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

[Flyboy]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Because, of course, Arthur was elected by the people of the UK to bring down the government (again, trying to repeat his actions in the 70's with Heath)?

To quote the Labour Leader (Neil Kinnock) at the time -
"The strike was ruined the minute it was politicised and in the mind of Arthur Scargill it was always a political struggle. He fed himself the political illusion that as long as the miners were united they had the right to destabilise and overthrow the democratically elected government. The miners didn't deserve him, they deserved much, much better. My view is Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill deserved each other. But no-one else did."

Well, he'd have had my vote.

[LondonRoad]

Officially the strike ended when the NUM declared it ended. The reality was different.

The way that energy prices fluctuate mothballed mines could have been cost effectively brought back into production. There has been quite a few recent periods when it has been cheaper to produce electricity using expensive imported coal than our own gas. Future generations will be cursing us when foreign powers are holding us to ransom for poorer quality coal than we have under our own feet.

Only last year UK coal were considering opening a pit that they mothballed only 2 or 3 years earlier. I can't remember if they did or not but I remember reading that the pit in question had less reserves than some pits that were closed and not mothballed over the past 20 years.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by martyh

i agree that is the problem .It was very shortsighted of the gov. to allow this to happen some of the larger pits should have been maintained .I do remember it was a big political issue at the time (shortley after the strike and the pits started to close ) but as usual maggie got her way and had them closed instead of mothballed
maybe the gov. should look at long term spending over say 10-15yrs to re-open some of the larger ones or even sink new shafts in new fields ..if there are new fields to be found

Lol shortsighted, more like the actions of a vengeful few who knew exactly what they were doing.

---------- Post added at 16:56 ---------- Previous post was at 16:51 ----------

Originally Posted by foreverwar

a) The "evidence" is hearsay, supplied by Mr Scargill, not exactly an uninterested party in the dispute, who may have an interest in rewriting history to perhaps show him in a more favourable light.

b) "changing the law to suit her agenda" - supposition, not fact - I beg to differ on your premise. Under that viewpoint, it would be equally as valid to state that even if Arthur Scargill had held a ballot and lost, he would still have held an illegal strike - it is too easy to rewrite history to support one side or the other of a viewpoint by changing facts.

Hold on Tory Boy

When the strike was called it was legal, the court of appeal even said so previously. If those in the so called 'safe pits' had listened and shown some unity we might still have a coal industry today, after all where are their safe jobs now? And of course there is also the question of whether they were forced into strike action by the government as well.

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

If those in the so called 'safe pits' had listened and shown some unity we might still have a coal industry today, after all where are their safe jobs now?

Are you for real?

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Because, of course, Arthur was elected by the people of the UK to bring down the government (again, trying to repeat his actions in the 70's with Heath)?

To quote the Labour Leader (Neil Kinnock) at the time -
"The strike was ruined the minute it was politicised and in the mind of Arthur Scargill it was always a political struggle. He fed himself the political illusion that as long as the miners were united they had the right to destabilise and overthrow the democratically elected government. The miners didn't deserve him, they deserved much, much better. My view is Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill deserved each other. But no-one else did."

They deserved much, much better from a Labour leader than you as well Neil, you might even have won the top job on the back of it

---------- Post added at 17:07 ---------- Previous post was at 17:06 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Are you for real?

No I am a figment of your imagination, run along and bother some one else if that's all you have to say

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

No I am a figment of your imagination, run along and bother some one else if that's all you have to say

Very funny. You know what I meant. Do you seriously believe there was any likely scenario whereby the miners could have won?

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Chris

Very funny. You know what I meant. Do you seriously believe there was any likely scenario whereby the miners could have won?

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.�

[Flyboy]

Perhaps it was situation like the Battle of Britain, where they only had about a week to go before defeat.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I think for the first time, l have to disagree with what has been said concerning the mining industry and the future.

We have under our feet, as they say, We have energy that is home produced, and the workforce that can make it work, we have the science that can produce a coal that can overtake all this wind crap that ruins our landscapes, What we have to look at is, we import coal, which must cost a bundle, we have mines that work at the moment and it profitable.

The mining industry was killed off, by an old bag who wanted to take on everyone, and she crippled this country, and she is resented by some people in this country, this country is always looking at ways for power in the future and spending money - your money- which sometimes goes to waste., and also opening up the mines again, you would reduce the unemployment overnight.

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I think for the first time, l have to disagree with what has been said concerning the mining industry and the future.

We have under our feet, as they say, We have energy that is home produced, and the workforce that can make it work, we have the science that can produce a coal that can overtake all this wind crap that ruins our landscapes, What we have to look at is, we import coal, which must cost a bundle, we have mines that work at the moment and it profitable.

We have energy under our feet, and it is, undoubtedly, just about the most environmentally disastrous energy we could choose. The sulphur, I admit, we can nowadays deal with - only after decades of pouring acid rain on Scandinavia, mind you - but the carbon, we cannot. The technology to remove millions of tonnes of carbon from coal burned on a commercial scale simply does not exist.

As for wind power ruining our landscapes ... I invite you to take a trip up the valleys in South Wales if you want to see what coal mining does to landscapes. Or anywhere there used to be large-scale mining, for that matter. Massive artificial mountains of slag, I think we can do without.

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by Chris

As for wind power ruining our landscapes ... I invite you to take a trip up the valleys in South Wales if you want to see what coal mining does to landscapes. Or anywhere there used to be large-scale mining, for that matter. Massive artificial mountains of slag, I think we can do without.

Chris, with the upmost respect to you, each and every slagheap is a monument to the forefathers of a large section of our population.

I've never worked down a pit but I know how important they were to our nation. I know how our nation has benefited from the mining industry. I know how dangerous the conditions were. I know the long hours working men spent underground. I know what their reward was for that labour.

Think of the human cost that produced that slagheap and it may not seem so offensive to your eyes.

I actually find wind farms quite aesthetic.... to view from a distance, I wouldn't want one in moby.

You know, if I were a betting man, I'd be prepared to put the farm on Arthur not having had monuments to anyone in particular in mind when he talked about destroying the landscape. I'm pretty sure he meant aesthetics, pure and simple. To which I reply, coal slag is far uglier.

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by Chris

You know, if I were a betting man, I'd be prepared to put the farm on Arthur not having had monuments to anyone in particular in mind when he talked about destroying the landscape. I'm pretty sure he meant aesthetics, pure and simple. To which I reply, coal slag is far uglier.

I couldn't possible comment on you comparing Arthur's beauty with that of a coal slag You clearly have more intimate knowledge than I.

Arthur the coal under our feet wasn't home produced. We were still joined to Europe when all them dinosaurs popped it and most of them were French so really it's their coal if fair's fair.

Leave it ahhht, you slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags!

[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 .