Quote Originally Posted by pipster View Post
All scargill needed to do was have a vote- and he never did
He did manage to keep his grace and favour home in Marble Arch London for life
Ps Harold Wilson closed more pits than thatcher, but don’t let that spoil your narrative.
A national member vote might have been the right move but the NUM used its rules and the delegate structure to reach decisions. It was reluctant to go outside its rule book to satisfy the Daily Mail, Margaret Thatcher or Neil Kinnock (none of whom would have been satisfied). Maybe a PR error - and one that has been argued over for nearly 40 years. My view is that when you tear up your own rules to placate hostile external actors you have to keep doing that and lose control of your own organisation and actions (as Corbyn found out to his cost)!

Yes Scargill’s retention of the London flat is indefensible. It was a facility for the General Secretary of the NUM not a private gift.

We have been over the Wilson and Thatcher pit closures across many threads and many months. Situations and intentions totally different. There have always been pit closures (and in the past new pits opened) on economic and technical grounds. The Thatcher closure programme was driven by neither - it was political. She set out to crush the NUM and punish the communities that supported the union. She eventually succeeded but it was never about economics or clean energy. Anyone who claims that is taking the piss!