John Major Early Life Political Career Early Political Career

**The Right Hon. John Major**

Period in Office:	November 28, 1990 - May 2, 1997
PM Predecessor:	Margaret Thatcher
PM Successor:	Tony Blair
Date of Birth:	March 29, 1943
Place of Birth:	Brixton
Political Party:	Conservative

The Right Honourable John Major CH is a British politician and was Prime Minister of the United KingdomIn the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. According to custom, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (which he or she heads) are re from 1990 to 1997, attaining that office when he succeeded Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader.

1 Early life

Major was born March 29, 1943, the son of Tom Major-Ball, a travelling showman. He was christened 'John Roy Major' but only the name John is shown on his birth certificate. He used the middle name Roy until the early 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends.

Although born in the wealthy Worcester Park area of SuttonThe London Borough of Sutton is a London borough in outer southwest London. It includes the areas: Beddington Beddington Corner Belmont Benhilton Carshalton Carshalton Beeches Carshalton on the Hill Cheam Hackbridge Little Woodcote North Cheam Rosehill St, Major grew up in the much poorer Brixton where the family were forced to move after the failure of his father's business. He had an undistinguished education at Rutlish Grammar School and left school at 16. He applied to become a bus conductor, but his application was rejected, allegedly because of poor arithmetic. His first job was as a clerk in an insurance broking firm in 1959, and, for a time, he worked manufacturing gnomes with his brother, Terry Major-Ball. He eventually went to work as an executive at Standard Chartered Bank in May 1965 where he rose quickly through the ranks, before leaving on his election to Parliament in 1979. He is an Associate of the Institute of Bankers.

He married Norma Johnson on October 3, 1970. They have a son ( James Major ) and a daughter ( Elizabeth Major ).

2 Political career

2.1 Early political career

Major was interested in politics from an early age, giving speeches on a soap-box in Brixton market. He stood as a candidate for Lambeth Borough Council at the age of 21 in 1964, and was unexpectedly elected in the Conservative landslide in 1968. While on the council he served as Vice-Chairman of the Housing Committee, being responsible for the building of several council housing estates. Despite moving to a ward which was easier for the Conservatives to win, he lost his seat in 1971.

He stood for election to Parliament in St. Pancras North, Camden in both general elections of 1974 but failed to win the traditionally Labour seat. In May 1976 he was selected by Huntingdonshire Conservatives as their candidate at the next election, winning the safe seat in the 1979 general election. Following boundary changes, Major became MP for Huntingdon in 1983 and subsequently won the seat in the 1987, 1992 and 1997 elections. He stood down at the 2001 general election.

He was a Parliamentary Private Secretary from 1981 and assistant whip from 1983. He was made Under-secretary of State for social security in 1985 and became minister in the same department in 1986. He entered the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1987,and was chosen as Foreign Secretary in 1989. He spent only three months in that post before becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer after Nigel Lawson's resignation in October 1989. Major presented only one budget in the spring of 1990. He publicised it as a budget for savings and announced the TESSA (Tax Exempt Special Savings Account) arguing that measures were required to address the marked fall in the household savings ratio that had been apparent during the previous financial year.

When Michael Heseltine's challenge to Margaret Thatcher's leadership of the Conservative Party forced the contest to a second round and Thatcher withdrew, John Major entered the contest alongside Douglas Hurd. Though he fell two votes short of the required winning margin of 187 votes in the second ballot, Major's result was sufficient to secure immediate concessions from his rivals and he became prime minister on November 27, 1990.

2.2 Major as Prime Minister

Major was Prime Minister during the Gulf War. During the first years in office, the world economy slid into recession after the long boom during the 1980s. Expected to lose the 1992 election to Neil Kinnock, Major took his campaign onto the streets, famously delivering many addresses from an upturned soapbox as in his Lambeth days. This populist "common touch", in contrast to the Labour Party's more slick campaign, chimed with the electorate and Major won an unexpected second period in office, albeit with a small parliamentary majority. This proved to be unmanageable, particularly after Britain's forced exit from the ERM on Black Wednesday ( September 16, 1992) just five months into the new parliament.

Despite Major's best efforts, the Conservative party collapsed into political infighting. Major took a moderate approach but found himself undermined by the right-wing within the party and the Cabinet. In particular, his policy towards the European Union aroused opposition as the Government attempted to ratify the Maastricht Treaty. Although the Labour opposition supported the treaty, they were prepared to undertake tactical moves to weaken the government, which included passing an amendment which required a vote on the social chapter aspects of the treaty before it could be ratified. Several Conservative MPs voted against the Government and the vote was lost. Major hit back by calling another vote on the following day ( July 23, 1993), which he declared a vote of confidence (in other words, that he would resign if defeated). He won by 40 but had damaged his authority.

Later that day, Major gave an interview to ITN's Michael Brunson . During an unguarded moment when he thought that the microphones had been switched off, Brunson asked why he did not sack the Ministers who were conspiring against him. He replied "We don't want another three more of the bastards out there. What's Lyndon B. Johnson's maxim?..." Major later claimed that he had picked the number three from the air, but many journalists immediately named the three as Peter Lilley, Michael Portillo and Michael Howard, who were three of the more prominent " Eurosceptics". (Throughout the rest of Major's premiership the exact identity of the three would be blurred, with John Redwood's name frequently appearing in a list along with two of the others.) The tape of this conversation was leaked to the Daily Mirror and widely reported, embarrassing Major. (The maxim referred to is Johnson's comment of J. Edgar Hoover, that it would be better to have him 'in the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in').

At the 1993 Conservative Party Conference , Major began the " Back to Basics " campaign, which he intended to be about the economy, education, policing, and other such issues. However, it was interpreted by many (including Conservative cabinet ministers) as being about personal morality. As a result, it disastrously back-fired on him by providing an excuse for the British media to expose "sleaze" within the Conservative Party and, most damagingly, within the Cabinet itself.

In 1995, tired at continual threats of leadership challenges that never arose, he resigned as leader of the Conservative Party, and announced he would be contesting the resulting leadership election. John Redwood, the Secretary of State for Wales stood against him. Major won by 218 votes to Redwood's 89 (with 12 spoiled ballots, 8 abstentions and 2 MPs not voting at all) - easily enough to win in the first round, but only 3 more than the target he had privately set himself.

His re-election failed to restore his authority. By December 1996, the Conservatives had lost their majority in the House of Commons. Major managed to survive to the end of the Parliament, but called an election in March 1997 as the five-year limit for its timing approached.

2.3 After leaving office

Few were surprised when Major lost the 1997 general election to Tony Blair, though the immense scale of the defeat was not widely predicted. This loss led to his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party. Since then Major has, in marked contrast to his predecessor, tended to take a low profile and to stay out of front-line politics, contributing only occasionally from the back benches and indulging his love of cricket as president of Surrey County Cricket Club.

John Major has been a member of Carlyle Group's European Advisory Board since 1998 and was appointed Chairman of Carlyle Europe in May 2001.

He stood down at the 2001 general election and has so far declined the customary life peerage and seat in the House of Lords that is given to former Prime Ministers.

This quiet retirement was only disrupted by the revelation in September 2002 that, prior to his promotion to the cabinet, Major had had a four year extramarital affair with a fellow MP, Edwina Currie. Commentators were quick to refer to Major's previous Back to Basics platform (a form of moral absolutism) to throw charges of hypocrisy.

3 Media representation of John Major

During his leadership of the Conservative Party, Major was portrayed as an honest ("Honest John") but otherwise dull man, unable to rein in the philandering, bickering and general sleaze within his party. John Major's appearance was noted in its greyness, his prodigious philtrum, and large glasses, all of which were exaggerated in caricatures. For example, in Spitting Image, Major's puppet was changed from a circus performer to that of a grey man who ate dinner with his wife in silence, occasionally saying "nice peas, dear". The media (particularly The Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell) picked up on suggestions that Major tucked his shirt into his underpants, by caricaturing him wearing his pants outside his trousers, as a pale grey echo of Superman. Private Eye parodied Sue Townsend's The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, age 13¾ to write The Secret Diary of John Major, age 47¾, featuring "my wife Norman " and " Mr. Dr. Mawhinney" as recurring characters.

Owing to the fact that he grew up in Brixton, the so-called "capital of the Jamaican community in London", he was regularly joked about as being Ranking John Major by Curtis Walker and Ishmael Thomas , the hosts of an early 1990s BBC comedy programme called Paramount City [1]. Later he would also be depicted as Johnny Reggae by the cast of

The Real McCoy [2].

4 See also

Major Ministry

5 External link

John Major's "bastard" quote from The Observer

Preceded by: Sir Geoffrey Howe	Foreign Secretary 1989	Followed by: Douglas Hurd
Preceded by: Nigel Lawson	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1989–1990	Followed by: Norman Lamont
Preceded by: Margaret Thatcher	Leader of the British Conservative Party 1990–1997	Followed by: William Hague
Preceded by: Margaret Thatcher	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1990–1997	Followed by: Tony Blair

Major, John Major, John Major, John Major, John Major, John Major, John Major, John

<Hide>

Home > John Major