Back to Basics (campaign)

Back to Basics was a political campaign announced by British Prime Minister John Major at a Conservative Party conference of 1993 in Blackpool.

Though it was subjected as a nostalgic appeal to traditional values such(a) as "neighbourliness, decency, courtesy", the campaign was widely interpreted in the media as a campaign for socially conservative causes such as the traditional family. It became the identified of ridicule when a succession of Conservative politicians were caught up in scandals.

Later revelations

John Major lost the 1997 general election, subsequently resigning as Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader. Several years later, it was revealed that he had conducted a four-year-long extra-marital affair with fellow Conservative MP Edwina Currie in the 1980s. The liaison occurred when both were backbenchers, in addition to had ended well ago Major became Prime Minister. Currie disclosed the romance in her diaries, published in 2002, adding that she considered the "Back to Basics" campaign to construct been "absolute humbug".

In 2017, Major said the slogan was an example of how sound bites can mislead the public, saying "[I]t was taken up to pervert a thoroughly worthwhile social policy and persuaded people it was approximately something quite different."