The miners strike........

[CL]

I'll just move my dad's miner's lamp out of the way, Trevor, and see if I can find my old NCB weekly payslips.

Graham I'd like to hear more about this.

[CL]

..............and me. Last nights TV.

Good documentary, allowed all sides to give their views - Heseltine came across as a monster.

Whatever your thoughts on the economics of the dispute, a few things are now abundently clear

The government had a wider agenda...defeat the NUM and other Unions would collapse, and the ruling class could start to treat workers like shite again

Scargill was 100% correct when he said hundreds of pits would close....this was denied by the Thatcher government at the time, but papers released in January 2014 prove there was a hit list

Orgreave was a planned assault on the pickets, a military like operation....calls for a public inquiry are still beiing ignored.

Danbert are you of the opinion that business should be run at a loss?

[Danbert Nocurry]

Danbert are you of the opinion that business should be run at a loss?

Christopher I am of the opinion that If working people had stuck together we would have won. If truck drivers had refused to drive imported coal, power station workers went on strike in support of the miners who were running stations on imported coal, bus drivers refused to bus in scabs, the police refused to do Thatchers bidding etc the government would have had to back down. But too many people think of the short term rather than the long term, divide and conquer and in the end everyone gets shafted. And look where we are now thirty years later bloody zero contracts.

[Witton Park]

Christopher I am of the opinion that If working people had stuck together we would have won. If truck drivers had refused to drive imported coal, power station workers went on strike in support of the miners who were running stations on imported coal, bus drivers refused to bus in scabs, the police refused to do Thatchers bidding etc the government would have had to back down. But too many people think of the short term rather than the long term, divide and conquer and in the end everyone gets shafted. And look where we are now thirty years later bloody zero contracts.

Won what??
There was nothing to win. The miners didn't want their kids down the pits. They mostly signed on long term disability and put claims in against the NGB for illness and injury.
Are you trying to suggest that all these miners are conning the system and in reality it was a Eutopia working underground?
You'll be playing hell at whoever stopped kids going up the Chimneys next.

[Danbert Nocurry]

Won what??
There was nothing to win. The miners didn't want their kids down the pits. They mostly signed on long term disability and put claims in against the NGB for illness and injury.
Are you trying to suggest that all these miners are conning the system and in reality it was a Eutopia working underground?
You'll be playing hell at whoever stopped kids going up the Chimneys next.

Your lot managed to shut down our coal industry and have only kept the lights on by importing gas and oil and privatising the energy industry. That's been a real success don't you think?

[Graham Breeze]

Your lot managed to shut down our coal industry and have only kept the lights on by importing gas and oil and privatising the energy industry. That's been a real success don't you think?

Danbert

Two simple Yes/No questions:

Q1 Have you ever been down a working deep-mine pit?

Q2 Do you use any gas to heat your house?

[Witton Park]

Your lot managed to shut down our coal industry and have only kept the lights on by importing gas and oil and privatising the energy industry. That's been a real success don't you think?

Our energy policy stinks. I've said that. What has that got to do with it? Most of our coal is deep coal. You're the sort who argues to keep the pits open and then is first in the queue for industrial injury.

[Muddy Retriever]

Christopher I am of the opinion that If working people had stuck together we would have won.

That doesn't answer his question, it's straight forward enough. Do you think businesses should be run at a loss?

If the answer is yes, do we extend it to all businesses that make a loss? For example, if the company I work for makes large losses, should the Government keep gifting it money so that I keep my job?

[Conor74]

1. I would have thought the closure of the mines inevitable. In an era where Britain went from 220,000 workers in the 80s down to a few thousand now, Germany went from 170,000 down to 10,000. But...

2. The real failure of Thatcher was not in closing mines as was happening all over, it was the complete and utter failure to put alternative employment in place. Maybe it was a facet of her contempt for the idea of society and social responsibility, maybe it was because she wanted to punish a sector where unions wielded power. So while the German measures caused less confrontation and was far better managed, Thatcher's simply laid waste to regions.

[Witton Park]

1. I would have thought the closure of the mines inevitable. In an era where Britain went from 220,000 workers in the 80s down to a few thousand now, Germany went from 170,000 down to 10,000. But...

2. The real failure of Thatcher was not in closing mines as was happening all over, it was the complete and utter failure to put alternative employment in place. Maybe it was a facet of her contempt for the idea of society and social responsibility, maybe it was because she wanted to punish a sector where unions wielded power. So while the German measures caused less confrontation and was far better managed, Thatcher's simply laid waste to regions.

Tosh on point 2 pal.

A Government cannot put alternative employment in place, they can only try and create the environment for business to flourish and then hopefully those businesses will employ people.
Manufacturing grew under Thatcher.
The Uk economy grew under Thatcher.
Thatcher took us from sick man of Europe to one of the leading world economies.
Thatcher may have had contempt, but it was for the forces that had dragged down the country she was rightly proud of until it was a basket case.

Tough love perhaps that some don't even now appreciate.

The employment situation is the same across Europe. The way that welfare has gone Europewide has been responsible for creating this vast Jezzer Kyle class.

In the 1970s my Dad couldn't survive off the dole. He had to work. Now families run cars, take holidays, use mobile phones and have laptops and broadband on benefits.