Although this programme was looking at what happened to ex PM's after they'd left the office I'm amazed that none of them seemed interested in bettering the country or their people. Lots of comments about John Major below but I thought he waffled around most of the difficult questions.
Genuine sports fan Major. 2 things he doesnt get enough credit for 1)Northern Ireland, he did a lot of the groundwork Blair just finished it off 2)Premier League Football he granted football clubs tax breaks to update their grounds post Taylor report which attracted investment. Football wasnt trendy then and certainly wasnt trendy amongst his Tory peers
Politics aside. I've always liked John Major, he seemed to be the most personable and genuine of them all, unlike the absolute shower we have now. They couldn't organise a piss- up in a brewery.
I'm not a conservative, never have been nor will I ever be. Nevertheless, I think John Major aged like fine wine and I think that the Tory party of the time, opened his bottle much too soon. Whilst I prefer a left of centre government, like a person climbing a ladder, the country needs to use both their left and right legs successfully, to reach the top of that ladder. If we must have a 'right leg' ('wing) government, then I would prefer for it to be someone like John Major that leads it.
I did a semester of High School in the US and had the luck to attend an Aadvanced Program American History class with a great teacher a great students. When we were learning about the dabate, one of the students asked her mother and her mother, who had listened to debate on radio, considered Nixon the winner. Her opinion was shared by most peoiple who heard it on the radio while most people who watched it on the TV considered Kennedy the winner.
One of the problems with lectures is that they can become a form of bribery. As soon as Lula left office in 2010 he receive 1 million USD for a lecture in South Korea - a country the Brazilian oil company had bought many tankers from. But I'm sure it was just a coincidence because was never accused of corruption before nor after that lecture ... 😉
AFAIK, Harold Wilson had become paranoid and believe people were spying on him ... also, AFAIK, decades later it was made public that it wasn't paranoia - he really was being spied on by either MI6 or MI5. I'm not British but the country has been so important and influential both cuturally and politically influencial (as a positive example to be followed) that developed this interest in the recent history of British politics.
It's hard to imagen that all the prime minsters are no longer un 10 downing street sw1 great britain and it's hard to see houses of commons has changed .but that's the way was in these days kl dundee uk
Only he's not. And a lot of the criticism isn't much more than hypocritical drivel. He's consistently ranked as one of the best, or at least most important, post-war PMs. Most people who hate Blair don't even seem to know why they do. A large part of it is, clearly, the hypocritical manner in which the Conservatives and the right wing media have used the invasion of Iraq to attack him, and the Labour Party.
Lord Donaghue was a sewer rat. Totally disloyal to a decent honourable man in Lord Harold Wilson. Donaghue would be absolutely nothing but for Harold Wilson. A second rate clown
Kenneth Clarke has to be the most obnoxious and useless Tory ever. He did nothing for 40 years and will remembered for blaming the collapse of Barings bank on "A Rogue Trader". That, more than anything, sums him up, and sums up the size of his brain, which is considerably less than the size of his stomach.
Lovely documentary. I liked them all for their personal strengths. As a young MP I saw Major grow into the job on a hard wicket and the one or two private chats I had - 1995 Leadership, near the end in '97. Major has behaved impeccably.
The importance of having interests outside of the day job. Major and Callaghan had those, thatcher and heath didn't, so looked lost when the music stopped.
