Quote Originally Posted by bobh View Post
Bollocks!

Shutting the mines was all about revenge after the unions effetively brought down the Heath government.

She knew how Scargill would react to closures, so built up stocks then the closure program was "leaked" to provoke him.
why let facts get in the way of dogma and rhetoric

1929 there were 250,000 working the mines
1979 there were 25,000 working the mines

the South Wales coal fields were losing 5,000 miners every year. Based on that run rate the mines were due to stop production in 1984.

What killed the mining industry was not Thatcher, but the Royal Navy's switch to diesel engines in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Valleys had little population before the Bute's exploited its natural resource. The entire Valleys community was build around extracting coal and once that stopped then given the topography there was little other industry that could take its place.

All miners were offered the chance to retrain, some did, others did not.

Why are we even having this debate today. We all know coal is a dirty polluter and who in their right mind thinks sending someone underground is a sensible way to live.

Political bollocks, nothing more.