miners may they rest in peace

[London Calling]

Well, I could have told you if I'd put Plan A into action: rugby-tackling him to the ground, pummelling him with my fists once for every pit he'd helped shut down and then finally ending it all by shoving a sharp biro right up his nose and skewering his foppish cranium.

But on reflection, Plan B was mobilised, of harrumphing a bit in his general direction and pissing off to the canteen until the royal tour with the editor was over.

so you're not a revolutionary syndacalist then?

 

[Lord Bracknell]

In summary :

* Scargill was undoubtedly politically motivated

* Thatcher wanted revenge for the fall of the Heath government

* Scargill picked on a much touger enemy than him and picked the wrong fight on the wrong ground

* Ergo - Scargill lost.

* IMHO Scargill should shoulder the blame for the thousands of job losses. He got it badly wrong.

This was more than a battle between two individuals.

It wasn't Scargill who lost. It was the nationalised coal industry and the communities that surrounded 170 working pits who lost.

It wasn't Thatcher who won. It was a Tory government that won. That government was determined to break the coal industry and the communities that were that industry - in order to shift energy production in the direction of private sector oil and gas companies that could deliver huge profits to the corporate shareholders that the Tory Party exists to represent.

The Thatcher government knew that privatising a flourishing coal industry would be impossible. Best then to destroy it, and the communities that depended upon it.

If Scargill had been a different sort of Trade Union leader, the Tories would have adopted a different strategy, but the outcome would have been the same - the destruction of the nationalised coal industry and a secure future for oil and gas.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I was once involved in organising a local government conference that was graced by a state visit from Heseltine. I got nowhere near the Heseltine camp (which was firmly in the clutches of Special Branch and Whitehall officials). My contribution was to help facilitate the line-up of the local government representatives.

We did, however, ensure that Heseltine got his just desserts. Among the special representatives wheeled in to meet him was none other than ... David Bellotti.

If ever two people deserved each others' company, it was those two.

 

[enigma]

I only principally objected to one thing you said, which was that you couldn't "give a toss" about the miners' suffering. That went too far. I still haven't a clue whether or not you stand by that statement, because although you seem comfortable with the general concept of being "frequently" wrong in arguments, you don't appear to have concretely applied it to that remark.

I will modify that statement to "I'm not bothered about miners suffering"

 

[London Irish]

 

[London Calling]

I will modify that statement to "I'm not bothered about miners suffering"