11-03-2013, 01:44 PM
11
Re: Arthur Scargill - the miners' hero.
Don't think Scargill was in it to be "Mr Popularity", It doesn't matter if you have two opposing ideologies at conflict in society (1970s-80s), provided you have moderation in the middle.Scargill was right for the time, to balance out the extremes at the other end of the political spectrum, maybe a bit more demarcation between the political parties would be a good thing now, who knows.
11-03-2013, 01:50 PM
13
Re: Arthur Scargill - the miners' hero.
Originally Posted by plantman
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However you feel about the miners on a personal level, the question must be what other course of action could there be when an industry is producing something that is no longer needed? Should we have kept paying the miners to produce millions of tons of coal which no-one could afford to burn? Many industries have boomed and then become redundant through progress on other fronts, and those industries have been killed off by that progress. What makes the miners' case any different ?
As for Scargill I doubt many people will mourn him, he was a bully first and a fool second. "Lions led by donkeys" was the phrase often used at the time I believe...
I don't know how anyone can say that the coal industry is producing something that is no longer needed. The top and bottom of it was that there was a mission to destroy the coal industry in this country and import all our needs instead and this was down to the policies of the Conservative government of the day - and Margaret Thatcher was instrumental in that destruction along with Scargill - two huge egos that would not negotiate.
If anyone is interested please take a look at the attached link - Statistics from the World Coal Association will indicate how much coal is being extracted and how much the world does actually still rely on coal. We did not need to lose our industry at all - it was politics pure and simple, plus maybe a bit of the economics of the day and it was a stupid blind and ignorant policy and Margaret Thatcher was hugely instrumental in the downfall of the coal industry in this country. It was not necessary.
http://www.worldcoal.org/resources/coal-statistics/
11-03-2013, 01:55 PM
15
Re: Arthur Scargill - the miners' hero.
Originally Posted by spitfire
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Don't think Scargill was in it to be "Mr Popularity", It doesn't matter if you have two opposing ideologies at conflict in society (1970s-80s), provided you have moderation in the middle.Scargill was right for the time, to balance out the extremes at the other end of the political spectrum, maybe a bit more demarcation between the political parties would be a good thing now, who knows.
11-03-2013, 05:09 PM
19
Re: Arthur Scargill - the miners' hero.
Originally Posted by Jimmy
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Something that is no longer needed Plantman?What about the power stations that now have to buy coal imported from other countries?
The main cause of the total decimation of the industry rather than a downsizing of course, was the fact that powerful union bosses such as Scargill were using the miners as cannon fodder in their war against the government. The virtual anarchy of the unions had nearly brought the country to it’s knees before, when they brought down the Labour government of Jim Callaghan in 1979, and now they tried to continue the battle against Mrs Thatcher’s government. It was a battle the government could not afford to lose and the miners were therefore masters of their own demise as they blindly followed their union masters who arrogantly fought to impose their will on the rest of the country. Mrs Thatcher had to win this battle, and it was because of the unions that the industry was decimated because they would not negotiate any other way forward. It was they themselves who decided on the battle, and ultimately it was they themselves that dictated the outcome, with Mrs. Thatcher and the conservative government being a very convenient scapegoat for the miner's own abject stupidity.
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