BBC World Service - Miners Strikes

[megalithic 10]

The miners were living in a different century, Madge soon put em right. As for Scargill, dunno why Madge gets all the vitriol !

[SpikeMac 10]

BTL is a business like any other ,there to make profit for the owner .

 

It is massively underwritten by the taxpayer. Anyone with a basic grasp of economics can see that.

 

It also kills off the chances of many tens of thousands of young people by artificially inflating house prices.

 

A rental market, backed by a scared government. Enjoy your rental income.

 

It isn't working though.

[Anna B 1,441]

This fight wasn't just about the miners, but about bringing down the Trade Unions.

 

Much as I dislike Scargill, what he said about the number of pits being closed was true, something Thatcher lied about to the end. If she had dared to admit the truth would she still have been regarded as the great politician?

 

Some areas never recovered and it created the underclass that we still live with today, multi-generational benefit dependency was unknown before then. Nor were all the jobs replaced with new industries. We will probably never have full employment again. It has also allowed for the demonisation of the working classes.

 

Recent years have graphically shown that every working man is the poorer for the demise of the Trade Union Movement. With no one to stand up for the working man, disgraceful practices such as 0 hours contracts, and poor working conditions and wages have been allowed to flourish unopposed.

[yellowperil 10]

There are too many "im alright jack" types now.

Unions have been demonised.

The "take your bait but dont tell your mate" people are just selfish and have no concept of standing together to be counted,sense of community or loyalty.

When they get screwed over though they can expect no support.

[megalithic 10]

This fight wasn't just about the miners, but about bringing down the Trade Unions.

 

Much as I dislike Scargill, what he said about the number of pits being closed was true, something Thatcher lied about to the end. If she had dared to admit the truth would she still have been regarded as the great politician?

 

Some areas never recovered and it created the underclass that we still live with today, multi-generational benefit dependency was unknown before then. Nor were all the jobs replaced with new industries. We will probably never have full employment again. It has also allowed for the demonisation of the working classes.

 

Recent years have graphically shown that every working man is the poorer for the demise of the Trade Union Movement. With no one to stand up for the working man, disgraceful practices such as 0 hours contracts, and poor working conditions and wages have been allowed to flourish unopposed.

 

Whilst i agree about the lack of representation for the common man, Scargill was a lunatic, self obsessed, power hungry and deluded. Pig headed.

He lead the miners like lambs to the slaughter, and came out the other side well looked after.

We were the old man of Europe, stuck in some weird war state bubble, going nowhere. Your average man may have had a low paid job, but he lived in a hovel, Bard St like, with a crap life expectancy through snorting various poisons in his line of work, or the heating of his house.

 

I'm not saying Madge was an angel, but we'd have been lobbing stones from wooden rafts at the argies were it not for her.

 

---------- Post added 13-03-2014 at 01:08 ----------

 

There are too many "im alright jack" types now.

 

 

Scargill's on JSA aint he ?

[yellowperil 10]

I dont see the connection.

[megalithic 10]

I dont see the connection.

 

Come again ?

[Mr Clowning 10]

I don't think that Penistone has ever grafted like a miner.

 

He seems to just want free stuff.

 

Why do you always highlight the word Penis ?

 

Have you got something against forum members ?

[megalithic 10]

Spike is a well known Droll.

[Anna B 1,441]

Whilst i agree about the lack of representation for the common man, Scargill was a lunatic, self obsessed, power hungry and deluded. Pig headed.

He lead the miners like lambs to the slaughter, and came out the other side well looked after.

We were the old man of Europe, stuck in some weird war state bubble, going nowhere. Your average man may have had a low paid job, but he lived in a hovel, Bard St like, with a crap life expectancy through snorting various poisons in his line of work, or the heating of his house.

 

I'm not saying Madge was an angel, but we'd have been lobbing stones from wooden rafts at the argies were it not for her.

 

---------- Post added 13-03-2014 at 01:08 ----------

 

 

 

Scargill's on JSA aint he ?

 

I agree Scargill is an odious little man. There should have been a second ballot, and his self-agrandisement at the expense of the NUM has been nothing short of a disgraceful. But don't you think the change to modern industrialisation could have been better handled? Throwing 250,000 miners on the scrap heap and then all the steelworkers as well was asking for trouble.

 

But then the Tories have always had utter contempt for the working man, other than to make themselves richer.

[megalithic 10]

I agree Scargill is an odious little man. There should have been a second ballot, and his self-agrandisement at the expense of the NUM has been nothing short of a disgraceful. But don't you think the change to modern industrialisation could have been better handled? Throwing 250,000 miners on the scrap heap and then all the steelworkers as well was asking for trouble.

 

But then the Tories have always had utter contempt for the working man, other than to make themselves richer.

 

 

Transitional times, painful ones. But it was bull against wild boar, and there was only going to be one winner. The UK needed refreshing, we were all doing the Lambeth walk in flat caps whilst the rest of Europe was embracing new technologies, some just wanted to continue the war mentality and have a bloody street party everyday, or they'd walk out en mass.

 

I genuinely dread to think where we would be now without that necessary evil.

[yellowperil 10]

The connection between an im alright jack attitude and jsa?