Quotes from John Major

The sight of allegedly sophisticated politicians parroting complete tripe trivialises and demeans government and it has to be stopped. It's played a significant part in public disillusionment with politics and has led to the absurd situation where more people vote for 'Strictly Come Dancing' than voted in the general election.

Disunity costs votes.

I think the majority of the British people are still sanguine about the need for war.

If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn't even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120,000 men for ten years.

When the euro was born, it was born in the wrong economic circumstances.

A country of long shadows on county cricket grounds, warm beer, green suburbs, dog lovers, and old maids cycling to holy communion through the morning mist.

[on Queen Mother] Our country is the richer for her life and the poorer at her death.

My father was 64 when I was conceived, my mother 38, which was late for babies in the 1940s.

When your back is against the wall, there is only one thing to do, and that is turn around and fight.

The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare.

I like the best of the British press. The best of the British press is very good.

You've had an extremely weak euro on the foreign exchange markets, you've had a very dubious policy being followed.

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

There are more myths about Black Wednesday than the Greeks ever created.

I mean if you have ever found a politician who says, 'No, no, I would do everything exactly as I did,' then you can tell when he is lying because his lips are moving.

Let's turn British inventions into British industries, British factories and British jobs. Let them make pounds for us, not dollars marks or yen for others.

I think we can get respect for Parliament back providing governments and oppositions are frank.

I want Britain to punch its weight in the European Community.

Well, I think there's a distinction between sexing-up the intelligence and sexing-up the presentation of the intelligence.

In the next ten years we will have to continue to make changes which will make the whole of this country a genuinely classless society.

Society needs to condemn a little more and understand a little less.

Life is full of surprises.

I want to see us build a country that is at ease with itself, a country that is confident and a country that is able and willing to build a better quality of life for all its citizens.

Well what would happen is that if Greece defaulted and couldn't pay its debts, all the Greek bonds that are held in other banking systems across Western Europe would suddenly have no value. You could as a knock-on effect create a banking crisis in Western Europe.