Looking back, with a perspective that somewhat contradicts the impression at the time, one can see that Sir John Major’s premiership was marked by a single act of outstanding statesmanship – keeping Britain in Europe.
With his party increasingly divided and hysterical about European integration, and faced with the equally driven determination of the major continental powers to press on with the next phase of “ever closer union” as set out in the Maastricht Treaty, Sir John skillfully managed to negotiate key opt-outs from that treaty, and to push it through parliament despite fanatical resistance from the Eurosceptics.
