John Major quotes - page 3

John Major is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997. His leadership followed Margaret Thatcher’s tenure and covered a period of major political and economic change. He is recognized for his efforts to promote peace in Northern Ireland and for navigating the country through a challenging era. Here are 78 of his quotes:

I don't think it's the role of the prime minister to court the press.

John Major

If we want to deliver opportunity for all, we need an economy that delivers jobs for the future.

John Major

When I was in office the fundraising was done by the party treasurers.

John Major

The argument that someone is a bad man is an inadequate argument for war and certainly an inadequate and unacceptable argument for regime change.

John Major

I have been reading the press more regularly than others over 50 years and it seems to me that there are things that have changed in the press that have changed its character.

John Major

When the euro was born, it was born in the wrong economic circumstances.

John Major

My mother was the center of the family.

John Major

I think the majority of the British people are still sanguine about the need for war.

John Major

What happens when there is a conflict between the Scottish parliament, if it was established, and the Westminster parliament? Who is supreme?

John Major

I mean if you have ever found a politician who says, 'No, no, I would do everything exactly as I did,' then you can tell when he is lying because his lips are moving.

John Major

The British don't runaway from terrorism. We have had 30-odd years of terrorism in our own country from the Irish Republican Army. We're used to it.

John Major

I think we can get respect for Parliament back providing governments and oppositions are frank.

John Major

I like the best of the British press. The best of the British press is very good.

John Major

Whatever efforts for peace President Gorbachev had in mind, they were pretty substantially undercut very swiftly by Saddam Hussein.

John Major

If you look at things that really affect people's lives - sport, the arts, charities - they were always at the back of the queue for government money - health, social security, defence, pensions were all way ahead. And each of those areas - sports, the arts, the lottery - got relatively petty cash from the government.

John Major

I thought I could do something different from any Conservative prime minister before me. But I couldn't.

John Major

You don't forget crises and neither does the Queen.

John Major

If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn't even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120,000 men for ten years.

John Major

Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.

John Major

I'm very proud of what my parents achieved and what they stood for. They didn't have much, but in many ways they were richer than most.

John Major

You've had an extremely weak euro on the foreign exchange markets, you've had a very dubious policy being followed.

John Major

I'm not about to write my memoirs. Not for a long time.

John Major