John Major

If you look at things that really affect people's lives - sport, the arts, charities - they were always at the back of the queue for government money - health, social security, defence, pensions were all way ahead. And each of those areas - sports, the arts, the lottery - got relatively petty cash from the government.

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Well British troops are superb in the field in terms of conflict.

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Life is full of surprises.

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Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be too clever by half. The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

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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.

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The argument that someone is a bad man is an inadequate argument for war and certainly an inadequate and unacceptable argument for regime change.

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Whatever efforts for peace President Gorbachev had in mind, they were pretty substantially undercut very swiftly by Saddam Hussein.

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Disunity costs votes.

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

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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.

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What happens when there is a conflict between the Scottish parliament, if it was established, and the Westminster parliament? Who is supreme?

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I think the biggest mistake I made was this wretched ability to see both sides of an argument.

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Neil Kinnock's speeches go on for so long because he has nothing to say and so he has no way of knowing when he's finished saying it.

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Quotes by John Major