Mmmmm.J wrote:
no just very left mate thats ok but....
you are talking shit mate.
they didnt just close the pits down like that, it was being scaled down since the late 60's.
That was the way it was reported sure, but it was a wound down cos its uneconomical to get the coal out of the ground mate, compared to importing it from places like Poland. The same will happen with the oil industry once it becomes time but that wont be a burden on the state cos it is already private business.
It was also linked to the fall of heavy industry in this country, steelworks shipyards and manfacturing, and the rise in concern of pollution. Whether you like ti or not it was toime to make a shift and there is no easy way of doing that.
really if you are going to use examples you should be more informed mate, my old man worked for British Coal mate though this whole period if you want some more info on it let me know.
Now, do I have time for this.
If you honestly believe shutting pits had anything to do with concerns over the environment under a Tory government you're delusional J.
If you honestly believe shutting pits had anything to do with comparative costs of importing coal then you're also delusional. Importing cheap coal wasn't the reason for shutting pits, it was what allowed her to do it.
Shutting pits had three main purposes.
1) Breaking the Union movement by targetting the Miners (the heartbeat and soul of the 20th century Union system). This served to scare the ENTIRE workforce into accepting poor conditions, poor job security, increased hours and returned TOO much power to the employer. We had 4million unemployed to keep the fear factor amongst the masses. We were told a minimum wage would break the economy and the Tories were still saying that when introduced in the late 90's. Thats because they want to keep the C2, D demographics under the heal and afford greater profitability to the owners, rewarding the rich.
2) Revenge for the election loss in the early seventies, a fact underlined by Cecil Parkinson when asked how he felt about the miners losing their homes in 1985. 'They didn't worry about us in 1973!'
3) Providing the impetus to greater demand for gas and electric power that was about to be or had been privatised and had non-executive board members who were actually part of the conservative establishment. Yep, the people who helped decide to shut pits benefitted from their demise from fat-cat pay outs to their now in-demand British Gas and Electricity company's.
Did you know Thatcher used troops, dressed in polic uniforms in the strike, pickets told of seeing bus loads of squaddies getting changed.
Did you know Thatcher stockpiled coal knowing she was going to instigate a strike?
Did you know Budge, who bought the remnants of the industry, said he'd only buy British Coal if she stripped it naked.
Did you know the Tories moved the goal post on efficiency and profitability targets on the miners repeatedly, and the miners KEPT meeting them AND she still shut pits.
Did you know the coal she imported from Germany was subsidised by the EU and German government, the coal from Columbia dug by children and the coal from SOuth Africa when still operating under Aparthied......
I could go on and on.......
Shutting pits that 100 years of coal in them was a crime, making thousands of men redundant and then paying them to go to job-clun with no self-respect was a crime.
Thatcher was a crime. History WILL NOT remember her well.
Crumbling schools, crumbling economy, crumbling industry, riots, controversy, derelict NHS, sold off every industry, took the oil money and gave tax cuts to the rich, over saw more business failures than anyone else in history, oversaw more reposessions than ever before.
