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Labour closed more mines than the Tories!



abc

Well-known member
Jan 6, 2007
1,028
Absolutely stunned when I read this in the paper today and have since checked it out and it is indeed true:

Under Harold Wilson (Labour), Number of Mines Closed:290

Under Margaret Thatcher (Conservative), Number of Mines Closed:160


Discuss?
 




Goldstone Rapper

Rediffusion PlayerofYear
Jan 19, 2009
14,865
BN3 7DE
Absolutely stunned when I read this in the paper today and have since checked it out and it is indeed true:

Under Harold Wilson (Labour), Number of Mines Closed:290

Under Margaret Thatcher (Conservative), Number of Mines Closed:160


Discuss?

You have to consider how many new pits were opened under each PM for a fuller picture and how many compulsory redundancies.
 




beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
35,264
or you could present it like this: Wilson the number of miners where reduced from 600k to 300k. I think it was a similar ratio under Thatcher too, but from a lower start (240 or 120? cant recall)
 




Mo Gosfield

Well-known member
Aug 11, 2010
6,276
Ultimately, the person who brought the mining industry to its knees was Arthur Scargill. You can blame Thatcher as much as you like but his action in dividing the union and splitting the support was fatal.
Ego-centric and power crazy, he was his own worst enemy.
 


stripeyshark

All-Time Best Defence
Dec 20, 2011
2,294
272 reduction in the Labour governments. (27 per year)

208 reduction in the Conservative governments. (12 per year)
INCLUDING
154 reduction under Thatcher (14 per year)
 


seagullsovergrimsby

#cpfctinpotclub
Aug 21, 2005
43,690
Crap Town
Absolutely stunned when I read this in the paper today and have since checked it out and it is indeed true:

Under Harold Wilson (Labour), Number of Mines Closed:290

Under Margaret Thatcher (Conservative), Number of Mines Closed:160


Discuss?

Needs a breakdown of the figures. How many pits closed because the coal seams were exhausted or had flooding/geological problems ?
 




Giraffe

VERY part time moderator
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patreon
Aug 8, 2005
26,454
Another ridiculous myth about Thatcher quelled.

Like the one about the NHS cuts. Thatcher spent more on the NHS than Labour had done. FACT.

But the looney lefties just want someone to blame for their own failures.

Left wing politics never works. It's ideolistic baloney.
 


seagullsovergrimsby

#cpfctinpotclub
Aug 21, 2005
43,690
Crap Town
Ultimately, the person who brought the mining industry to its knees was Arthur Scargill. You can blame Thatcher as much as you like but his action in dividing the union and splitting the support was fatal.
Ego-centric and power crazy, he was his own worst enemy.

So nothing to do with Thatcher appointing McGregor as Chairman of the NCB after his hatchet jobs at British Leyland and British Steel ?
 


True story this:

My father was a coal merchant in the early eighties and the miners strike nearly took his company under. He made inquiries when there was NO coal left to buy or sell to Germany and guess what? They found they could import superior quality coal from the continent for half the price including transportation.

Hate her as much as you like, the miners shot themselves in the foot.
 




seagullsovergrimsby

#cpfctinpotclub
Aug 21, 2005
43,690
Crap Town
True story this:

My father was a coal merchant in the early eighties and the miners strike nearly took his company under. He made inquiries when there was NO coal left to buy or sell to Germany and guess what? They found they could import superior quality coal from the continent for half the price including transportation.

Hate her as much as you like, the miners shot themselves in the foot.

Polish coal was imported before and during the strike because it was cheaper due to Polish state subsidies and their miners only earning 15% to 20% of their British counterparts. How do you think the NCB amassed a stockpile before the strike began ?
 


Lenny Rider

Well-known member
Sep 15, 2010
5,373
Ultimately, the person who brought the mining industry to its knees was Arthur Scargill. You can blame Thatcher as much as you like but his action in dividing the union and splitting the support was fatal.
Ego-centric and power crazy, he was his own worst enemy.

This.

In the early 1980's I worked in an office with a lady in her mid 60's and at the time there was footage of 'King Arthur' addressing a conference in an animated fashion, she said then it was the closest thing to Hitler at Nuremburg that she'd ever seen.

WE ALL, either left, right or middle of the road should be eternally grateful for Thatcher for stopping Scargill, because had he won their conflict I dread to think what state this country would be in today.
 


lighthouse

New member
Feb 27, 2008
744
north hampshire
This.

In the early 1980's I worked in an office with a lady in her mid 60's and at the time there was footage of 'King Arthur' addressing a conference in an animated fashion, she said then it was the closest thing to Hitler at Nuremburg that she'd ever seen.

WE ALL, either left, right or middle of the road should be eternally grateful for Thatcher for stopping Scargill, because had he won their conflict I dread to think what state this country would be in today.

Arr yes, Arthur Scargill, the man who lived in a small house and got the job of running a big Union. By the time he had finished he was running a small Union but lived in a big house.

Apparently though it is only the Tories who are motivated by self interest and are incompetent.
 




beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
35,264
Needs a breakdown of the figures. How many pits closed because the coal seams were exhausted or had flooding/geological problems ?

and the economic viablity maybe?

My father was a coal merchant in the early eighties and the miners strike nearly took his company under. He made inquiries when there was NO coal left to buy or sell to Germany and guess what? They found they could import superior quality coal from the continent for half the price including transportation.

this is essantial what the whole matter was about*. coal mining in UK had been barely to non-economical for decades with a lack of investment in mechanisation of already expensive to run deep cast mines (due to both miners unions resistance and owners luctance to pay for it). coal was cheaper to bring from open cast mines in Australia so im told. (*acknowledge there was a ideological objective to break the miners union, though as a result of decades of problems not for the sake of it).

a funny aside that relates, recall all the uproar to selling off the government owned forests a couple of years back? far from the ancient woodlands or oak, ash and chestnut etc imagined, the vast majority of the state owned stock is pine. it was planted around the turn of the centruy to provide wood for shoring up the mines, as there was a serious concern we'd run out of wood for the purpose.
 


SK1NT

Well-known member
Sep 9, 2003
8,728
Thames Ditton
Yes i have heard that labour actually closed more mines.

However it wasn't down to the pit closures but the privatisation of everything that put Thatcher in a bad light... It was inevitable that the mines were going to close.
 


D

Deleted member 22389

Guest
Lab, Con, Lib I have never known three political parties to be so out of touch. UKIP adverts going up around town last week. We need a serious change in this country. I hate them all in the following order, Lab, Lib, Con.

I understand UKIP are one policy, but they will be getting my vote along with a lot of other people. They will form more policies and become more credible as more people join.
 


jakarta

Well-known member
May 25, 2007
15,616
Sullington
The coal industry was declining from the Second World War onwards under Governments of all persuasions. It is literally a filthy fuel to extract and use and gas (or my preference nuclear) power stations are a far better option.

In my opinion the Tories clearly looked for a fight with Scargill which did accelerate the decline of the industry, but it would have happened anyway. Whether or not you approve of the way the Miners Strike panned out that is a fact (as this is NSC I should of course say FACT).

A good friend of mine worked for British Coal in South Wales (mostly topsides but often down below and was in the Emergency Response Crew so knew what it was like at the coal face). He lost two Uncles to Silicosis and thought that mining was a bloody awful way to make a living. He was OK about his pit shutting as he had transferable skills and like myself ended up working on oil rigs on the North Sea.

The problem was very few other people did have transferable skills - I'm not sure that was the Tories fault but they should have taken it into account. However please don't idealise mining as a wonderful thing in itself - extracting coal has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people in the UK, aside from those who continue to suffer from chronic ill health from conditions such as Silicosis, COPD, Reynauds Syndrome and Noise Induced Hearing Loss and we should be glad to see the back of it.
 






Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
49,985
Goldstone
Arr yes, Arthur Scargill, the man who lived in a small house and got the job of running a big Union. By the time he had finished he was running a small Union but lived in a big house.
:lol:

Apparently though it is only the Tories who are motivated by self interest and are incompetent.
And he still wants the union to pay for his flat in the Barbican (£34k a year) and he wants them to pay for it for his widow after he's gone. His greed and selfishness is beyond compare. Oh, and he's a supporter of Stalin. Nice.
 



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