Quote:
Originally Posted by lauzjp
Our council is in the process of removing all the fire places from council properties - not that they were coal ones anyway, but we don't even have gas fires - where was the demand for coal? Of course mines would have to close. The government can't keep bailing out failing businesses where would that lead us?  |
The demand for coal comes from power stations. Most of it now has to be imported. It would have cost the government of the day a miniscule amount to keep some pits on a care and maintenance basis, compared to the obscene amounts of money they have used to bail out the collapsed banking industry.
There would have been no pity required. There were strong economic and social arguments for such a policy but they didn't fit in with the pure greed culture promoted by the Thatcherites.