I Was Brought Up In A Mining Town In The 50's And 60's.

[Jeza]

May I add my Dad was not a miner. We lived near a working man's club and every Fri, Sat and Sun it would be heaving with miners. If they won anything you could hear the chant. 'We won't be in tomorrow'. I left my home town in 68 but never forgot this. I accept that they were hard worked and badly paid (THEN). When Scargill came along, they believed him (remember most were uneducated) He tried to bring down MT, with their help and failed. The only losers were the miners. Scargill closed the mines not Thatcher. When he lost the job as union leader he carried on fleecing the union. Flat in London, Posh house and car in South Yorkshire, all paid for by the miners.

Yet on today's news they were burning effigy's of her. I feel ashamed to have been a part of this community.

[society]

"Yet on today's news they were burning effigy's of her. "

Tasteless and disrespectful actions.

[Sharingan]

Arthur Scargill is without doubt not a man of integrity but Margaret Thatcher was certainly not a woman who had any compassion for those miner';s whose communities she destroyed, so I can understand their anger.

[Jeza]

Shar. She did not destroy the communities, Scargill did.

[Sharingan]

I would disagree I'm afraid, but each to their own opinion. xx

[jake-the-peg]

If you think that you should look at this

http://martinsidwell.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/UK-Coal-Production-1024x761.jpeg

UK coal production fell right off during the strike and then came back and continued a slow decline

Imports did not exceed production until 2001

All Arthur Scargil did was punctuate that decline

[TWR]

Jeza, do you think it was good practice for the police to flash their wage slips in front of the miners? as the UK stands as of now, there's not much work, with more to come & the workers have no say how they get treated, welcombe to reality! Have you read todays papers? all the fuel surplies for you home shipped in from abroad, did Scargill do that?

[magsmay]

Jeza -I totally agree with you 100% . my mothers family go back 6 generations of miners and my grandfather was a foreman in Easington colliery - one of the mines closed in the '70's. MT did not close the mines -Scargil was responsible for stirring up the miners, making unrealistic demands on the government which MT refused to back down to. Without scargill I believe they would eventually have come to a compromise. MT tried to make people, not the State, responsible for their own lives empowering them to get on their bikes and go look for work - she inspired me to go back to college and take a degree as a mature student, widowed with 2 young children, and become a wage earner and tax payer when these days I would most likely have stayed on benefits . She was strong and focussed -not always right - Scargill was a leach stirring up trouble for his own personal satisfaction -don'e think he gave a diddly squit about miners or the working classes.

[tonyav]

Scargill had nothing to do with any steel works or industry in general though did he.

[B00]

In their last full year of operation before the (illegal) pit strike, British Coal made a loss of £485million. That figure excludes the subsidy received by British Coal from the electricity generating companies who were being forced to buy British coal at an above market price simply to keep unprofitable mines open. If this "subsidy" is taken into account, British Coal was losing £727 million per year. That is equal to £1.4 BILLION POUND in today's prices

[ChillDoubt]

I agree with much of the sentiment Jeza.
My stepdad was a miner of 37 years. His grandfather died in the Gresford Disaster of 1934, where 266 men and boys lost their lives.
When Scargill took the NUM out on strike, my Dad(My siblings and I all called him that) was indifferent. He knew the writing was on the wall in regards to the coal industry. He was never a fan of Scargill though, ever.

In regards to the strike, his philosophy was that if it had been the smaller pits(such as where he worked) alone that were being closed, nothing would have been done by the NUM, it was only because they were closing the large pits that were invariably leaking money form the industry. Dad never once blamed Mrs Thatcher.

During the strike, I commenced my basic training in HM Forces. I sent home every penny I could whilst in training in order to help out at home.
Yet, despite all of the above I never once blamed MT.

I don't vote, never have and never will and I didn't agree with everything that MT did, far from it but in the end she often did what needed to be done.
As I've argued before, if every policy of hers was so bad, why didn't Labour reverse much of what she did? Why did successive Labour PM's seek her advice during their time in office?
In truth, they knew that much of what she did needed to be done, they just couldn't bring themselves to admit it at the cost of losing face with their supporters.
Admired by many, pilloried and reviled too MT took the really difficult decisions when she had to and at the very least had the courage of her convictions to see them through.

In closing, I'm sure that she gained so much respect from HM Forces(that was obviously reciprocated) because she too had been subjected to her own near miss with the IRA and had lost colleagues, yet she stoically continued to lead this country, facing up to terrorism and invaders of Sovereign territory alike.

She was a truly unique woman.

[tonyav]

Bloody hell B00, that would buy a few cakes !.

[magsmay]

TWR -were you about in the '70's? Its so easy to rely on Propaganda -from both sides -to get information -but if you did not experience first hand what was really going on -not what was reported in the Press -then you cannot understand. Scargill played on the fact miners were under-educated and willing to follow someone who made unrealistic promises -they followed him, sheep like, because he was their last hope -or so they were told -by him.

[murraymints]

Jez.my dad was ncb official in a pit in a village that was at the heart of it all during the strike...there were more bussed in troublemakers than locals..huge police presence and on the news every day...I lived it and know that Scargill was a troublemaker and brought the industry to its knees by his selfish actions and needy ways.....my dad admits that the pits at the time were not viable,NoN profit making. And doomed.....the writing was on the wall...Scargill was politically motivated...with respect sharigan...you were not even born....and your statements are naive simplistic and ill informed...

[magsmay]

Chilldoubt -bloody good post! spot on!

[ChillDoubt]

Ditto magsmay.

[jake-the-peg]

And Mags your opinions haven't changed since then - knowing what we now know it's clear the govenment deliberately provoked the strike.

In 1981 they backed down because stocks were too low

finally in 1984, the National Coal Board announced that the agreement reached after the 1974 strike had become obsolete, and they intended to close 20 coal mines.


We know things now that were secret then - but your opinions don't seem to have taken some of this stuff on board.

[Jeza]

I am pleased I am not on my own in my thinking.

[TWR]

Mags, yes I was here & seen families destroyed, community broken up, have the workers any rights now?

[B00]

Would you have preferred the nation, or its taxes, kept on subsiding them then TWR

[magsmay]

jake - I was going to my grandads every other sunday in the colliery in the 70's (mam was taking food parcels to him and her sisters families)-he was a Union Man - in the Pit from the age of 14 and put his own life in danger trying to rescue people in the Pit Disaster at Easington - i listened to him talking to my parents -not the government - Scargill was to blame -not Mrs Thatcher.