Talk:John Major

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I moved Major-Currie to the end to make room for the no-majority stuff, though it's not really comfortable there. I'm not sure what the right way to do it is; despite the thematic link to back-to-basics and sleaze, the affair doesn't really belong to 1997 either, as it was long over by then. --rbrwr

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"In 1979 he was elected to Parliament as MP for Huntingdon, having failed to win the same seat on his first attempt in 1976."

This can't be right. There was no general election in 1976 and the Tories have never lost Huntingdon. Adam 03:31, 31 Oct 2003 (UTC)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/673348.stm indicates that he was chosen by the Huntingdon Conservative Party association in 1976 to be their candidate in the next election, which turned out to be in 1979. Article corrected. Pete 11:54, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Further detail re his early parliamentary election contests taken from e.g. http://www.lecturenow.com/People/JohnMajor.htm. Loads of sites appearing on Google searchs appear to confirm this, though as usual there seems to be an awful lot of plaigarism going on amongst political biography webpage writers! Maybe someone could flick open his memoirs to confirm the details next time they are in a good bookshop. Pete 12:12, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Pete, I have the US edition of Mr. Major's book (ISBN 0060196149). Major talks about being selected as Huntingdon[shire] PPC. If you wish to read it for yourself, it's pp. 57-60. Here's the summary:

1. Major loses both 1974 elections in St. Pancras; He puts in resumes in various seats across England;
2. He applies and is selected for Huntingdon[shire]; Major and his family moves to the area in the fall of 1977.

Based on this, the 1976 date is likely correct. -- iHoshie 08:50, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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Am I the only person who finds this funny?:

He ... left school at 16 to work as a bus conductor, from which he was sacked because of poor mathematics skills. [...] He eventually went to work for Standard Chartered Bank where he rose quickly through the ranks. Just goes to show you don't need to be able to count in order to be a banker! Arwel 11:14, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

According to numerous sources, he never worked as a bus conductor. He applied to be a bus conductor but his application was rejected. A former LT employee, in an interview shortly before the 1997 election, claimed that she had rejected his application because of his poor arithmetic. I've not read Major's biography so I don't know what he claims, but this 400 word summary courtesy of The Guardian [1](which is perhaps tongue in cheek) suggests that he was too tall. Mintguy (T)

Someone changed the three bastard from Peter Lilley, Michael Portillo and Michael Howard (politician) to Peter Lilley, Michael Portillo and John Redwood. But The Observer article shown at the bottom of the page indicates that the bastards were the former. Mintguy (T) 22:30, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

Here's the diff in question. --rbrwrˆ

FWIW, I thought it was Redwood, not Howard, too...

James F. (talk) 22:56, 11 May 2004 (UTC)

From what I can recall at the time and throughout the rest of Major's premiership, any combination of three of those four were cited on different occassions. The circumstances of the comment - a private conversation at the end of a very long week when Major had not had much sleep - do lead credence to Major's assertion in his memoirs that "bastards" actually referred to critics on the back benches and that he had not had specific Cabinet Ministers in mind, plucking the number at random. It's possible that the Press put two and two together, working on different information from Major. Timrollpickering 09:49, 17 May 2004 (UTC)

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How can he have been "born" as John Major Ball, but "christened" as John Roy Major (without the Ball)? Was his christeneing or baptismal name different from his legal name?? JackofOz 12:00, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

He wasn't born as John Major-Ball; the family had abandoned that surname by the time. The original name of his father was Abraham Thomas Ball (known as Tom) but when he went into the circus he adopted the name "Tom Major" and later it became part of his legal name too. Evidently when their son was born in 1943, Tom and Kitty Major wanted to give him a middle name but could not decide what it would be, and had not settled on one by the time the Birth Certificate had to be drawn up. They had chosen 'Roy' by the time of the christening. English law allows a person to change their names at any time as long as it is not for the purpose of fraud. Dbiv 01:25, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)

This needs to mention his accident in Nigeria. I will dig up info from his autobio. Morwen - Talk 10:35, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Cabinet

The cabinet section on this page is a mess. Can't we find a better way of doing it? Mintguy (T)

I prefer the method used on most PMs' pages (as it is much clearer and allows you to see the changes in order), but some people seem to think it takes up too much space. Proteus (Talk) 18:20, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

i think some connection should be made between the Major/Currie affair and his support of David Mellor. At the time few could understand why honest John Major stuck his neck out for Mellor but knowing he also had an affair makes sense.

PM table

I think there is a formatting error on the PM table - "The Rt Hon. John Major" doesn't seem to be centered above the picture. Also, was his KG really a "retirement honour"? Wouldn't his CH be the "retirement honour"? – ugen64 23:47, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Titles in photo captions

Why is it that the photos of British PMs are captioned with their name as at the time of their retirement as PM, and not with any later titles? OK, maybe they only became famous because they were PM, but the Wiki article is supposed to be about their whole life, not just about the period of their premiership. Surely the fact that Major is now a knight is relevant to his photo, no matter when it may have been taken. JackofOz 02:25, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

It's partly because the photo is part of the PM infobox, which details their career as PM. It'd be perfecly acceptable to put the "Sir" in the other photos. (It also helps identify quickly what name they were PM as, especially for people who were promoted in the peerage or what not after their premiership.) Proteus (Talk) 07:26, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Refused telephone calls

User:LapsedPacifist added the following scentance:

In March 1995, Major refused for several days to answer the phone calls of United States President Bill Clinton, angered at his decision to invite Gerry Adams to the White House for Saint Patrick's Day.

Ive removed it, as this seems doubtfull to me (if only as I doubt Clinton went round phoning Major up...) Could you provide a source? Iain 08:25, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)