Editing John Major (section)

==Assessment and legacy==
[[File:Sir John Major - geograph.org.uk - 1367859.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Bust of Major by [[Shenda Amery]] in Huntingdon Library]]
Major's mild-mannered style and moderate political stance contrasted with that of Thatcher and made him theoretically well placed to act as a conciliatory and relatively uncontroversial leader of his party. In spite of that, conflict raged within the parliamentary Conservative Party, particularly over the extent of Britain's integration with the European Union. Major never succeeded in reconciling the ‘Euro-rebels’ among his MPs to his European policy, who although relatively few in number wielded great influence because of his small majority and their wider following among Conservative activists and voters.{{sfn|Seldon|1998|pp=736-737}} Episodes such as the Maastricht Rebellion, led by [[Bill Cash]] and Margaret Thatcher, inflicted serious political damage on him and his government. The additional bitterness on the [[right wing]] of the Conservative Party at the manner in which Margaret Thatcher had been deposed did not make Major's task any easier, with many viewing him as a weak and vacillating leader.{{sfn|Seldon|1998|pp=736-737}} Ongoing sleaze-related scandals among leading Conservative MPs did Major and his government no favours either, decreasing support for the party amongst the public.

His task became even more difficult after the election in 1994 of the modernist and highly media-savvy Tony Blair as [[1994 Labour Party leadership election|Labour leader]], who mercilessly exploited Conservative divisions whilst shifting Labour to the centre, thus being perceived by some as making it much more electable.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7593554.stm |work=BBC News | title=Who has been UK's greatest post-war PM? | date=16 September 2008}}</ref> Whilst few observers doubted that Major was an honest and decent man, or that he made sincere and sometimes successful attempts to improve life in Britain and to unite his deeply divided party, he was also perceived as a weak and ineffectual figure, and his approval ratings for most of his time in office were low, particularly after ‘Black Wednesday’ in September 1992, which destroyed the Conservatives' reputation for effective economic management.<ref>{{cite news|title=30 January 1997: 'Weak, weak, weak'|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/historic_moments/newsid_8188000/8188574.stm|work=BBC News|access-date=19 July 2012|date=31 October 2009}}</ref>

Major defended his government in his memoirs, focusing particularly on how under him the British economy had recovered from the recession of 1990–1993. He wrote that "during my premiership interest rates fell from 14% to 6%; unemployment was at 1.75&nbsp;million when I took office, and at 1.6&nbsp;million and falling upon my departure; and the government's annual borrowing rose from £0.5&nbsp;billion to nearly £46&nbsp;billion at its peak before falling to £1&nbsp;billion".{{sfn|Major|2000|p=689}} Major's Chancellor [[Ken Clarke]] stated in 2016 that Major's reputation looked better as time went by, in contrast to that of Tony Blair's which appeared to be in decline.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rice|first1=Michael|title=In Depth BBC Interview: Ken Clarke|via=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox24s3NylMI&t=1808s| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526061255/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox24s3NylMI&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=26 May 2019 | url-status=dead|access-date=26 July 2017}}</ref> [[Paddy Ashdown]], the [[Leader of the Liberal Democrats]] during Major's term of office, was more sympathetic, writing in 2017 that Major was "one of the most honest, brave and sincere men to ever be Prime Minister" and that his time in office compares favourably with that of his successor Tony Blair.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ashdown |first=Paddy |editor1-last=Hickson |editor1-first=Kevin |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=Ben |title=John Major – An Unsuccessful Prime Minister? Reappraising John Major |publisher=Biteback Publishing  |date=2017 |pages=309 |chapter=19. A View from the Centre |isbn=978-1-785-90271-0}}</ref>
[[File:John Major (28235958716).jpg|thumb|268x268px|Major at a fundraising event in [[Central London]] in 2009]]
Writing shortly after he left office, the historian and journalist [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]] wrote that Major was "a hopeless leader" who "should never have been Prime Minister".{{sfn|Seldon|1998|p=735}} The sentiments echoed that of much of the press at the time, which was generally hostile to Major, especially after Black Wednesday. The journalist [[Peter Oborne]] was one such figure, though writing in 2017 he stated that he now regrets his negative reporting, stating that he himself and the press in general were "grossly unfair to Major" and that this was motivated at least in part by snobbery at Major's humble upbringing.<ref>{{cite book |last=Oborne |first=Peter |editor1-last=Hickson |editor1-first=Kevin |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=Ben |title=John Major – An Unsuccessful Prime Minister? Reappraising John Major |publisher=Biteback Publishing |date=2017 |page=xi |chapter=Foreword |isbn=978-1-785-90271-0}}</ref> In 2012 Oborne had written that Major's government looks ever more successful as time goes by.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/9185917/Its-time-to-give-John-Major-the-credit-we-so-cruelly-denied-him.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/9185917/Its-time-to-give-John-Major-the-credit-we-so-cruelly-denied-him.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=It's time to give John Major the credit we so cruelly denied him |work=The Daily Telegraph |date= 4 April 2012|access-date=5 February 2013 |location=London |first=Peter |last=Oborne}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Oborne singled out Major's achievements in the Northern Irish peace process, boosting the economy, keeping Britain out of the Eurozone, and his reforms of public services as being worthy of praise.<ref>{{cite book |last=Oborne |first=Peter |editor1-last=Hickson |editor1-first=Kevin |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=Ben |title=John Major – An Unsuccessful Prime Minister? Reappraising John Major |publisher=Biteback Publishing |date=2017 |pages=xiii–xiv |chapter=Foreword |isbn=978-1-785-90271-0}}</ref> Others remain unconvinced, however, and, writing in 2011, the BBC's Home editor [[Mark Easton]] judged that "Majorism" had made little lasting impact.<ref name=intro-cam>{{cite news|last=Easton|first=Mark|title=Introducing Cameronism|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14115047|access-date=11 July 2011|work=BBC News UK|date=11 July 2011|author-link=Mark Easton|quote="Majorism and [[Brownism]] are unconvincing stubs. History appears to have decided they may have re-upholstered the settee and scattered a few cushions but they didn't alter the [[feng shui]] of the room."}}</ref>

In academic circles Major's legacy has generally been better received. Mark Stuart, writing in 2017, stated that Major is "the best ex-Prime Minister we have ever had", praising him for initiating the Northern Ireland peace process, peacefully handing Hong Kong back to China, creating the [[National Lottery (United Kingdom)|National Lottery]] and leaving a sound economy to Labour in 1997.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nottspolitics.org/2017/04/10/john-major-at-25-the-best-ex-prime-minister-weve-ever-had/ |title=John Major at 25: the best ex-Prime Minister we've ever had? |publisher=School of Politics & International Relations, University of Nottingham |access-date=16 July 2020 |date=10 April 2017 |archive-date=19 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719210302/https://nottspolitics.org/2017/04/10/john-major-at-25-the-best-ex-prime-minister-weve-ever-had/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Dennis Kavanagh]] likewise states that Major did relatively well considering the unbridgeable divides that existed in the Conservative Party in the 1990s, chiefly over Europe, whilst also delivering economic growth, a more user-focused public sector and the basis of peace settlement in Northern Ireland.<ref name="Kavanagh">{{cite news|url=https://journals.openedition.org/osb/717 |title=John Major's political legacy |author=Dennis Kavanagh| publisher=Observatoire de la société britannique |year= 2009 |access-date=16 July 2020}}</ref> He also notes that Major's unexpected 1992 election victory effectively sealed in the Thatcher-era reforms and forced the Labour Party to ditch most of its more socialist-tinged policies, thereby permanently shifting the British political landscape to the centre ground.<ref name="Kavanagh"/> Anthony Seldon largely agrees with this assessment, adding that Major's deep dislike of discrimination contributed to the continuing decline in racism and [[homophobia]] in British society, and that his proactive foreign policy stance maintained Britain's influence in the world at a time of profound global change.{{sfn|Seldon|1998|pp=738-744}} He also notes that Major faced a deeply unfavourable set of circumstances: most of the obvious and pressing Conservative reforms (e.g. reining in the power of trade unions and privatising failing industries) had already been completed under Thatcher, the swift nature of his rise to power left him little time to formulate policy positions and upon becoming prime minister he was immediately thrust into having to deal with the [[Gulf War]] and a major recession. Furthermore, the narrow majority achieved after the 1992 election left him exposed to internal Conservative rebellions, which only worsened as time went by, abetted by a hostile press, as it became clear the Conservatives would lose the next election.{{sfn|Seldon|1998|pp=739-741}} Seldon concludes that "Major was neither non-entity nor failure. His will be judged an important if unruly premiership at the end of the Conservative century, completing some parts of an earlier agenda while in some key respects helping to define a Conservatism for the 21st century."{{sfn|Seldon|1998|p=743}} Seldon reiterated these views in his contribution to the 2017 volume ''John Major: An Unsuccessful Prime Minister?''<ref>{{cite book |last=Seldon|first=Anthony|editor1-last=Hickson |editor1-first=Kevin |editor2-last=Williams |editor2-first=Ben |title=John Major – An Unsuccessful Prime Minister? Reappraising John Major |publisher=Biteback Publishing  |date=2017 |pages=325–39 |chapter=22. An Overall Assessment |isbn=978-1-785-90271-0}}</ref>

Political historian Robert Taylor, in his 2006 [[biography]] of Major, concurs with many of these points, summing up that "In the perspective provided by the years of New Labour government since May 1997, John Major's record as Prime Minister looked much better than his many critics liked to suggest... Britain's most extraordinary Conservative Prime Minister bequeathed an important legacy to this party and his country to build on. One day both yet may come to recognise and appreciate it."<ref>{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=Robert |title=20 British Prime Ministers of the 20th century – Major |publisher=Haus Publishing  |date=2006 |pages=115, 126 |isbn=978-1-904-95072-1 |ref=none}}</ref> Noted political historian [[Dick Leonard]], however, writing in 2004, was more harsh in his assessment, concluding that Major was "A man of evident decent instincts, but limited abilities: as Prime Minister he pushed these abilities to the limit. It was not enough."<ref>{{cite book |last=Leonard |first=Dick |title= A Century of Premiers: Salisbury to Blair |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan  |date=2004 |page=341 |isbn= 978-0-230-51150-7}}</ref>