The Miners' Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain

The Miners' Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain

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surveyor

Original Poster:

18,160 posts

192 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
Interesting program.

I grew up in a mining town in South Yorkshire. My friends dads were miners.

My dad ran one of the two estate agents and grandfather on my dad’s side a GP, on my mums side a retired miner. The strike affected everyone in the community

This area has long memories and at least one ex Pitt village were burning effigies of Margaret Thatcher on the night she died.

tamore

7,949 posts

292 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
my impression so far is that neither side covered themselves with glory, and there was some truly despicable behaviour displayed i'm sure some regret, but also that some will stand by still.

hidetheelephants

27,925 posts

201 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
I'm generally not subject to conspiracy theory thinking, but I harbour thoughts that Arthur Scargill was actually an MI5 plant bent on giving the govt reasons to neuter the unions. He did a good job if so, to the detriment of workers rights ever since.

Wacky Racer

39,050 posts

255 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
One of the iconic photo's of the 1980's


105.4

4,214 posts

79 months

Thursday 25th January
quotequote all
surveyor said:
Interesting program.

I grew up in a mining town in South Yorkshire. My friends dads were miners.

My dad ran one of the two estate agents and grandfather on my dad’s side a GP, on my mums side a retired miner. The strike affected everyone in the community

This area has long memories and at least one ex Pitt village were burning effigies of Margaret Thatcher on the night she died.
Whilst I was just down the road in North Derbyshire.

I was trying to explain to my teenage daughter how many pits, steel works and other associated industries there used to be around here, but as usual her eyes just glazed over.

When you think back 40 years, it seems like a different world, and I’m not so sure that what we have now is any better.

jamie w

180 posts

179 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
I've already watched episode 2 which focuses on the events at Orgreave, well publicised at the time.

Listening to some of the miners 40 years later reminded me of the sentiments I had during the recent post office dramatisation.

Whatever your politics I think it's difficult to defend the police that day. Serious physical assaults with batons used to beat miners on the head in some cases, by the the police. Officers told not to record anything in their pocket notebooks. Senior officers dictating statements to the lower ranks to be used in court.

Over 70 miners charged with riot which carried I think I heard, a 10 or 15 year min sentence. The trial collapsed due to unreliable police evidence.

Small amount of compensation paid several years later and nobody ever held to account. Sound familar?

Collectingbrass

2,400 posts

203 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
hidetheelephants said:
I'm generally not subject to conspiracy theory thinking, but I harbour thoughts that Arthur Scargill was actually an MI5 plant bent on giving the govt reasons to neuter the unions. He did a good job if so, to the detriment of workers rights ever since.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Blue62

9,411 posts

160 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
jamie w said:
I've already watched episode 2 which focuses on the events at Orgreave, well publicised at the time.

Listening to some of the miners 40 years later reminded me of the sentiments I had during the recent post office dramatisation.

Whatever your politics I think it's difficult to defend the police that day. Serious physical assaults with batons used to beat miners on the head in some cases, by the the police. Officers told not to record anything in their pocket notebooks. Senior officers dictating statements to the lower ranks to be used in court.

Over 70 miners charged with riot which carried I think I heard, a 10 or 15 year min sentence. The trial collapsed due to unreliable police evidence.

Small amount of compensation paid several years later and nobody ever held to account. Sound familar?
I would add Hillsborough to that, another example of cover up, denial and outright corruption.

hidetheelephants

27,925 posts

201 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
There was a belief in govt that union power represented an existential threat, it had challenged govt authority twice in the previous decade and won, toppling those govts in the process. To ministers this must have justified illegal, or at least extrajudicial, acts.

Alickadoo

2,307 posts

31 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
jamie w said:
I've already watched episode 2 which focuses on the events at Orgreave, well publicised at the time.

Listening to some of the miners 40 years later reminded me of the sentiments I had during the recent post office dramatisation.

Whatever your politics I think it's difficult to defend the police that day. Serious physical assaults with batons used to beat miners on the head in some cases, by the the police. Officers told not to record anything in their pocket notebooks. Senior officers dictating statements to the lower ranks to be used in court.

Over 70 miners charged with riot which carried I think I heard, a 10 or 15 year min sentence. The trial collapsed due to unreliable police evidence.

Small amount of compensation paid several years later and nobody ever held to account. Sound familar?
The miners shouldn't have been at Orgreave in the first place. It wasn't a mine. It was a gas coking works.

The picketing miners shouldn't have been allowed to stop honest people from going to work.

gt_12345

1,873 posts

43 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
jamie w said:
I've already watched episode 2 which focuses on the events at Orgreave, well publicised at the time.

Listening to some of the miners 40 years later reminded me of the sentiments I had during the recent post office dramatisation.

Whatever your politics I think it's difficult to defend the police that day. Serious physical assaults with batons used to beat miners on the head in some cases, by the the police. Officers told not to record anything in their pocket notebooks. Senior officers dictating statements to the lower ranks to be used in court.

Over 70 miners charged with riot which carried I think I heard, a 10 or 15 year min sentence. The trial collapsed due to unreliable police evidence.

Small amount of compensation paid several years later and nobody ever held to account. Sound familar?
I don't recall sub postmasters refusing to work?

SpudLink

6,460 posts

200 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
gt_12345 said:
I don't recall sub postmasters refusing to work?
Wasn't the issue more about the unions doing their best to stop others going to work?

JagLover

43,879 posts

243 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
Alickadoo said:
The miners shouldn't have been at Orgreave in the first place. It wasn't a mine. It was a gas coking works.

The picketing miners shouldn't have been allowed to stop honest people from going to work.
Yes it wasn't a mine and the workers who worked there were steel workers who were not on strike and in fact wanted regular deliveries of coal to keep everything running as otherwise parts of the plant may have been damaged.

So it was actually a blockade of infrastructure elsewhere and so really came down to a question of who governed Britain not the rights of workers to strike.

Alickadoo

2,307 posts

31 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
jamie w said:
I've already watched episode 2 which focuses on the events at Orgreave, well publicised at the time.

Listening to some of the miners 40 years later reminded me of the sentiments I had during the recent post office dramatisation.

Whatever your politics I think it's difficult to defend the police that day. Serious physical assaults with batons used to beat miners on the head in some cases, by the the police. Officers told not to record anything in their pocket notebooks. Senior officers dictating statements to the lower ranks to be used in court.

Over 70 miners charged with riot which carried I think I heard, a 10 or 15 year min sentence. The trial collapsed due to unreliable police evidence.

Small amount of compensation paid several years later and nobody ever held to account. Sound familar?
Was any compensation paid to people who were injured by striking miners?

FourWheelDrift

89,689 posts

292 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
I don't recall effigies of Harold Wilson being burnt.

Clement Attlee’s Labour government closed 101 pits between 1947 and 1951
Macmillan (Conservative) closed 246 pits between 1957 and 1963
Wilson (Labour) closed 253 in his two terms in office between 1964 and 1976
Heath (Conservative) closed 26 between 1970 and 1974
Thatcher (Conservative) closed 115 between 1979 and 1990.

surveyor

Original Poster:

18,160 posts

192 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
JagLover said:
Alickadoo said:
The miners shouldn't have been at Orgreave in the first place. It wasn't a mine. It was a gas coking works.

The picketing miners shouldn't have been allowed to stop honest people from going to work.
Yes it wasn't a mine and the workers who worked there were steel workers who were not on strike and in fact wanted regular deliveries of coal to keep everything running as otherwise parts of the plant may have been damaged.

So it was actually a blockade of infrastructure elsewhere and so really came down to a question of who governed Britain not the rights of workers to strike.
So run around cracking heads open?

It's an interesting topic in general. My wife, who is quite socialist generally thinks Maggie Thatcher is great because she squashed the miners and was from down south so just saw the news. I was a child, but looking back think her stance very much suited the politics of the day and she wanted outright confrontation.

I am alright Jack

3,855 posts

151 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
Not downplaying any of the hardships suffered by anyone resulting from those awful times but for me when anyone mentions the miners strike I immediately think of "The Flying Pickets". I detested their music and developed an irrational dislike for all involved, you just couldn't get away from them with every radio station and pub juke box playing their a cappella nastiness.

SpudLink

6,460 posts

200 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
I am alright Jack said:
Not downplaying any of the hardships suffered by anyone resulting from those awful times but for me when anyone mentions the miners strike I immediately think of "The Flying Pickets". I detested their music and developed an irrational dislike for all involved, you just couldn't get away from them with every radio station and pub juke box playing their a cappella nastiness.
Just for you...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiDWGC3wxPk

hidetheelephants

27,925 posts

201 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
The govt were definitely spoiling for a fight, massive coal stocks had been built up at power stations, steelworks etc to allow the rest of the economy to function during a prolonged strike and the nuclear and oil fired power stations built since the previous coal strike in the early 70s mitigated the power of the miners.

Megaflow

9,977 posts

233 months

Friday 26th January
quotequote all
FourWheelDrift said:
I don't recall effigies of Harold Wilson being burnt.

Clement Attlee’s Labour government closed 101 pits between 1947 and 1951
Macmillan (Conservative) closed 246 pits between 1957 and 1963
Wilson (Labour) closed 253 in his two terms in office between 1964 and 1976
Heath (Conservative) closed 26 between 1970 and 1974
Thatcher (Conservative) closed 115 between 1979 and 1990.
Wow. Just how many pits were there in the UK? There is 741 just it that list!