Unity I work Mabon, as does my brother and old man. Nearly all ex tower miners are shared between aberpergwm and unity
MIA i still miss the commaderie with the boys, had some great times working underground, And although i have been out of the pits since 95, i would still be there now if they had not closed them, I like you followed my old man underground, its in the blood. Oh and sorry i did mean to write unity but put union
I used to be a forklift truck driver, then I went into investment banking at Kernary Worf and now I'm training to be a human cannonball in a circus
The fact is that more coal mining jobs were lost in the years directly before and after Maggie's time when there were Labour governments. The miner's strike during Thatcher's time made all the headlines, but in fact it was during the Labour governments that the vast majority of jobs were lost. Most people seem to miss this fact. So let's at least blame the right people.
My father worked in many mines around the country, including Abernant I think. So long ago that I've forgotten many of the place. He also worked at Cynheidre and some tin mines in Cornwall. The one thing he always told me was never to work down the mines.
She was the instigator of it, and let's face major came in after and just rubber stamped it all, here is a quote for you http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/eastmidlands/series5/miners_strike_coal.shtml
Jager - Coal mining in the UK has been declining since around the 1920s. The job loses in the 1960s and 1970s were massive compared to the Thatcher years. And the job losses after the Thatcher years were large as well. There is no way you can say she instigated it when numbers had already dropped from 1.2 million to 200,000 or thereabouts. Read up you history. Even if you think she was responsible for 185,000 job loses, what about the other 1,000,000? There were mostly lost under Labour governments.
Wales is rich in resources with vast amounts of coal,coal gas,metals & ore,water,nuclear power,tidal range,furtile land,large available workforce and much more. Infact all the ingredients for a very successful sustainable wealthy country. The only thing i can see stopping us from being a thriving Wales is CAHONES......what do you think?
Casual i suspect you are an armchair observer of pit closures, who is not in possession of the facts surrounding the massacre of the coal industry in Wales and the wider UK, now lets take your point regarding the closures during the 60s, many of the pits that were closed during that time were done so due to exhaustion and the others were done so with the blessing of the union because the volume of coal being produced was too much and also there was spare capacityat other mines that were happy to take those that were at closing mines. Now lets go on to thatcher , there was a blatant attempt by her to wreak revenge for the humiliation metered out to her by the NUM, there was no rational plan for our energy needs she was only interested in revenge, now i lived and breathed what thatcher was doing to not only our coal industry. What you may not be aware of is that she had the Armed forces,police, press, secret service personnel and those scum sucking bastards in nottingham all ranged against ordinary working people like myself and my fellow miners, i saw things during that strike that made me ashamed to say that i was from these islands, police and armed forces personnel running over pregnant women on their horses on the street who were not involved in the strike, young kids attacked by police dogs and police laughing about it, all in the name of british democracy, let me tell you this there was onr person to blame and when you next get a gas bill or electricity bill and moan about how much you are paying, you too are paying for thatchers folly it is still affecting people to this day. And the worse part of all was that this country put tens of thousands on thr scrapheap who were only fighting for the right to work. So with all due respect Thatcher and her cronies made a fortune out of the mines closing because they had massive shares in mining throughout the world and reaped the benefits by replacing capacity mined in the uk by importing coal from the companies they had invested in abroad, which may i add is well documented but rarely spoken about. Now lets go on to the environmental case, The thatcher government cancelled an order in 1979 for all our power stations to be fitted with clean coal technoogy , which would have eliminated the carbon being emmitted into the atmosphere, and therefore making coal a safe and non polluted source of fossill fuel to use as an energy source providing electricity to our country, the cost of this technology was £40 million which was a drop in the ocean to the government, the cost today would be £30 billion, that was a sign that she wanted rid of the mines, and that is why your bills are what they are today, they are paying 4/5 times for foreign coal compared to british coal which is of a much better quality also. Now finally the people who ran News international were the same people who thatcher used to run her media blitz against us during the strike, says it all really does'nt it
Yes in decline I admit, but her and the major government put the final nails in the coffin, they decimated the industry, in fact she and major decimated all heavy industry, there is hardly anything left now! And as cheap imports have now gone, we face a bill of tens of billions to open mines so we can access hundreds of billions of tons of coal left there, any saving made is wiped out, communities decimated have not recovered decades after her policies, basically the iron lady and the pea eating major ****ed our country! And the past labour government were no better, the present ones are now responsible for over 10k jobs going in the last company I believe making trains, they of course blame the past government, always passing the buck, never helping to protect British jobs, the eu countries protect their own!
The fact is that more coal mining jobs were lost in the years directly before and after Maggie's time when there were Labour governments Mining had ceased to be an industry of note after 1994 when it was split up between Budge and co and UK Mining( now UK Coal Plc), no mines were closed after the thatcher years by Labour, they were not in power until 1997 and by that time there was no government control over british mines other than a regulatory role. But like Jager has stated it will cost the british tax payer many billions when they need to reopen the mines which they will have to because that will be the only way to sustain the required energy for our country, because they can not open up the mines they have closed, and your energy bills will have to cover a lot of the cost of doing this.
Swantastic The statement you have made is probably one of the truest statements i have read in a very long time, and spot on
Dont get me started on Thatcher, I grew up with those bastards in power and saw them ruin Wales. As for the miners strike there's still many people in South Wales who won't forget what the miners in Nottingham did too, to this day some Cardiff fans still give stick to Forest fans over it. Anyway, I still reckon Jager is really Huw Jenkins
They set ordinary working men against each other, they orchestrated it so that the NUM and all other unions were a spent force in the larger scheme of things! Yes there were scabs as they were called, but these people were also desperate, I think over the course of years all former miners realise that the true enemy in this was maggie thatcher and the conservatives, there is a reason they are called the nasty party. Every time they come into power their actions speak for themselves, I am not saying labour are perfect, they are the lesser of two evils, as for the lib dems they are a nothing party in power as lap dogs to the nasty party and Cameron who has broken just about every promise on a return to power! Politicians are a corrupt bunch of bastards, their fraudulant expenses claims going back decades show them up for what they, a bunch of thieving ****s! Not that I got strong views or anything
I work for the government, but not allowed to say anything more than that! Take a memo Miss moneypenny
Technical Director, for a Swimming pool distribution company that's based in Barcelona. So very apt with supporting Swansalona!!!!
