Miners strike 1984

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Nellers
Nellers
Feb 2024
10:44am, 2 Feb 2024
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Nellers
Muttley: There's a reasonably well sourced view that the Falklands conflict was brought on by an arrogant view in the British government that Argentina would never try anything so brazen, despite a wealth of intelligence sources indicating that it was exactly what they were building up to. This view makes a strong case that if there had been a much more limited response prior to the landings (send a couple of frigates down there to patrol, station a larger marine garrison in Stanley perhaps?) then Argentina would have been persuaded that the whole endeavour was doomed and a lot of lives would not have been lost.

There's a less well sourced view that Thatcher didn't act so she could later win a war to guarantee an election win but I don't think that holds up. Once it started I don't think there was huge confidence that it was going to be an easy win.

There's no doubt that victory in the Falklands did a huge amount to bolster Thatcher's image and did win at least one election for her, but I doubt if that was ever her plan.

I also appreciate that a closer involvement in events might give a very different perspective.
Fields
Fields
Feb 2024
10:49am, 2 Feb 2024
10,668 posts
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Fields
Woodhorn museum in Northumbria is worth a visit for some context on the miners strike. I got a lot out of the visit.

Plenty I could say on Thatcher but will leave it other than to comment that her policies changed the country irrevocably and severely damaged the social fabric of the nation, working class solidarity and the macroeconomic structure. And every government since has pushed further along the journey she began.
HellsBells
HellsBells
Feb 2024
11:05am, 2 Feb 2024
32,855 posts
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HellsBells
I was 19 in 1984 and frequently travelling by bus between home in Nottingham (UDM) and university in Sheffield (NUM). The bus went via Mansfield, then through the pit villages before picking up the M1 just south of Sheffield. There were some tense moments on some of those journeys. I only met Scargill once when he had a relative in the Hallamshire, years later, it was not a pleasant experience.
jacdaw
jacdaw
Feb 2024
12:25pm, 2 Feb 2024
4,266 posts
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jacdaw
The way the police were used as a private army to support purely political goals changed my view of the British state forever. But Scargill appears to have been a gift to Thatcher.

And Thatcher didn't even invent Mr Whippy, apparently. newyorker.com
DeeGee
DeeGee
Feb 2024
12:51pm, 2 Feb 2024
22,770 posts
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DeeGee
Woodhorn museum in Northumbria is worth a visit for some context on the miners strike. I got a lot out of the visit.


Thanks, I'll have a look next time I'm up there.
Fitz
Fitz
Feb 2024
10:23pm, 2 Feb 2024
3,573 posts
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Fitz
Have not watched the series yet, have recorded it for later pleasure.

I can’t abide thatcher or the things she stood for. The selling of council houses cheaply (even though my parents, and by inheritance, my brother and I benefited from that), the privatisation of state assets, the deregulation of financial markets, was all dressed up as putting power in the hands of the working class but was nothing of the sort. Many of those decisions have come home to roost in impossible house prices, crumbling utilities, profits going to dividends rather than reinvestment, etc.

I was a teenager in 1984, most of my schoolmates and I were left wing, supporting Labour, Red Wedge, miners, print workers, anyone who wasn’t Tory. Hundreds of miles from any pit village but plenty of people I knew, with nothing to do with the print media, would travel down to Wapping for the News International strikers and a dust-up with the police.

Footage of orgreave seems astonishing now. Not just the brutality but also the sight of bobbies in tit-head helmets or on horseback doing battle. Today it would be riot gear, armoured vehicles and water cannon.

A horrible period of uk history.

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About This Thread

Maintained by Joopsy
Great documentary series on C4.

Despite this, despite Hillsborough, there are still many people out there who hail Thatcher as some kind of hero.

She was a despicable, deceitful moron who enabled and encouraged police brutality, misreporting and wrongful imprisonment.

I was still in school in 84 but in 88 i heard first hand experiences of guys who were at Orgreave and many other picket lines.

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