed with the agreement but I especially disagreed with the manner it was done.

Have to disagree regarding Northern Ireland. Peace talks were going nowhere under Major, and Thatcher before him. The real turning point was the Warrington bombing, were two little boys died in an IRA attack. It lost the IRA their support in the States and enabled Clinton to help the peace process. The real architect of the peace process was Mo Mowlam, who worked tirelessly to achieve it, even after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. .

Quoted from mimma

Have to disagree regarding Northern Ireland. Peace talks were going nowhere under Major, and Thatcher before him. The real turning point was the Warrington bombing, were two little boys died in an IRA attack. It lost the IRA their support in the States and enabled Clinton to help the peace process. The real architect of the peace process was Mo Mowlam, who worked tirelessly to achieve it, even after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. .

I would not belittle the role of Mowlam though she herself was upset at doing the donkey work only for the big boys to come in at the glory stage.

The IRA ceasefire was first in 1994 after the Downing Street Agreement. Between then and 1998 there was a series of atrocities by the IRA in NI, the U.K. and the Republic. Adams and McGuiness clearly thought they could get a better deal from Labour and were prepared to be patient for the election we all knew Blair would win. They were right. But without the Major initiatives there would have been nothing on the table at all for Clinton and Blair.

The first, tentative, steps towards peace in mainland Britain was through Ken Livingstone whilst he was in charge of the GLC, inviting representatives of the paramilitaries over to London for talks to try and find common ground. Jeremy Corbyn was also involved in these, something that others used to tar him with, unfairly, as an IRA / Terrorist sympathiser during the last General Election.

The Thatcher government simply blanked any dialogue with the IRA, with the BBC having instead to get actors to repeat what was being said on the News. There were many political wrongs during the troubles, but not having meaningful dialogue with the political wing of the IRA was probably the biggest. It could have stopped the troubles, and deaths, much earlier than they did but it didn't suit Thatcher's image.

Re Mo Mowlam..... she worked tirelessly for peace, a fact acknowledged by all sides during the peace process. For Blair to then ditch her and give the glory signing off to his pal Mandelson spoke volumes about him. A horrible man.

Don't think Blair ditched her, she was suffering from cancer, so my personal view is he tried to ease the pressure she was under.

I remember one story about Mo. She had had a hard day and was knackered.  Ian Paisley started with one of his infamous loud rants. She took off her wig, looked him in the eye, and uttered these immortal words;  "intercourse off Ian!!".

She was a truly remarkable lady.