22 Years on,who remembers the miner,s strike?

[Leekbrookgull]

Being a working class tory (sorry if i cause offence?) and living up here here for the best part of 25years.J ust what do you recall of it? Was it a tipping point of this country,s history/make-up?

 

[Yorkie]

I remember it very well, living in Yorkshire and right in the heart of it.

 

[Beach Hut]

Vaguely but it went on so long it was only that massive pitch battle and when the end was announced that I remember.

 

[Dandyman]

Remember it well. Part of the reason I can never bring myself to trust the Met.

 

[Basil Fawlty]

I watched a tv drama about the miners strikes last year, I thought it was brillant. Espically the sex scene in the car.

 

[clapham_gull]

Vaguely remember watching Brighton away at Barnsley? away during that time.

I wasn't very old, went with my brother and dad.

Remember lots of "you can stick your Arthur Scargill up your arse..." and "donkey jackets, donkey jackets, so casual, so casual....." chants.

Which looking back wasn't the nicest or advisable of things to be chanting during the middle of a strike.

 

[Gully]

Yes, I remember it, part of the reason that I would rather boil my head than vote Tory.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

I wonder what would be different today if the government had backed down and the miners had won ??

 

[1066gull]

I was dead when the miners strike happened.

 

[Gully]

Ironically, despite my distaste at what happened, I don't think that the country would be in such a good financial state as it is now.

Maggie took on the miners in the hope that she could destroy unionism in the country and to a reasonable extent she succeeded. This then turned Britain into a country where workers had very few rights and enabled the Govt to attract companies from the far east to build factories here instead of countries like Germany where labour rates were far higher.

We then effectively became the sweatshop of Western Europe as far as the Japanese were concerned, they could build factories here and export within the EC without facing trade tariffs. The benefit for Britain was that when the rest of Europe sank into recession in the early 90's we were to some extent immune and therefore recovered earlier.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I was dead when the miners strike happened.

? Dont you have to be alive first before dying.

 

[Gully]

By some twisted logic he probably means that he wasn't born in 84, my guess is that he didn't appear till the late 90's!

 

[dougdeep]

I remember when Kent had coalfields. Now what was I saying

 

[chip]

I remember when Kent had coalfields. Now what was I saying

I remember when Kent had orchards.

 

[Eric Potts]

I remember when Kent had orchards.

Kent still has Hops

 

[cheshunt seagull]

My union held an unofficial collection for the miners at Tottenham Court Road station and we got over £100 in 30 minutes before the police moved us on. Loads of commuters and shoppers contributed. There was a lot more support and sympathy for the miners from a much wider cross section of society than the press at the time would have led you to believe.

 

[Beach Hut]

I remember Kent when it was a pikey free zone.

 

[Gully]

I prefer not to remember Kent.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I remember it very well, living in Yorkshire and right in the heart of it.

I remember it well, living in Sussex.

The Kent miners maintained a picket of Shoreham Power Station for most of the strike. I was a NALGO branch officer at East Sussex County Council at the time - which was relevant to the dispute, because my department of ESCC had gone into the business of manufacturing fuel pellets from household waste at a site in Churchdale Road, Eastbourne. The major customer for the pellets was Shoreham Power Station, where they supplemented the coal.

At the start of the strike, the miners' picket at Shoreham was successful in turning back the trucks delivering the pellets. ESCC then took a very quick decision not to pursue any confrontation and alternative purchasers for the pellets were sought. An interesting decision for a Tory controlled council, I thought. I met the Kent miners on the picket line and got got involved in some (very short) talks about this issue with my own employer.

Far more contentious from the point of view of the East Sussex Branch of NALGO was the question of whether we should make contributions to the NUM's hardship fund. That issue divided our union for months.

I still have a COAL NOT DOLE badge, as well as a copy of a book about the strike, signed by Arthur Scargill, and a Barnsley Miners Wives Action Group badge, given to me by Anne Scargill.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The 1972 and 1974 miners' strikes were probably more noticed in Sussex because of their real impact on power supplies.

Scheduled power cuts (on a pre-planned, area-by-area basis) forced people to abandon plans to spend evenings at home in front of the television and go instead to pubs half a mile away.

Marvellous times.