veloman Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Probably a bit late on this but; last week was the 40th Anniversary of the Miners' strike- the one lead by Scargill. Did this affect anyone on here? Was it justified ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 I missed most of that, I used to drink quite a lot back then 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted March 18 VT Supporter Share Posted March 18 23 minutes ago, veloman said: Probably a bit late on this but; last week was the 40th Anniversary of the Miners' strike- the one lead by Scargill. Did this affect anyone on here? Was it justified ? yes it was justified but he dropped a major bollock not going to a national vote which doomed it from the start 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dAVe80 Posted March 18 Popular Post Share Posted March 18 I live in the North East, and the knock on from the strike, and decimation of the industry, and the towns and villages that surrounded it can still be seen today. With regards the strike, the miners and their union had the feeling that they would win, the same way they had won their previous dispute, but the state, and Thatcher were ruthless. They used everything at their disposal to smash the NUM and the striking miners. There have been recent documentaries that show the lengths they went to, but similar to things like Hillsborough, and even recently with Horizon, the state, with the help of legacy media controlled the narrative. It's hard to fight against that, even if you have all the spirit in the world. I regularly attend the Durham Miners' Gala, and the ex miners and their families (some of whom wouldn't even have been born when the pits closed), still come out to march their banners through Durham City Centre. It's truly a sight to behold, and would recommend a visit to anyone with any interest in social history, or working class culture. The spirit of the miners and the sense of communities still lives on, despite what happend to them. As a trade unionist myself, I take inspiration from what they did, even if you see it ultimately as a failure. Standing up for what you belive it right can be hard, and it takes resolve that some that sneer could only dream of. More power to them, and justice for Orgreave. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post meregreen Posted March 18 Popular Post Share Posted March 18 It wasn’t just the miners that lost, we all did. Thatcher and her attack dogs were unleashed. The country we live in now, public services decimated and asset stripped, young people with no hope. It can be traced right back to that awful time. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VILLAMARV Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 1 hour ago, dAVe80 said: justice for Orgreave. Quite. I was too young to remember the political machinations, but I remember seeing the police on horsies with their truncheons in the newspapers and on the telly. Seminal moment. Both for the young minds of me and my friends growing up to bear witness to, and as others have alluded to, for the country as a whole. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted March 18 Moderator Share Posted March 18 1 hour ago, VILLAMARV said: but I remember seeing the police on horsies with their truncheons in the newspapers and on the telly. If they actually were police Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted March 18 VT Supporter Share Posted March 18 What the government did with the miners pension fund was and still is a huge scandal, the government still feeds of the excess funds and the miners pay for it. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/pension-rip-leaves-retired-mineworkers-28702309 Pension rip-off leaves retired mineworkers unable to afford family funerals Welsh ex-miner Emlyn Davies, 77, could not scrape together the £2,900 needed to bury his wife and lives with his daughter because he only receives £61 a week after 26 years down the pits The Tories are refusing to use £1bn of investment windfalls to boost miners' pension funds(Getty Images) By Nigel Nelson 18:00, 10 Dec 2022 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post chrisp65 Posted March 18 Popular Post Share Posted March 18 It was a bit of an eye opener for me, a bit of a coming of age, seeing what the police were capable of given half a chance. Groups of police from out of area basically wandering around looking for trouble. I was stopped any number of times and prevented from getting home. I was searched for no reason. Stopped and questioned for having left the house. I saw cars damaged and then people booked for having broken lights. I saw collection buckets kicked down the street by police walking past peaceful fundraisers. It was a police state for a while and the police loved it. The tories don’t like being called scum. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichfield Dean Posted March 18 VT Supporter Share Posted March 18 I've often thought about this, as someone who was a little 'un at the time and wasn't really directly affected by it. From a modern perspective, the concept of men going into mines to dig up coal is so archaic and, in fact, seems pretty distasteful in many ways. So, was the real problem with the shutting down of the coal mining not the end aim of removing that industry, but the manner in which is it was done? The timescales, the pension issues, the police behaviour etc.? Because I cannot imagine any world in which manual coal mining would still be a thing now. Don't get me wrong - I'm not defending Thatcher in any way at all, I'm just curious what people think the "best" solution should have been to this assuming that we should have arrived ultimately at a point where coal mining was a thing of the past anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 That whole period of history was truly depressing. The miners strike, mass unemployment, derelict industry, recession etc. "The Boys From The Black Stuff" just summed up the era. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 24 minutes ago, Lichfield Dean said: I've often thought about this, as someone who was a little 'un at the time and wasn't really directly affected by it. From a modern perspective, the concept of men going into mines to dig up coal is so archaic and, in fact, seems pretty distasteful in many ways. So, was the real problem with the shutting down of the coal mining not the end aim of removing that industry, but the manner in which is it was done? The timescales, the pension issues, the police behaviour etc.? Because I cannot imagine any world in which manual coal mining would still be a thing now. Don't get me wrong - I'm not defending Thatcher in any way at all, I'm just curious what people think the "best" solution should have been to this assuming that we should have arrived ultimately at a point where coal mining was a thing of the past anyway. It was the manner of what happened. It was an industry that needed reform, but the way it was done was contrived to extract a crushing victory, enabled by an egotistical NUM leadership that didn’t spot coal reserves being built up in preparation, didn’t go for a proper ballot of members, and began a coal strike in Spring and through the summer. An ugly trap was set and the idiot jumped on it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 27 minutes ago, Lichfield Dean said: I've often thought about this, as someone who was a little 'un at the time and wasn't really directly affected by it. From a modern perspective, the concept of men going into mines to dig up coal is so archaic and, in fact, seems pretty distasteful in many ways. So, was the real problem with the shutting down of the coal mining not the end aim of removing that industry, but the manner in which is it was done? The timescales, the pension issues, the police behaviour etc.? Because I cannot imagine any world in which manual coal mining would still be a thing now. Don't get me wrong - I'm not defending Thatcher in any way at all, I'm just curious what people think the "best" solution should have been to this assuming that we should have arrived ultimately at a point where coal mining was a thing of the past anyway. We didn’t lose our coal mining industry in Australia but it has actually become a bit of a rod for our backs in the move to decarbonise the economy for the sake of climate change. The coal mining industry and its workers are a powerful voting block and lobby heavily to resist any moves towards the phasing out of coal power stations in favour of renewable energy sources. The Labour Party often try and ‘ride two horses’ by telling their inner city voters all about their great ideas for renewable energy, only to head off to the coal mining regions promising their industries will not be touched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted March 18 VT Supporter Share Posted March 18 22 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said: That whole period of history was truly depressing. The miners strike, mass unemployment, derelict industry, recession etc. "The Boys From The Black Stuff" just summed up the era. I can lay bricks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colhint Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Didn't Bleasedale write it in 1978 about a tarmacing gang from liverpool, hence Yossers accent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 34 minutes ago, Follyfoot said: I can lay bricks What are all those gaps? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted March 18 VT Supporter Share Posted March 18 39 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said: What are all those gaps? Ventilation 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted March 18 Moderator Share Posted March 18 1 hour ago, colhint said: Didn't Bleasedale write it in 1978 about a tarmacing gang from liverpool, hence Yossers accent. Not quite, what he wrote in 1978 was The Black Stuff for the Play For Today series but it wasn’t broadcast until 1980. That was very successful so the BBC commissioned the series as a result but a lot of it was already written (between 79-80) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veloman Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 12 hours ago, chrisp65 said: enabled by an egotistical NUM leadership that didn’t spot coal reserves being built up in preparation, didn’t go for a proper ballot of members, and began a coal strike in Spring and through the summer. An ugly trap was set and the idiot jumped on it. Yep , I think that is very pertinent. My wife's family, father and brother, were employed in the North Staffs Coalfield and neither were very keen on Scargill. But the agressive manner in which Thatcher dealt with the situation was, IMO, disgraceful. Brother in law worked at Hem Heath, one of the largest pits in the area; the NCB, presumably under Thatcher's instructions, poured tonnes of concrete down the main shaft on thousands of pounds worth of machinery and with substantial reserves of coal thus ensuring that pit could never be used again. If you ever followed Villa to Stoke, you probably parked on the "Business Park" that was Hem Heath. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 You can't understand the strike which ended in 1984 unless you understand what happened in 1971 and 1973. The Joe Gormley entry on Wiki sums it up nicely. The NUM's victory made them the best paid workers in the UK, ousted a Tory government, and cost ordinary working people money, due to the three-day week. Assuming they could do it again in the 1980s was an egregious act of hubris, as capital flight had already begun, and Thatcher had the money from North Sea oil revenues, to finance her scorched-earth plans. The unions lost their power and the rest is history. Sadly the employers still have the whip hand. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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