The Miner's Strike - 25 years ago yesterday..

[cookie_365]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Hard to say, perhaps they wouldn't have toppled the government, their tactics were working though, we were going through those reserves hoarded before the strike even began, had they had support from the dockers, steel workers and more importantly the Labour party itself it could have been different, Maggie herself said “We were in danger of losing everything,� the strike “could indeed have brought down the government.�

After a year of the strike there was coal stockpiled for another 18 months at least, even before you take imports into account.

Also, the government made sure that they weren't reliant on coal for power generation; they spent £hundreds of millions on getting the 60s nuclear power stations modernised and recommissioned pretty much anything that had ever generated power, even power stations that ran on airplane jet engines.

Thatcher saw what happened in the 70s with the miners strike then and learned from what happened. Whatever you think of her as a person, I can't think of many examples where she didn't learn from others' mistakes.

The miners had no hope of winning.

I can just about remember the London smogs of a dim and distant childhood..Thank goodness we went to smokeless fuel..however we need even cleaner energy solutions now and coal doesn't seem an automatic choice any more..

Just as long as we investigate and spread our choices across many sources of power..That way no one can hold anyone to ransom.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by cookie_365

After a year of the strike there was coal stockpiled for another 18 months at least, even before you take imports into account.

Also, the government made sure that they weren't reliant on coal for power generation; they spent £hundreds of millions on getting the 60s nuclear power stations modernised and recommissioned pretty much anything that had ever generated power, even power stations that ran on airplane jet engines.

Thatcher saw what happened in the 70s with the miners strike then and learned from what happened. Whatever you think of her as a person, I can't think of many examples where she didn't learn from others' mistakes.

The miners had no hope of winning.

That's what the press have always said, that they had no chance of winning, probably to put anyone else of trying, the fact is there were several times when they came close.

Don't believe to BS about the stockpiles either, there was a reason that the government forced their hand to striking when they did, don't you think they'd have prefered to strike at the end of summer rather than the begining of spring?

October 1984, six months into the strike, the future of Thatcher's government hung in the balance - when there were less than six weeks' coal stocks.

We weren't as reliant on coal you mean, our power stations were still in general coal based and our steel industry was entirely coal based.

The government weren't expecting the strike to last as long as it did, nor for them to be as organised, or do you think she was telling fibs when she said “We were in danger of losing everything,� the strike “could indeed have brought down the government.�

They expected a few months at most

Ten years after the strike Frank Ledger, the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) director of operations, recounted how they had only planned for a six-month strike and that the situation at this time was verging on the "catastrophic".

Former CEGB chairman Sir Walter Marshall spelt out what this meant: "Our predictions showed on paper that Scargill would win certainly before Christmas. Margaret Thatcher got very worried about that... I felt she was wobbly".

[Arthurgray50@blu]

Hi Cookie, I think what happened was, The Miners were on a hiding from the old bag, as she wanted to prove a point, and that she would not give in, what she eventually did, was kill a community of familes up and down the country, she brought havoc to this country that has never been seen before, The mining community were proud people, all the families went down the pit to earn a living, and give power to there country, we depended on the coal industry, l was very young then, but won't forget sitting there and thinking what my father would have said.

This country would have saved money becuase of coal, we now waste millions of pounds on trying to find ways of producing energy for the future, we the consumer are paying a fortune for energy from greedy companies that import from oversea's, whereas we have energy under our feet, and this can be produced very quickly, with the science we have today, And if l was driving down the road and saw her walking across the road, l wouldn't stop, she crippled this country, and l will never forget it.

The voice of reason once more proclaims forth............

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

i remember those times with fondness, no heating.no lighting .no work.no tea when i got home [no power] it wasn't easy being an arc welder in those days as the transformer was slightly dead most of the time , we all all had a real fondness for good ole king arthur and his mob ,holding the nation to ransom, we enjoyed being cold and huddled in the dark -the good old days without a doubt .

I remember my father coming home one night during the strike to a freezing cold house and saying that's it no more. We had a gas fire installed within days and never used coal ever again.

[Will21st]

Germany has recently re-opened some of it's coal mines,and they're productive and very profitable indeed.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-54995358.html

Unlike some other countries of Europe, where a fading mining industry has led to a great decline in the mining equipment manufacturing sector, Germany has remained a world leader even though its underground mining sector has shrunk dramatically in recent years. Germany immediately springs to mind as a dominant world force in large hydraulic mining shovels and in the more specialised continuous mining equipment and conveyor systems used in its large opencast lignite mines.

[frogstamper]

She certainly delivered on her Assisi quote "where there is despair let us bring hope", the only problem being she got the words ass about face.
"Where there was hope she certainly brought despair", she was without doubt the most divisive PM we have ever had, thank god many of her own party came to realise this and knifed the old cow.