Sir John Major, former UK Prime Minister - are the lessons of WW2 being forgotten?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nick Robinson speaks to Sir John Major, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
It’s 80 years since VE day marked the end of WW2 in Europe - and Sir John reflects on the lessons that should be remembered from the conflict. He is the last British Prime Minister who was alive during the Second World War.
Sir John warns democracy should not be taken for granted, and is in retreat in some parts of the world - where tyranny is instead taking its place. He sets out his belief in fighting for the freedom of Ukraine, in a stronger Nato, and in a united Europe able to defend itself.
The former prime minister also looks back at previous Victory in Europe days, and the moving ceremonies, moments and people that have stayed with him.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service, Mondays and Wednesdays at 0700 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out twice a week on BBC Sounds, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Nick Robinson Producers: Ben Cooper, Lucy Sheppard Editor: Max Deveson
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Nick Robinson, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today program and the Political Thinking podcast. |
| 0:05.8 | This is the interview from the BBC World Service, the best conversations coming out of the BBC, |
| 0:12.3 | people shaping our world from all over the world. |
| 0:16.8 | I will come back to Russia. I will participate in the elections. |
| 0:22.5 | There's an increase in violence according to the coca crop. |
| 0:26.6 | There's no place in the world where women are equal. |
| 0:28.9 | I will give away the vast majority of my money. It's my full-time focus for the rest of my life. |
| 0:36.8 | For this interview, I met Sir John Major, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, |
| 0:42.3 | who came to speak to us at the BBC's headquarters, Broadcasting House. |
| 0:47.0 | You're going to hear Sir John's recollection of the end of the war, |
| 0:50.7 | what it meant for him and his family, |
| 0:53.7 | as well as the lessons he believes we should |
| 0:56.7 | learn from the sacrifices that were made then, his concerns about the future of the NATO |
| 1:03.4 | alliance, the future of Ukraine, and the threat it poses to us all if tyranny is, in his words, allowed to succeed. |
| 1:14.2 | We actually have sight in Ukraine of what an anti-democracy led by a tyrannical leader is actually |
| 1:22.2 | capable of doing. At the moment, people take democracy for granted. I don't think it's safe to do that. |
| 1:29.6 | Democracy has been in retreat for the last 16, 17, 18 years in many parts of the world. |
| 1:35.5 | And we have some people running countries at the moment who are far from democratic. |
| 1:39.4 | They're tyrannical. |
| 1:40.4 | Welcome to the interview from the BBC World Service with me, Nick Robinson. |
| 1:46.7 | I, of course, was only two when the war ended |
| 1:50.8 | and don't have any direct memories of it. |
... |
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