ABSTRACT
John Major had reached the top job in British politics after just eleven years in Parliament and three years in the Cabinet. He was the youngest Prime Minister for nearly a century. He was reckoned to be for 'sound money' in the Conservative tradition but he called for a 'classless society'. Finally, he was much more positive about the European Community than Thatcher had been. One of the first things Major had to deal with was the continuing crisis in the Persian Gulf. In the 1990s Britain had a larger female proportion of the work-force than any other European Union state. As Britain approached the election of 1997, Major struggled to keep his fragmented party together on a mounting tide of hostility to the European Union (EU) and 'German hegemony'. Britain was more dependent than ever on its neighbours in the EU and on the world economy.
