Posted on 04/30/2026 9:58:10 PM PDT by RandFan
Britain must not keep changing prime ministers, Sir John Major has warned in a broadside at those who treat politics as a "game show" while leaving big problems to the next generation.
The former Conservative prime minister accused today's focus-group obsessed politicians of thinking their job was to "provide fodder for the media and project your own career" while delaying action on complex issues like healthcare, pensions and climate change.
In an interview for BBC Radio 5 Live and Newsnight, he said: "The best aphrodisiac in politics is hope. If people can see a change, there's a change in atmosphere."
He said he felt "very strongly" that the reluctance to make difficult arguments on big issues "demeans politics".
Without a new generation of young people who value public service being willing to enter politics, "we are in deep doodah", he added.
Sir John was Conservative prime minister from 1990-97, winning the 1992 election with the most votes ever recorded for a British political party.
Three years later he faced down internal party division, challenging his rivals to "put up or shut up" He defeated Tory MP John Redwood in a ballot of his MPs.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
He’s right about this issue. This is the first time I recall Mr. Major making any public commentary at all, and for any reason since, well, since before Obama & Big Mike came to Wash. D.C.
However, I was glad to see Theresa May leave. She succeeded Boris and did all she could to smother Brexit while it lay helpless in the political crib.
If you are driving on the wrong road you might want to make a U turn and go a different way. Why drive all the way to the wrong place? It might be on fire or flooded or not have a gas station. If you have a ruptured appendix after you have had a bypass and later a gall bladder removal, should you opt to not get an appendectomy because you have had too many surgeries?
Because he was a moderate who was lost in the giant shadow of Thatcher.
What’s he right about? He got the PM position by the very thing he’s complaining about here. The EUSSR wanted Thatcher out because she told the truth about them.
While I would agree with the squishy Sir Major, the first step Britain should take is to quit selecting clowns for Prime Minister. Then it should be much easier to keep them around for a while. Britain hasn't had a great PM since Margaret Thatcher.
Thatcher was a bright shooting star that brought the Brits a hope of escaping, she really did things that would have changed Britains disastrous course. I heard her speak in Texas long ago after she was done. She was simply put, great.
After her, the country did a slow walk towards suicide. Each PM failing to pick up her mantle. Failing to discern the evil course they were on. Evil is not just at your front door, but has moved into the house.
My 2 cents.
Maybe not, John, but you certainly need to change right now!
What is going to happen that will be a historical change for the better is...... there is going to be a change of Kings
And even more importantly, a change in Queens
What change?
Since Thatcher they’ve all been Deep State.
“The best aphrodisiac in politics is hope.”
Gee, I hope my country is overrun with head-chopping religious fanatics who will rape our women and live on welfare.
Saying a leader had a “complicated” legacy is a cliche. In the case of Major, its not. As much as Margaret Thatcher is a hero of mine, by the end of her term she was unpopular and unwilling to change. The Tories were unpopular and divided. Major took over a mess and turned it around to win a landslide. You have to give him credit for that. But that win did not paper over the deep, deep divides within the Conservative Party and they eventually ripped the party apart and ushered in the Blair era. Would it have been better for Maggie to hold on and lose the next election earlier? Maybe Labour would not have won such a dominant victory then? Who knows? In retrospect, Major seems like a Jimmy Carter type figure. A mid-level politician who wasn’t that bad but who could not rise to the occasion and was buffeted by events.
Howdy Doody wasn’t a game show, Mr. Major. But these PMs y’all got lately would fit that show fine.
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