Miners Strike - 25 yrs on

[Cyberman]

Re Cybertwat: He reminds me of the character in The Simpsons who says "Ha Ha"

A real spiteful little **** isn't he?

Spiteful, because I don't see violent striking miners who were trying to bankrupt UK PLC as heroes ?

[rootsnall]

In my neck of the woods in Lancashire the mining industry had virtually closed down anyway by the time of the strike so it wasn't such a big deal as it was in Yorkshire. My grandad who had not long retired from the pits took the attitude that the strike was a waste of time and Scargill was an idiot playing into Maggie's hands. The pits were going to close anyway. He thought mining was a tulip job and we were better off with the pits shut.

[gingerjedi]

In those days miners thought they were above the law. Unions could always get criminals reinstated because they had the power to hold the country to ransom. The breaking of the unions was a major success by Thatcher and led to one of the UK's most prosperous periods in history. Unfortunately, Brown has squandered her legacy and brought us to the brink of ruin yet again by a Labour HMG.

Laid the foundations for the absolute pile of tulip we now find ourselves in.

I was at school during Thatcher’s era, she encouraged people to study engineering and science subjects which you would think quite admirable if she hadn’t subsequently left our industry to rot.

[FSM with Cheddar]

Of course there were some extremists and agitators among the miners

MI5

[Cyberman]

Laid the foundations for the absolute pile of tulip we now find ourselves in.

I was at school during Thatcher’s era, she encouraged people to study engineering and science subjects which you would think quite admirable if she hadn’t subsequently left our industry to rot.

Labour have encouraged all sorts of worthless studies and university education for the sake of university education. I don't see how that is preferable to studying science, maths etc, except for the fact that it aids HMG stats by making achievement of pass grades far easier, and to keep down unemployment.

[NotAllThere]

Whole communities wrecked, division between strikers and strike breakers. Shipping of rozzers from London for sensitive community policing. Thatcher was determined to break union power (and a good thing too, in my opinion - it needed doing), but I find her methods rather difficult to stomach. She didn't need to break quite so many eggs for her omelette. IIRC, she came fairly close to losing the battle with the miners and having to send in troups.

[Cyberman]

Whole communities wrecked, division between strikers and strike breakers. Shipping of rozzers from London for sensitive community policing. Thatcher was determined to break union power (and a good thing too, in my opinion - it needed doing), but I find her methods rather difficult to stomach. She didn't need to break quite so many eggs for her omelette. IIRC, she came fairly close to losing the battle with the miners and having to send in troups.

However she had done it, she would still be villified as the wicked witch. She could not win either way.

[gingerjedi]

Labour have encouraged all sorts of worthless studies and university education for the sake of university education. I don't see how that is preferable to studying science, maths etc, except for the fact that it aids HMG stats by making achievement of pass grades far easier, and to keep down unemployment.

Yes I totally agree.

Labour should have used their time in power rebuilding industry instead of perpetuating Thatcher's financial farce.

[rootsnall]

IIRC, she came fairly close to losing the battle with the miners and having to send in troups.

I don't think so. The problem was the strike didn't have universal backing from the miners themselves so you couldn't expect the public to be fully behind it in a way that would rock the government. There wasn't even a proper vote on the strike if my memory hasn't deserted me.

[Cyberman]

Yes I totally agree.

Labour should have used their time in power rebuilding industry instead of perpetuating Thatcher's financial farce.

... but you cannot rebuild an industry that is constantly under threat of strikes. To rebuild you have to adopt competitive practices and unions do not allow this. This is why manufacturing etc has failed in the UK and will continue to fail.