QuotesCosmos
Robin Oakley, "Major rejects devaluation as betrayal of the future", The Times, 11 September 1992.
• Speech to the Scottish CBI (10 September 1992), six days before Black Wednesday when the Pound was forced out of the ERM.
“

All my adult life I have seen British governments driven off their virtuous pursuit of low inflation by market problems or political pressures. I was under no illusions when I took Britain into the ERM. I said at the time that membership was no soft option. The soft option, the devaluer's option, the inflationary option, that would in my opinion be a betrayal of Britain's future.

— John Major

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "All my adult life I have seen British governments driven off their virtuous pursuit of low inflation by market problems or political pressures. I was under no illusions when I took Britain into the ERM. I said at the time that membership was no soft option. The soft option, the devaluer's option, the inflationary option, that would in my opinion be a betrayal of Britain's future." in the context of "Robin Oakley, "Major rejects devaluation as betrayal of the future", The Times, 11 September 1992.
• Speech to the Scottish CBI (10 September 1992), six days before Black Wednesday when the Pound was forced out of the ERM." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "John Major" (Quotes, 1990s, 1992) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#John Major#option#soft#inflationary#governments#membership#inflation#political#pressures#illusions#devaluers#virtuous
John Major

About John Major

Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997. His childhood was spent in Brixton after his father's business failed, and he left school at 16. He worked for Standard Chartered Bank and became a councillor in Lambeth in 1968. He was elected to Parliament in 1979 and was a Cabinet Minister under Margaret Thatcher before being elected as her successor. After his defeat by Tony Blair's Labour Party in 1997, he retired as Leader of the Conservative Party in favor of William Hague and left the House of Commons at the 2001 general election.