what jobs do you have?

You probably know my cousins who do the same job as you for BT and maybe my uncle who was the head honcho of BTinternet in Wales at some point, think he is doing something else in that tower block now

 

i don't go to the tower block or have anything to do with them. although, i was in padleys yesterday. that's the exchange building next to the tower. there's a big swans at wembley flag in the exchange room that i thought was kinda cool.

 

But they are about to slide into recession after biggest quarterly slump for 20 years.

http://www.news.com.au/business/aus...-in-twenty-years/story-e6frfm1i-1226067667143

 

You just contradicted yourself there. Yes, their exports are massive, because they produce commodities. So it is definitely reliant on overseas influence because it is the overseas countries that buy the commodities.

 

Of course, my point was they don't buy in as much as other countries. If you produce more, it means a larger proportion of your GDP is made up of exports, which surely can't be that bad a thing? If all of Britains ports were closed tomorrow, we'd be in trouble within a day or two... Australia? They could probably survive alright!

 

I'm a coal miner, not too many of us about these days

 

Well i worked in the pits for 19 years until the the last British Coal mine closed in 94, and went into social care where i am currently a senior manager working with individuals who have learning disabilities.

 

Where have you worked mabon?

 

Abernant Colliery 1976 - 1988 Tower Colliery 1988 - until about 2 months before it closed, A small mine in seven sisters for 6 months until that went, and Cwmgwilli with GSG Mining until coal investments went bust, i went into social care in early 95 then

 

You can put the blame for the demise of coal mining on maggie's shoulders, isn't it ironic that they are looking to reopen mines instead of importing it from the likes of Poland and Russia?

I read somewhere that there is still millions of tons of coal in abernant, it's a travesty that such heavy industry was closed down for political gains! And it's now happening in Derby where there could be 10k job losses as the government awards a train contract to siemens of Germany !

These politicos make me puke honestly, and I state that across all the corrupt ****ing parties!

 

Abernant had an estimated recoverable section of 400 million tons at the time of closure, the thing is this, South Wales was starved of investment from the time maggie got in in 79, had they invested properly from the off 80% of welsh pits would have turned profits going into millions each year, the problem was that thatcher and her cronies had vast amounts of their own money invested in mining corporations in south africa,Australia,

 

Yeah I can believe that, I remember the miners strike very vividly, helping striking miners in my village with food and trying to support them, it made me sick that hundreds of thousands jobs were lost because of her!

Places like Merthyr and the valleys have never recovered from all the industry lost, and they call these places the benefit Capitol of the UK now, it's no wonder as the nearest possible jobs are 30 or 40 miles away from them, the double whammy of course are public transport have been cut as well, how the **** they supposed to work with no transport?

 

The old man worked at both Abernant and tower. He worked as a shotsman at cwmgwili as well, he was still working there until 2007. Work with a lot of ex tower miners now. You'll probably know most of them Mabon.

It is ironic that they're talking about reopening some of the pits. Still plenty of coal left in the area. The price of coal is going through the roof

 

Oops meant he was still working at tower until 2007 not cwmgwili

 

I still keep in touch with a few, and meet a lot of the boys on my travels i must know your old man as we would have transferred together up to tower and as he was a shotsman i would definately have worked with him, MIA good to see you are keeping the pits alive,

 

Jager a very belated thank you for your efforts and support during the strike, sadly it not only affected us but all our communities, and i do beleive that the effects of the closures will affect many villages and towns for generations to come,

 

The last official figure I saw had something like 58% of Merthyr's working population on incapacity benefits... but as has been said, if there's no jobs, what can you do?...

 

There will be a another period where old king coal will dominate the energy market, history has shown that there is a massive upsurge in the use of coal every 30/40 years, it will come good again mark my words

 

MIA

From your response (ex tower lads) union or Aberpergwm ring a bell (your forum anonymity preserved) i would probably know most of the ex Tower lads who you currently work alongside

 

Without a doubt Mabon. Welsh anthracite is selling at £500 a ton in some parts of England and the price is still rising. Investors are throwing money into the mining industry at the moment, £100 million is small change compared to the potential rewards that 80 odd million ton of coal will produce. Who'd have thought 10 years ago we'd be talking about the rebirth of the welsh coal industry. I think we'll see a number of pits re-opening in the next few years