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Major: Coalition should become permanent

Sir John Major, former prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, delivers his address to the 145th commencement ceremonies at Washington University in St. Louis on May 19, 2006. (UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt)
Sir John Major, former prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, delivers his address to the 145th commencement ceremonies at Washington University in St. Louis on May 19, 2006. (UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt) | License Photo

CAMBRIDGE, England, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Former Prime Minister John Major wants a "mini-realignment" of British politics, with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats joining forces.

Major, who headed the Conservative Party and the government from 1990 to 1997, proposed a de facto merger in a speech at Churchill College, Cambridge, The Daily Telegraph reported.

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"Can the Coalition achieve its purpose in five years? It will be hard pounding but its program is essential to national well-being and so, if uncompleted, I hope some way can be found to prolong cooperation beyond this Parliament," he said Friday. "It may be that a temporary alliance will turn into a mini-realignment of politics: after all, in a world that is changing so comprehensively, why should politics not change, too?"

Party leaders reject plans to make their coalition permanent. Prime Minister David Cameron has said he hopes for a Conservative majority after the next election, and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says the Liberal Democrats will also run on their own.

Major, more moderate than his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, fought the Tory right wing while he was party leader. He suggested a permanent alliance with the Liberal Democrats would make the Conservatives a party of the center.

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