Silly boy.[/QUOTE]Slightly odd formatting, but I'll still ask....why is that silly? If you think it's 'silly', then by default you must also think the scab chants are silly, no? If not, then explain why.
Hi Marlon, genuine question, what do you mean by this? Do you mean if she had replaced mining (and associated)jobs with other industries?
I'm sorry Marlon but who mandated the NUM to take on the Government? Certainly not a majority of the country via the ballot box. The strikes left a lasting memory of three day weeks and power cuts. Sitting in candlelight. The result was the conditions being created for the rise of the monstrous Margaret Thatcher.
Slightly odd formatting, but I'll still ask....why is that silly? If you think it's 'silly', then by default you must also think the scab chants are silly, no? If not, then explain why.[/QUOTE] You are talking silly by involving German's wanting to know if I call them nazis and doing the goose-step proper silly reply,
Yes that’s what I meant . I think a gradual shift from coal mining to other meaningful industries . Most Miners would have discouraged their Sons from going down the mine I know my father did and I would have been horrified if my sons wanted to go down . I’ve had near death experiences and escapes , I’ve seen comrades carried out dead or seriously injured . I’ve been buried and dug comrades out , The trust you have to have in your comrades is unconditional much like the armed forces or trawler men etc etc it’s created a very strong bond no doubt . Not sure the older miners would have embraced but the transition from younger lads and future school leavers would have eventually seen the demise of the filthy ,disease and accident ridden hell holes . But they Tory’s punished places like Barnsley, Wakefield , Welsh valleys etc not rewards them .
Remembering or commemorating is completely different to abusing fans from a city about an incident they weren't alive to witness or be at all involved in
Who mandated the miners ? In the days before the strikes miners were virtually slave labourers . My father worked his ******** off seven days a week at times and we had nothing absolutely nothing . Miners picketing in the midlands who were put up by workers in the car or steel industry who had colour TVs , fridges etc that experience made the miners evaluate their worth and went on strike for a living wage in a dangerous industry .
Oh dear. You haven't mastered using this BBS yet, have you? Oh, and it's Germans. No apostrophe. You still haven't explained the difference between not bearing grudges, 75 years on, against a nation and its people for bombing the f**k out of us, but think it's acceptable after 35 years for folk who weren't even involved in the strike to be chanting scab at some other non-participants because they're from another county. Now what's the silly bit again???
I think it was more than that Helen. It was the NUM principally and crushing them sent out the most powerful message to other Unions and workers. Your days are over.
I fully accept the horrible conditions underground workers endured. I saw it first hand and was shocked. I wouldn't have worked underground for a king's ransom. But I did work as a clerk for the NCB at the time and I was able to buy my first house on the salary and I would guess most of the lads working underground were on a lot more than me. that's as far as I'm going to argue on this. Politically I think we'd like much the same things but I'll always be convinced that the strikes of the 70s and 80s alienated a large section of the population who still use it as an excuse to vote Tory to this day.
Find it hard to believe anyone in their 20’s & 30’s don’t understand the miners strike. I grew up on stories about it. I think all of my mates my age could tell you all about it & we weren’t born when it happened. I had a dad & two grandads on strike & our family struggled badly. Luckily I had an Uncle earning well abroad at the time who supported my parents & older siblings a bit but others weren’t so lucky. I’ve cringed plenty of times at chants from our fans but never at ‘scab’. The ‘you sign rapists we sign Sammy Winnall’ song for example. Like others have said the strike shaped this area for generations. I’m not going to start bad mouthing local villages but there’s plenty between here, Donny & Rotherham that have never really recovered. We often hear now about mental health & the damage lockdown’s are doing but think how people suffered in the strike. My dad lost a close mate to suicide who was on strike at the time.
The fact Heath went to the country and lost on his stance on the strike doesn’t bear your theory out tbh . Not sure when you were a clerk or what wages were in the offices at the time but usually more than the underground workers . I’ll state again the wages before the 72 and 74 strikes for underground workers were abysmal . Granted after 74 they were much improved along with the Labour govts plan for coal at the time made mining an attractive financial opportunity . But it took miners to strike before those in Govts took notice of their plight .
I’ve kept out of this interesting debate on purpose. But I’d just like to add that IMO the rot set in before Notts scabbed and even before the strike started. As soon as the miners voted for the bonus scheme they were split.
We didn’t vote for it , it was voted out and the Notts Miners disregarded the vote and decided to keep it and then it was implemented area by area by British Coal . So ballots only counted to the Notts miners when it suited .