25 years ago - miners strike
#1
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
iTrader: (9)
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: .
Posts: 20,035
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
25 years ago - miners strike
BBC NEWS | UK | Audio slideshow: The miners' strike
I can hardly believe that it has been 25 years since the miners strike that became the bitterest industrial dispute of its time. I still remember it as clear as day. Sad times for all.
I can hardly believe that it has been 25 years since the miners strike that became the bitterest industrial dispute of its time. I still remember it as clear as day. Sad times for all.
#2
Blimey - is it really 25 years?
I remember my cousin (Police Inspector at the time) telling us about having to ask his lads to stop waving wads of cash in the windows of their buses as they passed the strikers - a thank you for all the overtime!!
I remember my cousin (Police Inspector at the time) telling us about having to ask his lads to stop waving wads of cash in the windows of their buses as they passed the strikers - a thank you for all the overtime!!
#3
Scooby Regular
Cops eh! Always a bag of laughs. Got to love em
#5
I certainly remember the miners who murdered the taxi driver by dropping a breeze block onto his car (did they ever catch them?) and Scargil abusing his place of power.
#6
Scooby Regular
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Essex with the wonderful -C`chelle
Posts: 1,149
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
#7
Scooby Regular
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Scotland
Posts: 3,687
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It wasn't done well, don't get me wrong. As a youngster we had some hard times thanks to all this (South Yorkshire born and bred) but at the end of the day something needed to be done. We couldn't keep going back to the three day week etc of the 70's. Before the strike the NMU effectively ran the country and no one even voted for them.
5t.
Trending Topics
#8
Scooby Regular
#9
Scooby Regular
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: l'on n'y peut rien
Posts: 2,922
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I remember the so-called flying pickets coming here and trying to close the steelworks by preventing coal from entering, likewise the power station nearby.
Scargill made some daft comment about the miners having supported a previous steelworkers' strike by not allowing one steel pitprop onto NUM property, and wanted the works CLOSED in support of his strikers. Was never gonna happen.
I also remember the VERY p*ssed off people round here whose fences were smashed and stolen in the night to feed pickets' fires, and whose gardens were wrecked, robbed and defecated in by strikers.
Support for them around here was thin on the ground, they did themselves NO favours, I'm afraid, but they were, in the most part, as arrogant as their leader.
Scargill made some daft comment about the miners having supported a previous steelworkers' strike by not allowing one steel pitprop onto NUM property, and wanted the works CLOSED in support of his strikers. Was never gonna happen.
I also remember the VERY p*ssed off people round here whose fences were smashed and stolen in the night to feed pickets' fires, and whose gardens were wrecked, robbed and defecated in by strikers.
Support for them around here was thin on the ground, they did themselves NO favours, I'm afraid, but they were, in the most part, as arrogant as their leader.
#10
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Going further than the station and back !!! ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz
Posts: 11,097
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I remember the so-called flying pickets coming here
i was busy playing top trumps in the school playground, so it didnt affect me at all, luckily
#11
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Bring back infractions!
Posts: 4,554
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
So short sighted Pedro
Now this get this bunch of clowns out of parliament and let the Tories do what they do best, sorting out the mess
#13
Not to consider the considerable Health and Safety benefits in general.
I ask you - what person in their right mind strikes for the right to work in a coal mine. And their children/grandchildren to boot!
A case of Turkies voting for Xmas in my book.
I know there is a large degree of political polarity from this era, but I can't believe anyone (with a brain) thinks that manual underground coalmining is a good idea. (Compensation lawyers excluded)
Last edited by cster; 05 March 2009 at 04:48 PM.
#14
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Northants. 22B sold, as-new Lotus Omega instead.
Posts: 2,027
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Anyone remember Peter Richardson's 1988 "The Comic Strip Presents" take on this affair ("The Strike"). That was funny!
As for the real one: it seemed to go on for ever, but I bet I've not had a single piece of British coal on my fire ever since
As for the real one: it seemed to go on for ever, but I bet I've not had a single piece of British coal on my fire ever since
#15
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
iTrader: (9)
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: .
Posts: 20,035
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Unfortunately coal mining had ceased to be profitable in most cases so why carry on, total business sense on the part of the Tories.
So short sighted Pedro
Now this get this bunch of clowns out of parliament and let the Tories do what they do best, sorting out the mess
So short sighted Pedro
Now this get this bunch of clowns out of parliament and let the Tories do what they do best, sorting out the mess
Good business sense and governments are not generally something to be uttered in the same sentence regardless of whether the party in power is blue or red.
Oh and if you really think Cameron is the man to sort this mess out I fear you are about to be massively disappointed. The sad fact is we don't have anyone who can sort the country out as they are all shortsighted pigs at the trough just with different coloured rosettes pinned to their lapels.
Last edited by f1_fan; 05 March 2009 at 04:57 PM.
#16
my dad was one of these 'miners' i remember going without food, i remember my parents not eating to give us their food, i remember sitting all huddled together without heating, i remember baliffs at our door, i remember the electricity being cut off, i remember the huge support we had from GERMAN industrial workers, i do not regret it one little bit, my dad was proud and fought for his job all to no avail...the coal industry is dead, so is the steel, so is britain's industrial might...... hindsight eh? stand together or perish alone.
#17
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Northants. 22B sold, as-new Lotus Omega instead.
Posts: 2,027
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
my dad was one of these 'miners' i remember going without food, i remember my parents not eating to give us their food, i remember sitting all huddled together without heating, i remember baliffs at our door, i remember the electricity being cut off, i remember the huge support we had from GERMAN industrial workers, i do not regret it one little bit, my dad was proud and fought for his job all to no avail...the coal industry is dead, so is the steel, so is britain's industrial might...... hindsight eh? stand together or perish alone.
#19
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
iTrader: (9)
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: .
Posts: 20,035
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
my dad was one of these 'miners' i remember going without food, i remember my parents not eating to give us their food, i remember sitting all huddled together without heating, i remember baliffs at our door, i remember the electricity being cut off, i remember the huge support we had from GERMAN industrial workers, i do not regret it one little bit, my dad was proud and fought for his job all to no avail...the coal industry is dead, so is the steel, so is britain's industrial might...... hindsight eh? stand together or perish alone.
Feel very sorry for many of the miners in the stirke who were used by Thatcher and Scargill in a game of political football. Very sad.
Last edited by f1_fan; 05 March 2009 at 05:32 PM.
#20
Scooby Regular
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Scotland
Posts: 3,687
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Agreed. As i said we went through it. My dad wasn't a miner but he did work for a solid fuel heating firm, everyone had coal fires back in the day.
The miners stike left us in a similar situation. We had a meal on fridays called modge which was basically leftovers from mon-thurs in one pan.
That said, i still think that the government needed to break the strike ans Scargill. If anyone should be up for vilification it is him.
5t.
The miners stike left us in a similar situation. We had a meal on fridays called modge which was basically leftovers from mon-thurs in one pan.
That said, i still think that the government needed to break the strike ans Scargill. If anyone should be up for vilification it is him.
5t.
#22
Thatcher vowed to break the unions and one of the ways she did this was to focus this country on service industries. It's very easy to break down unions by destroying the industries they represent, now if she had managed to break the unions' stranglehold on the country's manufacturing industries while keeping the industries alive I might have been impressed, but not much chance of that.
Feel very sorry for many of the miners in the stirke who were used by Thatcher and Scargill in a game of political football. Very sad.
Feel very sorry for many of the miners in the stirke who were used by Thatcher and Scargill in a game of political football. Very sad.
Seriously though, I think it pays to remember that the cold war was a backdrop to this scenario and a fundamentally important one at that.
It was very much an ideological battle and I don't think the Soviet Union was too bothered by three day weeks and the like.
#23
my dad was one of these 'miners' i remember going without food, i remember my parents not eating to give us their food, i remember sitting all huddled together without heating, i remember baliffs at our door, i remember the electricity being cut off, i remember the huge support we had from GERMAN industrial workers, i do not regret it one little bit, my dad was proud and fought for his job all to no avail...the coal industry is dead, so is the steel, so is britain's industrial might...... hindsight eh? stand together or perish alone.
Here we are importing Coal, Steel and a whole range of other goods we used to make in this country until Maggie and the Tories destroyed them and built a nation of Finance and Bankers ............... look where that has got us now!
Too many people now wouldn't have the ***** to stand and fight for their jobs ......
Thumbs up to the Miners who took on Maggie - she had stock piled coal at the power stations for 2 years previous ... and then picked a fight.
At the end of the day, the brave proud miners won .... the Tories under Maggie were fatally wounded.
Last edited by SunnySideUp; 05 March 2009 at 07:40 PM.
#24
Beautiful words, well said.
Here we are importing Coal, Steel and a whole range of other goods we used to make in this country until Maggie and the Tories destroyed them and built a nation of Finance and Bankers ............... look where that has got us now!
Too many people now wouldn't have the ***** to stand and fight for their jobs, a few have posted on here ......
Thumbs up to the Miners who took on Maggie - she had stock piled coal at the power stations for 2 years previous ... and then picked a fight.
At the end of the day, the brave proud miners won .... the Tories under Maggie were fatally wounded.
Here we are importing Coal, Steel and a whole range of other goods we used to make in this country until Maggie and the Tories destroyed them and built a nation of Finance and Bankers ............... look where that has got us now!
Too many people now wouldn't have the ***** to stand and fight for their jobs, a few have posted on here ......
Thumbs up to the Miners who took on Maggie - she had stock piled coal at the power stations for 2 years previous ... and then picked a fight.
At the end of the day, the brave proud miners won .... the Tories under Maggie were fatally wounded.
#26
Scooby Regular
Having a fairly privileged childhood growing up in Kensington , London
In the Eighties I went to a school geography fieldtrip to a mining town, Nantyglo in S Wales
I had barely imagined a place so desolate and devoid of life, in the country I grew up in
the experience 25 years later has never left me
with all the talk of industry and unions etc it was about communities and a way of life -- very sad all round
and yes that witch Maggie stockpiled coal for 2 years and waited for the fight to start.
In the Eighties I went to a school geography fieldtrip to a mining town, Nantyglo in S Wales
I had barely imagined a place so desolate and devoid of life, in the country I grew up in
the experience 25 years later has never left me
with all the talk of industry and unions etc it was about communities and a way of life -- very sad all round
and yes that witch Maggie stockpiled coal for 2 years and waited for the fight to start.
Last edited by hodgy0_2; 05 March 2009 at 08:01 PM.
#28
Scooby Regular
no coal was needed to be mined (stockpiled for two years)
the lights never went out -- did in 1974, the miners won that timw
#29
Scooby Regular
no coal was needed to be mined (stockpiled for two years)
the lights never went out -- did in 1974, the miners won that time
#30
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Surrey/London borders.
Posts: 8,300
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I was 1 in 1974, so it wasn't then.
I recall the lights dimming due to power being cut down and the tv going off. That was in the early-mid 80s.
It may have been down to blockades at power stations? I grew up in Yorkshire, which was hit rather hard by the whole saga.
I recall the lights dimming due to power being cut down and the tv going off. That was in the early-mid 80s.
It may have been down to blockades at power stations? I grew up in Yorkshire, which was hit rather hard by the whole saga.
Last edited by fatherpierre; 05 March 2009 at 08:16 PM.