Killer Whale wrote:
Mr Mordon wrote:
Killer Whale wrote:
What you're also missing is the instability caused by the Thatcherite introduction of 'flexibility' into the labour market. It's much easier to bring up a contented, healthy family if at least one parent is in long-term, decently-paid, meaningful employment. Working down the mines may have been hell, but the communities that surrounded them were stable, creative and cohesive. There's a thought on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Cortonwood announcement.
Don't get me wrong, i have simpathy for mining communities. But i do feel that in some cases they made a bit of a rod for their own back with the 'doing the job my father & grandfather did' philosophy. Surely many could see that the coal was not going to last forever, or was to become more and more expensive (and thus inpractical) to extract. Why didn't more of the young people try and broading their scope by staying on at school and going to Uni. Very few jobs are long term these days, you have to broaden your horizons. What Maggie did needed to be done but i agree the way it was done was very wrong.
Well, firstly, many of the mining communities had a great record of aspiration for their young people. One of the reasons that the South Wales coalfield lost its Welsh language was because parents thought that their children would do better educationally and thus not have to work in the mines or ironworks if they spoke English.
In addition the bollocks about coal being uneconomic to extract was a lie. Tower Colliery proved that. The Thatcher government deliberately switched electricity dependency from coal to gas in order to undermine (sorry) the coal industry. We argued at the time that the gas was going to run out far quicker than the coal and so it has proved. Sill we can always get a steady, reliable supply of gas from Russia can't we?
Yes, few jobs are long term these days, and you do have to broaden your horizons, but not everyone can, and those that do face uncertainty and instability, and that's my point.
Tower Colliery is one out of a huge number that had to be shut. I'm not saying coal is completly redundant, but the cost of extraction coupled with the increasing evironmental concerns meant it was no longer viable on that scale.
Only today there was an article on the news about the aniversary of the strikes, some bloke was saying how he was glad his son was staying on at school to get a decent education, but still wishes he was going to be working down the mine with his father. Why?? Why are some of these folk so obsessed with living in the past? The days of coal are long since over, get over it.
As for the other point, we wouldn't need to rely on regular gas supplies from russia if the UK bit the bullet and became entirely nuclear powered (like France)
Plus, i agree many do feel uncertainly at this time, but how many riots have you seen so far? I would say that the staff at the banks have just as much right to get angry as they have been completely fucked over by 'middle men' and stock market tossers. What gave the miners the right to attack policemen who were just doing their job?
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