An Interesting Interview with John Major!

Yes, really. Like his American contemporary George HW Bush, John Major has suffered from being sandwiched between two far more glamorous premiers and like Bush Sr this probably means he’s under-rated these days. At the time his government often looked hopelessly weak and of course it often was, riven with feuding and driven to distraction by Europe and the Thatcherite legacy. Then there was Black Wednesday and the destruction of the party’s economic credentials.

Nevertheless, all these years later it seems remarkable that Major was able to hold it all together for as long as he did. As his successors’ fate demonstrated leading the Tory party, not always a cakewalk at the best of times, was a double-whisky-before-breakfast kind of job in those days. Moreover, he at least bequeathed a healthy, bouncing economy and the Irish peace process. That’s not nothing.

Anyway, here’s a very interesting interview with Major, notable for its decency, good sense and, odd though it may strike some, its imagination and optimism.

I wonder, as you think about coming century for Europe, the population in decline, immigration undoubtedly increasing, do you have concerns about the fabric of European society?

Well, I have concerns about the effectiveness of Europe to compete.

Financially, Economically?

Economically. I mean if you look at Europe, it has a higher degree of social on-cost than the United States, China, India or Asia. Over a long period of time, either we become technologically more advanced than China, India, Asia or America, or we will find ourselves becoming relatively less efficient. And relatively less efficient ultimately means relatively less rich and relatively less powerful economically and militarily.

My concern is that Europe looks inward too much and outward too little. It ought to be realizing it is not a question of Germany competing with France, competing with Italy, competing with Spain, it is a question of whether all those four countries and the other Europeans can compete with the United States and the hugely competitive countries of Asia and increasingly Latin America. So my big worry for Europe is the old Europe, if I can use the term that some use, is still so concerned with navel-gazing. They do not lift their eyes often enough to see what is happening in the rest of the world.

But culturally.

Come on. That is a difficult question to ask me. I lived in Brixton at the time of mass immigration. I lived in a house that had as many black people in it as white people and I heard people forecasting the end of the world. We [have] better race relations in this country than we have ever had. You go to a test match or a football match, you will find some of the players playing for England are black. You will find a large part of the crowd supporting are black. I have always been liberal to things like race and I still am, but I would point back to my own experience. There were people in the 1950s and early 1960s forecasting disaster because of immigration. It hasn’t happened.

[…] But were there were surely moments when you went to bed at night saying I made this decision, I really don’t know whether it is right or wrong but —

Every political leader has nights like that, absolutely everyone. If you don’t have that quantum of doubt in your mind, then you ought not to be a leader. Because people who have absolutely no element of doubt in their makeup are the people who lead countries into total disaster. Never be absolutely certain. Always let that nickel of doubt be slightly there. I can think of some who wouldn’t agree with that, but I think it is right

[On the public’s distaste for politicians and politics…]

I go and talk a lot to universities and youngsters and sixth formers, and they are wholly different from the sixth formers of 20 or 30 years ago. The sixth formers of 20 or 30 years ago all had political opinions. They were either very right-wing or very left-wing. As youngsters are, they had a firm view. And seeing across the divide, it is not the great strength of 16- and 17-year-olds and a large number of them wanted to be in politics or public services. Today, they are much less committed to any political party and they don’t want to go into public service. It is a huge change. People are often knocking this generation. My experience of them is quite the reverse that they probably do more charity work than any earlier generation I have known; that they are good kids, they are not political bigots.

Political parties have far fewer people who naturally align themselves these days. The number of people who say, “I am a Republican or a Democrat or a Tory or a Liberal or Labor body” is lower than it has been for many years. They are much more rational-thinking beings. They judge on personality and policy, and I think that is attractive.

The thought occurs that David Cameron should to find a way to use Major. He could, now that his own storm-tossed ministry is a matter for posterity, be a useful ally and asset for the coalition.