Back to Basics (campaign)

This article is part of a series about John Major
Electoral history MP for Huntingdon 1990 budget Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Premiership First Ministry and Term 1990 leadership election Cabinet Citizen's Charter Charter Mark Cones Hotline Early 1990s recession Gulf War 1992 general election Second Ministry and Term Cabinet Black Wednesday National Lottery Further and Higher Education Act 1992 Grant-maintained schools Maastricht Treaty rebels Northern Ireland peace process Downing Street mortar attack Downing Street Declaration 1993 reviews of the British honours system Council Tax Child Support Agency 1993 vote of confidence Back to Basics Privatisation of British Rail Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 1995 Conservative Party leadership election The Cullen Reports Cash for Questions Committee on Standards in Public Life Arms-to-Iraq affair Scott Report United Kingdom BSE outbreak Wirral South by-election Resignation Honours Bibliography More Than a Game
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Back to Basics was a political campaign announced by British Prime Minister John Major at the Conservative Party conference of 1993 in Blackpool.

Though it was intended as a nostalgic appeal to traditional values such 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 subject of ridicule when a succession of Conservative politicians were caught up in scandals.

The previous year of Major's premiership had been beset by infighting within the Conservative party on the issue of Europe, including rebellions in several Parliamentary votes on the Maastricht Treaty. He was also dealing with the fallout from the Black Wednesday economic debacle of September 1992.^[1]