Dontquoteme   0 #25 Posted June 9, 2019 10 minutes ago, Mister Gee said: A quick Google says you're wrong.  Hahahahaha. He does have a son called Nicolas Ridley, but not Nicholas Ridley the MP. Haha, my bad. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Man in Crete   104 #26 Posted June 9, 2019 5 hours ago, ECCOnoob said: Crap.  Militant unions started a war against the government. Scargilll & Co put brawn instead of brains.  They chose the battlefield. They attacked. The Police responded.  BOTH sides were overkill and behaved badly.  BOTH sides had bloodshed.   As others have perfectly put it, neither side has anything in which to get on the moral high ground and raking up the past achieves nothing.   Orgreave wont be forgotten and nor should it.  However, that does not mean its right for a load of union bods to start strirring the pot and twisting the media to try and deflect blame..  We all know their game - just another load of hot air to pass all responsibility onto the police and portray the warring miners as nothing more than angels just trying to peacefully state their cause. Splendid response .........were you actually there or did you just read about same.? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
hobinfoot   25 #27 Posted June 9, 2019 A friend of mine who was a miner got injured at Orgreave he never complained about what happened to him. He said they were ready for a fight and the police obliged. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
melthebell   863 #28 Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) 26 minutes ago, hobinfoot said: A friend of mine who was a miner got injured at Orgreave he never complained about what happened to him. He said they were ready for a fight and the police obliged. ANYBODY expecting to be attacked is going to be ready for a fight, that doesnt mean they planned it, instigated it, or tooled up for it, or even wanted it though 29 minutes ago, Man in Crete said: Splendid response .........were you actually there or did you just read about same.? interestingly i was thinking is there any decent reading material on the subject? ive seen and read a lot about the battle of the beanfield but not the miners strike tbh Edited June 9, 2019 by melthebell Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Resident   1,185 #29 Posted June 9, 2019 6 hours ago, ECCOnoob said: Crap.  Militant unions started a war against the government. Scargilll & Co put brawn instead of brains.  They chose the battlefield. They attacked. The Police responded.  BOTH sides were overkill and behaved badly.  BOTH sides had bloodshed.   As others have perfectly put it, neither side has anything in which to get on the moral high ground and raking up the past achieves nothing.   Orgreave wont be forgotten and nor should it.  However, that does not mean its right for a load of union bods to start strirring the pot and twisting the media to try and deflect blame..  We all know their game - just another load of hot air to pass all responsibility onto the police and portray the warring miners as nothing more than angels just trying to peacefully state their cause. I'd agree with this too.  I was a child, living in Treeton, literally a stone's throw from Orgreave. (The main rail in and out ran yards from the house)  My late father was a miner at the time of the strikes. He told me of many clashes, planned by miners. Goading officers etc.  The police were not innocent but neither were the miners. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
hobinfoot   25 #30 Posted June 9, 2019 48 minutes ago, melthebell said: ANYBODY expecting to be attacked is going to be ready for a fight, that doesnt mean they planned it, instigated it, or tooled up for it, or even wanted it though interestingly i was thinking is there any decent reading material on the subject? ive seen and read a lot about the battle of the beanfield but not the miners strike tbh  He showed me blocks of wood with nails hammered through them to stop horses he trod on one then got hit with a baton so they did go tooled up for a fight. Both sides got and received  a battering that day. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Penistone999   10 #31 Posted June 9, 2019 4 hours ago, Mister Gee said: A quick Google says you're wrong. That doesn't come as a surprise. Yeah , obviously those lovely miners gathered on that day for a quiet picnic and a read of the Socialist workers party newspaper. 4 hours ago, Mister Gee said: A quick Google says you're wrong. That doesn't come as a surprise. Yeah , obviously those lovely miners gathered on that day for a quiet picnic and a read of the Socialist workers party newspaper. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Annie Bynnol   612 #32 Posted June 9, 2019 When your Employer and your Government refers to you as one of  "The Enemies Within" and you know that you are going to lose your job, it tends to have an effect on you.  Anybody who actually lived in this area at the time would know that that same Government picked on a Union that had not been on strike since the 1920s and had a very good relationship with is Nationalized and Private employers. The attack on the ISTC union resulted in a three months steel strike and lockout led by an expert on strike breaking. Ian MacGregor had been a strike breaker since 1945 in America. Guess what his next job was.  Prior to the Steel and later Coal strikes the Government "invested" heavily in substantially increasing the wages and bonuses of key workers and managers in Rail and Electricity supply. The use of providing lucrative "contracts" provided also helped to divide the Unions.  If anybody has any doubt about is political views reasoning they might read his own book- . The Enemies Within: The Story of the Miners' Strike.  The men and women of our region were not born militant.  Why have we forgotten?  Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
geared   311 #33 Posted June 10, 2019 because neither side were bathed in glory over the whole affair, but when the dust settled it was clear Thatcher had outmanoeuvred Scargill, broken the back of the unions and finally put a stop to the strikes that were holding the nation back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Penistone999   10 #34 Posted June 10, 2019 5 hours ago, geared said: because neither side were bathed in glory over the whole affair, but when the dust settled it was clear Thatcher had outmanoeuvred Scargill, broken the back of the unions and finally put a stop to the strikes that were holding the nation back.  correct. Scargill bit off more than he could chew when he thought he could take on Thatcher. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Dontquoteme   0 #35 Posted June 11, 2019 Much of the industrial action in Britain throughout the seventies and into the eighties was being, to some degree, orchestrated by the Kremlin, there is no point trying to pretend otherwise; the government at the time were right to crack down on it with a showdown at Orgreave. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Mister Gee   823 #36 Posted June 11, 2019 29 minutes ago, Dontquoteme said: Much of the industrial action in Britain throughout the seventies and into the eighties was being, to some degree, orchestrated by the Kremlin, there is no point trying to pretend otherwise; the government at the time were right to crack down on it with a showdown at Orgreave. I'm going to take anything you say with a pinch of salt. Previously  on in this thread you told us that Nicholas Ridley was the son of the actor who played Godfrey in Dad's Army. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...