The Miners' Strike

[Andy H]

Just watched this (BBC4, 9 March) and enjoyed it very much, despite its over-use of the 'filmed off a TV screen' effect. After the Falklands conflict and then the miners' strike, life seemed very boring for a while.

At least we got a snatch of the wonderful Nick Drake's 'Northern Sky'!

[Flanker]

if that was "the miners strike" a year of living dangerously, it was made in 2004

for the 20th annerversary of the strike. We enjoyed getting back together to do the interveiws and have a beer over our war stories.



I hope you picked up somthing of what it was like in 1984.



rgs Flanker

[Bernardo]

An associate of mine made a fortune out of the miners' strike, he was one of the special patrol group (he is a very big bloke). He now runs a large residential home and has Arthur Scargill to thank for it.

[Lord Lionheart]

name='Bernardo']An associate of mine made a fortune out of the miners' strike, he was one of the special patrol group (he is a very big bloke). He now runs a large residential home and has Arthur Scargill to thank for it.

I thought Mrs. Thatcher and her cronies paid for all that police overtime

[Flanker]

Hi Folks



He does not need to thank Scargill, it was our strike and Scargill worked for us the membership of the NUM. Many people made money out of the strike just like many made money out of mineing unfortunatly it was never the miners.



Your mates efforts helped make the UK dependant on energy from abroad, its a good job those nice people at Gazprom are so fair and easy to get on with



All the best Flanker.

[716Jones]

What was it somebody said about Scargill? That he started out with a small house and a big union and ended up with a big house and a small union? The miners strike was all about an irresistable force and an immovable object, although I'm not sure which was which.



716Jones is an ex-miner.

[GRAEME]

name='Lord Lionheart']I thought Mrs. Thatcher and her cronies paid for all that police overtime

No. We did.

[Lord Lionheart]

name='GRAEME']No. We did.

Semantics, perhaps I should have said Mrs Thatcher used tax payers money to pay the police overtime, but I figured the good people here would be smart enough to figure that out all by themselves.

[Flanker]

Hi Folks



And we are paying still, in the UK it looks like coal is the fuel of the future, again.

Unfortunatly all the pits that we owned are gone, but the coal is still there for the taking.



So who is going to go get it? lots of unemployed bankers looking for work



rgs Flanker.

[Lord Lionheart]

name='Flanker']Hi Folks



And we are paying still, in the UK it looks like coal is the fuel of the future, again.

Unfortunatly all the pits that we owned are gone, but the coal is still there for the taking.



So who is going to go get it? lots of unemployed bankers looking for work



rgs Flanker.

Just leave the coal where it is and have them trade credit default swaps and hedge funds against future potential coal revenue

[GRAEME]

name='Lord Lionheart']Semantics, perhaps I should have said Mrs Thatcher used tax payers money to pay the police overtime, but I figured the good people here would be smart enough to figure that out all by themselves.

The police were being used as a private army for the b******* so it would have been fitting if it should have been paid for out of Tory party funds!

[Moor Larkin]

name='716Jones']What was it somebody said about Scargill? That he started out with a small house and a big union and ended up with a big house and a small union? The miners strike was all about an irresistable force and an immovable object, although I'm not sure which was which.



716Jones is an ex-miner.

I'm not an ex-miner and I was one of Tebbits cyclists who got on his bike and left the grim Northern hills to ramble in the soft underbelly-slopes of the South and I must have been a right soft Southerner by nature because I have to say that Scargill scared me to death.........



Every time I saw him speak on the telly I had these shudders of fear about this other small guy, but this one had jet-black hair and a small 'tache but he also raved amid massive rallies of chanting men, saying things that made very little sense........... and it wasn't Charlie Chaplin.......



Why on earth the miners put their faith in that raving soviet-communist demagogue is quite beyond me, but they did..... and paid the price.............



And please don't tell me that he was right because all the pits are now closed down......... because I grew up at a time when the contemporary miner would have said that he would do almost anything rather than see his son go down the pit like he had had to do all his life........



I'd like to see the movie that explores the battle, not between Mad Maggie and Scary Scargill but between the Nottinghamshire branch of the mining *community* and the others of their industry.......

[Lord Lionheart]

name='GRAEME']The police were being used as a private army for the b******* so it would have been fitting if it should have been paid for out of Tory party funds!

The police is the de-facto private army of all governments, that's why they are paid so well and retire at 50 with all the benefits. Name me one other job where a person (thug) of average intelligence can achieve this?



I'll get off my Socialist Workers Party soapbox now.

[billy bentley]

I've just come across this thread. Flanker it would appear you were/are a NUM member, if so I salute you. In my humble opinion the men that worked the black seam, were the back bone of the nation -

in their every day lives they lead the working class by example - hard working and noble.

[Flanker]

Hi Folks



Yes I was a miner and was fully committed to the strike, I now live and work in the South of England but have family and friends in South Yorkshire.



A couple of responses,



The police did allow themselves to be used as a political force (picketing was not against the law?) we were arrested for obstructing officers. If a police tells you you cant go down that street (no reason required) and you still do so you are obstructing an officer. Where I come from the police were respected, if as a kid you got in trouble with the police you also got a thick ear from your father. We trusted the police, but no more, the general view is if an officer was found ablaze one would not relieve oneself on him to help.



Unfortunately Scargill and the researchers who worked for the NUM were right (actually they sorely underestimated the numbers involved) there was no economic argument on coal production, it was a political conflict, and in loosing we would become unemployed. The NUM was/is a very democratic organisation we voted on everything, in the early 80's the NUM in a national vote rejected a bonus payment system, the High Courts overruled the democratic vote decision and the new payment scheme was imposed.



I would point you all to some reading material



These poor hands , by B L Coomes an autobiography.



The enemy within , by Seumus Milne covers the actual facts about the strike and the aftermath.



To Billy Bentley , thanks for the comment, my father,grand father, brother, uncles, cousins and best friends from school worked at the pit, we had a community, but that's gone too. The government sent 1200 police with riot gear, intelligence gatherers and horses to ensure 12 scabs could get in to work at my pit, but now they cant afford a dozen officers with the resource to clear the drug dealers off the same streets.



The villages that were thriving communities are now depressing places, places with little hope, my home village has a community forum like this on feel free to have a look



Stainforthonline - The Gateway To Stainforth's Online Community



its where brassed off was filmed (hatfield main) although the villige scenes I think were in Grimethorpe and the BBC docuamentary's "the miners strike" and "Real Lives" (during the strike) also the BBC drama Faith.



All the best to you all, Flanker

[billy bentley]

Thanks for the tips on the books Flanker, I shall add them to my ever expanding to read list and track them down. My very best to you and all the ex NUM lads and their families !

[Flanker]

Hi Billy



I would be happy to pass on your comment, but it would be better coming from you direct, have a look at the Stainforth online forum and drop in to say hello.



It would mean a lot to the folk on that site to hear from you.



I am sure that in Brassed Off the Euen McGregor charecter is useing my old locker at the pit, and so I tell the kids here that I shared a locker with Obi Wan Kanobi, equals instant respect



rgs Flanker