Andrew Marr interviews John Major on the state of UK politics & UK debt

I caught this very interesting interview with former PM John Major talking about how the state of the UK public debt is so much worse than we realise, and about the problems that the next government – whichever party it might be – will face. Government will have to raise taxes or cut spending, he says. He even proposes that government itself should be downsized, and mentions a very interesting idea to ensure that politicians are more in touch with “real life”. They also discuss the problems of the loss of trust in Parliament as a whole following the expenses scandal.

I don’t support Labour or Conservative myself, but I can’t help but see parallels between the media criticism of John Major that led to his downfall and the similar media attacks on Gordon Brown of late. Gordon Brown strikes me as a shrewd economist who somewhat has his hands tied by public and media pressure. I hope he doesn’t suffer the same fate John Major did, and I would like to think the British public could let people like Major and Brown do their job on their own merits. Sadly, with the media being as anti-establishment and influential to public opinion as it is, I’m not sure that can happen.

This YouTube version is viewable anywhere but stops before the end. For UK viewers the full interview is on iPlayer [43:00 minutes in]