The Miners Strike BBC Report

[KidMalone]

FUCKIN' SCABS!

[BilboBaghead81]

dont know why the media (supposed to be neutral) never seem to mention the mother of this problem. it was cheaper to import it from Poland. isnt that the end of the fucking argument? Capitalism = making the most of what you have got. If my friend Bob sells 1p sweets to me for 2p maybe i will pay the 2p because Bob is my friend. The err 10, 000 other more balanced customers go and buy the 1p sweets from the guy next to Bob who sells them for 1p each, not 2. Bob was overpriced and had to go. END.

[itsmeJTke]

FUCK THATCHER.

[rlturne21]

Also you cannot blame people for refusing Thatchers 5 year plan, would you take a job knowing that you would have to find another one in 5 years time. And lets be fair when does the UK Government ever keep to their promises? 5 years could have turned into 1 or 2.

I love the villiage where I live, where i can go to my neighbours for a cupper and leave my front door unlocked... you should take the time to visit a mining villiage and put yourselves into others shoes before you start judging people

[rlturne21]

You have probs never been to a mining villiage either before or after the strike. I have been brought up in a mining villiage after the miners strike and i see many men who have no choice but to either re-train completly or watch their families starve. These same men are the ones who have been shafted yet again in the more recent reccession.

[rlturne21]

The miners wern't thugs! The Miners were desperate Men who wanted to work for a living, that had their livelyhood taken away from them. I agree that Thatcher did a lot of good for this country, and yes if the mines wern't productive then it makes little sense to keep them open. However, people on here talking about 'thugs' don't have a clue.

[bonfirejovi]

democratically elected government vs unelected thugs

[elviskevinb]

scabs

[dimgwalltameiben]

So the miners wanted protectionism to shield them from the reality of the market place. Don't we all ? Pay half of us to keep digging coal, producing Morris Minors and the other half to dump it all in the sea. Yeah, that'll work.

[chapmasi]

@dimgwalltameiben You're wasting your breath mate, tunnel vision socialists think the government has an endless pot of cash that never runs out. Hence why after another LABOUR government we're in the financial shit again.

I feel sorry that the miners lost their jobs, I honestly do but the Unions REFUSED Thatchers 5 year plan, and then they all lost their jobs in 12-18 months instead. Which would have been better?

Love or hate Thacther she got the uk off its arse. FACT

[deathtotheunions]

Ha Ha Ha - death to the NUM - just a bunch of thugs trying to take over - look where it got you commie layabouts - Mind you the Police were far too soft . Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

[doveyabas33]

@deathtotheunions

fuck you jack im alright, good attitude,hope you end up having your job taken from under you. scab.

[stemajad]

the miners should have gone paramilitary in their tactics and took out a few of the scum police.

[rapidset]

these men were freedom fighters ....nothing less freedom fighters heros

[SouthDownIPLO]

up with scargill

[deathtotheunions]

@SouthDownIPLO . and onto the fire with the commie arse

[GeeGee3374]

Thatcher should never of ordered the Police in to deal with the strike, as there are local communities that will still not work with their local Police because of this strike. The strikers had a genuine cause but that bloody woman turned it in to a war.

[sh1ft9]

thatcher may have been harsh but she did get money flowing in the economy at the end.

[curiosofsigns1234]

Yeah it flowed alright.. from the poor, right up to the rich.

[sh1ft9]

thats capitalism

[wiganjoe]

mkclash you are a fucking faggot still live with mummy i bet licking your mams cunt fucking tosser, mummys cunt is drying up go back and bury your face in it you haven,t a clue fuck off,,

[DERBYSHIRELOYAL]

Notts scabs

[mush1955]

Its a well known fact that many of these so called " police " were British Army troops that Thatcher dressed up....lots of them didn't even have numbers on their uniforms as required under British law. They were seen on tv and in the flesh by their own families and had a lot of explaining to do when they next came home on leave !

[mkclash]

Should have put troops with guns there and shot the leftie cunts

[Frigger100]

Nice one pal. I do hope they give Our Margaret a state funeral when she dies , she tyrned the country around.

[sh1ft9]

frigger100  im glad some1 had the guts to say that. she did turn the country around, though i must say its a shame we have next to no industry apart from the M4 Corridor.

[Jimisonjons]

State funeral? Only if she burns alive!

[redhotcarbon]

NO no no no no only if shes buried alive with a web cam in side the coffin LOL

[akm1326]

Hello, I'm a Performing Arts degree student. I don't know much about the mining strike, other than what i have read on the internet. I'm trying to investigate personal stories of the effects the strike had on families: wives and children of those on strike. As well as those who continued to work.

With these personal stories we are hoping to present a realistic drama piece on the 1984/85 strike. How it effected the men and families at the time.

Please send any personal memories...

AKM.

[mush1955]

I was working as a mobile DJ in the Rhondda during the strike. I played without pay for their benefit concert. The local working mens clubs stopped having discos because no one had money to come to them so I had no work. I decided to work in Denmark during the strike..... I'm still here ( and happy for the most ! )

[SpeedFreakJive]

Im from county durham in the north-east, alhtough im only 16 i hear alot of stories about the strikes and am interested in that time. My dad was in a union that fought against the closure of the railway works in my hometown of shildon. Thatcher ripped the heart and soul out of the north of england. Their is hardly any work up here now and the south still treats us like shite. One day i hope jobs in the south start going and they have to face police charges!

[gezza999]

When you say south,I hope you dont mean South Wales my friend, because we were in the fight too. And Thatcher ripped the heart out of South Wales as well.Regards to all my old friends in the North of England who I met and fought alongside in 1984

[mush1955]

It started long before Thatcher Boyo ! around 1282 ad I would say ( Thatcher was the original MAD COW though ! ) Labour in Wales are like the pigeons in Queen st Cardiff, When their down they eat out of your hand, and when their up the shit on you !

So vote Plaid Cymru... Charlie Windson GO HOME !

[mush1955]

Yes well you English in the north east have been treated just as bad as us Welsh and Scottish over the years.....ain't it about time you got yourselves a party like Plaid Cymru/ SNP and worked for Independence ? Remember the Tolpuddle martyrs

[markyboy1704]

Rupert Murdoch does a deal with Maggie to help put down the miners down if she helps him with his wapping problem.

Calvin Mckenzie the lap dog does as his master says.........Fuck all 3 of them.

[lajopi292]

Yup. I bet you wish you'd pulled your weight now, instead of draining money from the honest working people of the UK and following the instructions of your corrupt KGB guided union leaders. Bring back maggie.

[mush1955]

Yep and hang the old cow in public, the bury her face down in pig shit !

[jpredman1]

Fantastic to see the blackmailing thugs being handed the good kicking they'd had coming. Miner's head go CRAAAAAACK!!

Maggie Maggie Maggie!

[gezza999]

Once you cross that line you can never come back ...you live for the rest of your life in shame, knowing that you turned your back on your own brothers in thier rightful fight to work. You are a Judas....a man who took 50 silver coins in exchange for betraying Jesus...You are the scum of the earth and will take the word SCAB to your grave...and the eternal fires of HELL will be your just reward for your betrayal

[trumph650]

once the line is drawn you don't cross one out all out there is nothing lower than a SCAB!

[robg71]

GOD BLESS THE BRAVE MINERS !

[hugalove]

After all these years and as someone who remembers being a 16 year old watching this lot, who was it that killed the British Coal industry? Was it:-

Thatcher?

Arthur Scargill?

Ian McGregor?

The UDM?

The strikers?

Those who chose to work?

So, now I have the answer.

IT WAS ALL OF THEM. Mike S.

[eaglepies]

How can you say that the strikes or Scargill killed British Coal?! If they hadn't done what they did, the pit closures would've happened a lot faster.

[hugalove]

I have no selectiveness as to who was responsible for the pit closures, my view is that they were all as bad as each other.

I think that it's a lot better to have absolutely no political leanings at all, because politics is more trouble than it's worth. Politicians are just so angry... Mike S.

[beerbum83]

they shoulda went to work

[GeeGee3374]

smashing the scargill and the n.u.m strike was in revenge for the fact in 1974 the same union brought down the previous Tory Government of which Mrs Thatcher had been a member and it wasn't going to happen again.

[elmarko5]

What happened to the miners will happen also to royal mail.

Becoming demanding, and taking extreme action to meet it.

royal mail will collpase and its not a selfish ignroant govermnets fault which ever one it may be, its a greedy selfish, arrogant postal worker's fault...then they cry because the indursty closes down...its there own fault

[britishpatriot01]

exactly everyone saids that the miners are the victims but they were holding this country at randsom and they needed to be stopped

[patarciepaul]

And now we are held at randsom by Russia over the price of gas and oil because our own reserves from the north sea have been depleated. Who would you rather deal with, a 100,000 British miners or the worlds largest nuclear power?

[britishpatriot01]

well we wont need oil in 10-20 years anyway so wats the problem

[patarciepaul]

yeah, of course we wont

[britishpatriot01]

well we should have moved onto alternate power by now

[sh1ft9]

partarcepaul u go find some more fucking oil reserves then. the miners were holding back the economy and needed a good ass wooping. you can hardly compare that to a nuclear war threat from russia

[juliandavies]

The petrol strike, a few years ago, did in a few days what the miners tried to do over 18 months.....

[superdave999]

The union leaders that "represented" the miners (particularly Scargill) were more concerned with bringing down the Conservative Government of the time than they were with the interests of their members. Definitely a political strike. Thatcher was right to take the NUM on and we should all be glad that she won. Otherwise and to this day, there would have been strike after strike after strike.

[IrishMartin]

As an Irishmen the strike was one reason why i never hated the English like my brethren did, the Scottish and Welsh too, point being the miners were as oppressed as we were, good decent people trod on by an aristrocracy, denied the right to breath. Long live the English but fuck the tories, new labour and the monarchy.

[sh1ft9]

i never get it. the welsh, irish, and scots all dislike the english but i have never done anything to them, i cant control my great great great great great great great ancestors.

[IrishMartin]

I dont dislike the English just the monarchy, government and politicians, English folk in general are ok by me.

[deathtotheunions]

@IrishMartin . Well that`s nice to know.

[bonfirejovi]

@IrishMartin You have no clue about the facts, do you?

[98raza20]

@IrishMartin I've always felt closer to a Scot than a Southern Englishmen myself been from Yorkshire. Quite a common background are Scots and Northern Englishmen, working class, traditionally socialist, oppressed by Margaret Milksnatcher and her Tory thieves. ect ect

[IrishMartin]

@98raza20 Here here good post.

[pestcontrolltd]

Gordon Brown invited his heroine Thatcher to Downing Street! He Praised her!He called her a conviction politician! Her conviction destroyed the mining industry! To think the mining community Donkeys will still vote Labour!

[FLAVCO]

I am a postman and we are currently involved in a huge dispute with Royal Mail. So far Gordon Brown has done absolutely nothing to aid us workers in this crisis. I can assure that neither myself or any of my fellow workers will be voting for Labour for a long time!

[LeamingtonSteve]

Pal- you just hastened the job losses- my business has vowed never to use the Royal Mail again after the strike debacle. I guess we ain't alone.

[21begent]

Well why don't you ask yourself what you'd do in the mailworkers position? Besides the level of choice and service the other companies give means you won't gain by transfering and will be just hitting a public utility to make a point!

[FLAVCO]

If some other companies take contracts away from us it's no problem coz it's less work for us to d. Anyway the fickle British public will soon come running back to us!

[21begent]

If you go to the Guardian web site and put in Neil Greatrex's name you find a recent article about him and very interesting it is to!

Basically it's about Neil Greatrex and Michael Stevens who were strike breakers and eventually formed the UDM Union of Democratic Miners, funded by Thatchers cronies of course. Mr Greatrex isn't so democratic about his pension scheme it seems!

[21begent]

Just for the record, the idiots in Nottingham and alike who never supported their fellow miners were (wrongly!) under the illusion that their pitrs would be safe, ha too late you lot fell for that one hook line and sinker! I would agree however in hindsight that if Scargill had thought better about what he was doing and not to mention the bloody TUC and Steel workers had supported their comrades things may have been very sticky for Thatcher, divide and conquer!

[21begent]

Well it's interesting that Thatcher and her government at the time justified their actions by remarking how the coal industry would have to be privitised as it was bleeding the treasury dry, hence pit closures! utter crap! if that was the case why wasn't the NHS privitised? the biggest drain on finance bar pointless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!

[GeeGee3374]

the NHS wasn't privatised by Mrs Thatcher's Government because they wouldn't of got away with it. A commission was set up to look at it but it was simply to risky.

[jesuswasacommy]

this is very famous, I thought someone would have mentioned it: the so called "unbiased" BBC showed this in the wrong order, similar to the recent Queen controversy. The police charged first before the stones were thrown

[25AUG1968]

The whole lot was just one sorry mess at the end. The rich won as usual and I remember that my mum and dad were rooting for Scargill. Thatcher was an idiot, Scargill was an idiot, politicians are idiots anyway and the police force conveniently didn't have numbers on their uniforms. I choose not to have any political view whatsoever myself. It's better that way. Mike S.

[juliandavies]

No one seems to have honour anymore.......

[wiganjoe]

just seen your comment jolly shaman , you are a tit,would loved to have faced you on A FUCKING LINE,

a line that i would die for before disshonour myself and break it.

what do you know? fuck all,scabby cunt

[bu19761]

very sad how it all ended,i believe it was right to strike but cannot help feeling that had the num "SCARGILL" called a ballot things would have been different, he played into the torys hands.and what about roger windsor?

[LIL0R000N]

bu19761 Scargill tried to "smash capitalism" but ended up making them stronger. I always believe Scargill shot himself and the miners in the foot.

[wiganjoe]

roger windsor has been exposed as a ageuht proveacteur

check it out bud

[jimusgrimus]

To thejollyshaman...you're thick in the head and strong in the arms...you had to be to climb out the abortion bucket you CUNT

[thejollyshaman]

Man, I would have loved to have been on the police side when they charged the miners.

[fuckwithfire1984]

Lol because you like men in uniform? you silly cunt

[LIL0R000N]

Thejollyshaman I second what jimusgrimus says

[wiganjoe]

well come on cunt,charge at me,you want to meet let me know, we can get it on,,

[BPL1980]

I hope you die in a fire.

[pestcontrolltd]

I didn't like Thatcher or her government! But have things really changed with NEW Labour! The gap between rich and poor increasing! Hospital dept closures! N.H.S dentists leaving ! Post Offices closing! Manufacturing industry still dying ! Private fiance initiative (P.F.I) fat cats fleecing the N.H.S and taxpayer ! Billions to be spent on a new nuclear deterrent, ID cards costing more billions! Iraq! ect

[didz83]

labour have just carried on where thatcher left off, which should lead us to the realisation (that many came to years ago) that all parliamentary governments serve the interests of the rich, their role is to maintain a stable and profitable capitalist economy. The labour party may have the token lefty but once theyre in power theyre all the same. Long live autonomous class struggle!

[482c]

right! Though I have a soft spot for Tony Benn--Arthur, Peter, Betty (alas dead) Brenda all heroes!

[dalelepage]

You're not the only one kempy!!

[kempy5000]

if i ever met thatcher id punch her str8 in the fuckin nose

[LIL0R000N]

Join the back of a very very long queue, kempy

[GooseGreen82]

I always thought Thatcher mean and inhumane.She is an old woman of 82 now, but still,she has a lot to answer for.She single-handedly destroyed so many,many mining communities and mining jobs.Old bitch.

[juliandavies]

my dad 'stuck it till the end'

[eaglepies]

I will always admire those who did. It still saddens me to think how this event ended with the destruction of so many communities, as well as destroying the NUM, both of which were only helped by those who gave in.

[densaner77]

The BBC edited their footage of Orgreave to make it look like the Miners were the aggressors when in fact it was the Police who undertook the first major cavalry charge in the UK since Peterloo! The Police later had to pay out over £500,000 to the miners who were arrested. The Police, BBC and the Government conspired to defeat the Miners and continue the cause of Thatcher and her cohorts.

[micktraynor]

the police thatchers private army the BBC Government properganda tool never forget this and never belive anything they tell you in the future

[mofi500]

Too right Mick.

Shame on the BBC, they were exposed as shown on a television programme on Channel Four a few years ago. They should NEVER be called a reliable news source.