Originally Posted by
Tuerto
3 percent of a workforce in quite well paid employment, that had direct links to manufacturing, maintenance, repair, transport, logistics, and plenty of that within the boundaries of those communities. You know that the actual figure wasn't the one you've quoted, overall. The knock on effect was huge in every respect, from the local cafe to the factory making parts and the local boozer etc.
The other thing to takei into account was the community emphasis that the mining industry created. People were upwardly mobile and proactive in terms of social care and community events, thus creating a good environment for people to grow up in, which leads to better health, motivation and something to protect and nurture. That aspect went with the attack on these communities, without a doubt.
What we are left with is a population that has had it's dignity and pride stripped away, generations of people without any real opportunity within their community, poor levels of education, teenage pregnancy, addiction to prescription drugs (see Blaenau Gwent) 30 years of neglect on both sides of the political spectrum, it's very sad to see. The difference with Thatcher is that she set out to crush these people and all that they stood for, she saw them as the enemy. It was vicious and uncompromising, that's why the Tories are hated, because they crushed these communities, and Labour have done very little for them in subsequent years.