Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 5:39 pm
Apologies what I should have said and meant to say in my eagerness to 'contribute' to this thread on something that will always touch a Raw Nerve...is that I was referring to The Winter Of Discontent.....I can still remember 1963 (the snow was still 5 ft deep in April/May)...and how we had to make our own bread (which now is a very trendy and hip thing to do - also far more healthy than the Air Infested stuff that passes for bread these days...)collect kindling from the near-by woods as the 3 day week meant no electrickery etc....But I digress....and yes of courzse it WAS 74...but also I recall I think (feck it's a long time ago) when the unions - of many manufacturing industries, not just the miners who went against McMillan (sp?).....and i am not solely blaming Thatcher, but her economic and social measures destroyed many,many good hard working families and communities...ergo: THATCHER IS A SLAG.Never Outgunned wrote:The destruction of the Miners in 1984 was vengence for the toppling of Edward Heath's government in 1974, not 1963.OneBardGooner wrote:Thatcher sold off the water, gas and electricity - and the the Tories made HUGE profits from the sell off's - the profits were used to empower their position further....who got wage increases when every other fucker was trying to hold onto their jobs thr police and the army - it was one of the first thing dshe did - to keep them sweet, (btw: I have no problem with the Police getting a better than avaerage wage as they (mostly) do a job I wouldn't and coouldn't do), but did she give a rise to the nurses, the firemen, the ambulance crews...did she bollocks. AND who bought up all the shares...it was your average working class joe...no it was all the knobs in the upper classes who had money to burn and the means to line their ever burgeoning pockets.....
THATCHER IS A SLAG
Ever since 1963 when the Miners brought down Ted Heath and the Tory govt when the country had to revert to a 3 day week, they had been looking for the chance to "Destroy and Vanquish" the mining industry...again it was one of the first things she did...I had three Good, GOOD friends who were Miners - Young fella's in thier late 20's they worked hard and were decent people...(Two married with families one single) They all:
Lost their jobs
Then their homes
Then the two married one's lost their families
One ended up committing suicide,one ended up doing time for his part in 'Picketting' - he fought back when he and a friend were stopped and had the crap kicked out of themn by SPG types... looking for anyone going to a picket line.....mind you it as only because that Slag Thatcher had rushed through new laws allowing Stop and Search - which they later used against anyone and everyone - I got stopped on two occasions once when travelling to a festival - where we were going to set up a tent to collect signatures for a petition against 'stop and search' and raffle some Miners Lamps to raise funds for the miners families - they confiscated the lamps and all the literature, later I we got the same treatment on our way to a demo in London - The latter time I got beaten up for asking why? were we being stopped?
THATCHER IS A SLAG.
Here's in interesting interview on the night of that election and the Beeb interviewer's thinly veiled contempt for the Miners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBWrmB9Ry_8
Other than that I concur with your superb post sir - in fact that communities destroyed by the closure of the mines are a depressing picture of run down communities blighted by drug addiction and social problems. Something to remember when people talk about Thatcher getting Britain working and rewarding hard work (and if you want to know what hard work is ask a coal miner).
