‘John Major’s successes as Prime Minister, in the years 1992 to 1997, outweigh his
failures.’
John Major was the British prime minister from 1990 to 1997, replacing Thatcher. Largely,
John Major’s successes as Prime Minister, in the years 1992 to 1997 do not outweigh his
failures. While some may argue that John Major had some amounts of success in foreign
policy and in Northern Ireland , these are not comparable to his failures as he failed to unite
the Conservative party and damaged its image leading to Labour gaining the biggest
majority in history in 1997.
The strongest factor that demonstrates that Major’s successes do not outweigh his failures is
him damaging the image of the conservative party. Under Major, Britain was forced to leave
the European exchange rate mechanism, also known as the ERM, due to an event known as
‘Black Wednesday’ which was a highly embarrassing spectacle due to the government
having to announce the departure from the ERM on national television. Not only did it
deplete Britain’s image on the national stage it was humiliating for the Conservative party
and Major in particular as it ruined the party’s image as the party of economic competence.
Also, John Major’s ‘back to basics campaign’, championing a return to traditional judeo-
christian values further contributed to the downfall of the conservatives. His campaign, while
designed to bolster the Conservative’s popularity, just highlighted the scandals within the
party and made the Conservatives seem hypocritical.. Under Major’s premiership, there
were more than 12 sex scandals involving mp’s and the resignations of two cabinet ministers
after extra-marital affairs.All this information supports the view that John Major hindered the
popularity of the Conservative party.
Another failure of the Major was him failing to unite the Conservative party.Major was seen
as inept and weak and he was unable to quieten the criticism from the ‘bastards’ in the
cabinet.There was also a growth in euroscepticism in the party when Major was leader of the
Conservatives. The way Major handled the issue of Europe quickly became one of his
failures. While he tried to appease the Eurospectics by negotiating special terms for Britain
in the Maastricht treaty (Britain did not have to join the single currency or follow the social
chapter) this was a total failure.Him bringing the Maastricht treaty into law by threatening the
eurosceptic rebels with a vote of no confidence mobilised disappointed eurosceptics who
continued to vote against and embarrass Major. Additionally, Major struggled to appease
both Thatcherites and One-nation conservatives.
However some may argue that Major’s successes outweigh his failures due to his success in
the Balkans. After the end of the cold war, conflicts started to arise in what was Yugoslavia
due to shifting alliances and power dynamics . This eventually led to ethnic cleansing of
Bosnian muslims under the premiership of Slobodan Milosevic, a Serbian nationalist. John
Major held an EU and UN conference in London to address the conflict, which led to
peacekeepers being placed in the Balkans and was involved in the airstrikes.Others may
view this achievement as triumphing over his failures as John Major played a role in saving
lives and bringing peace to the Balkans. However, this argument is limited as the success of
achieving peace in the Balkan can be largely attributed to the US and NATO as before their
intervention the peacekeepers in Bosnia were virtually sitting ducks, which was evidenced by
, their failure to act in the Srebrenica massacre, where many Bosnian men and boys were
killed.
They may also use Major’s role in Northern Ireland to support their argument. Prior to 1992,
tensions between the unionists and republicans were high and the IRA even fired mortar
bombs at Downing street in 1991. Major developed a positive relationship with the Irish
Taisocheach Albert Reynolds and they did a speech together outside of Downing street in
1993, called the Downing street declaration. Many will say that this was a huge success as it
demonstrated a step towards peace in Northern Ireland. Shortly after, both the IRA and
Unionists declared a ceasefire. While Major’s role in the Balkans and Northern Ireland were
definitely achievements.These achievements do not outrank his failures as Major’s failures
were more significant and have affected his image even in contemporary times. His inability
to boost the party image and unite the party led the Conservatives to be unsuccessful in
general elections for the next 13 years.
In Conclusion,it is evident that John Major’s tenure was plagued by failures which by far
outweigh his achievements.Despite certain successes in Foreign policy and strides towards
peace in Northern Ireland, these achievements are overshadowed by more substantial
failures notably ‘Black Wednesday’ and ‘the back to basics campaign’ which crushed the
Conservatives electoral viability.Therefore, it is safely argued that John Major’s successes
outweigh his failures.
Privatisation and Right to Buy, in the years 1979 to 1987, were highly successful
social and economic policies.’
Thatcher, inspired by the neoliberal ideology, aspired to turn Britain into a ‘property
owning democracy’ and ‘roll back the frontiers of the state’. She attempted to do that
through the policies of Privatisation and Right to buy. These policies had high
amounts of economic success but very limited social success.
Firstly,privatisation was central to Thatcher’s economic policies and it accelerated
after 1984,when BT was sold off.It was beneficial economically as it generated
money for the government. Additionally, privatisation meant many more people could
have a greater ‘stake’ in society, for example between 1979 and 1999 the number of
individuals owning stocks and shares increased from 3 million to 9 million. However
some critics of Privatisation may argue that it was not a successful economic policy.
They may support former prime minister Harold Macmillan's argument that Thatcher
was ‘selling off the family silver’.This argument is limited as while Privatisation did
leave money less available to future governments, it drove competition which
eventually led to higher economic growth,underlining how Privatisation was a
successful economic policy.
Privatisation did not did not receive the same amount of social success. During
Thatcher’s premiership, there was mass privatisation which accelerated on an
unprecedented scale particularly after 1984.One of the consequences of privatisation
was that many people became unemployed as privatisation focused on ‘profit
