The Miners Strike - 20 Years On

[Officer Dibble]

It's been twenty years since the miners strike. Arguably the mother of all strikes it profoundly changed the nature of industrial relations, working class culture and British society in general. Looking back from this point I see two Britain?s, the pre-strike one of disruptive unions, pre-ordained career paths and low social mobility. And the Britain we see today. A Britain of much freer social mobility, entrepreneurial sprit amongst all classes, and much greater, almost blas? aspirations, (Hey, it's cool, because if we really want it, we can get it.) There's much less envy and class hatred now. You can park your Merc almost anywhere without the fear of getting it ?keyed.? There are two reasons for this - the general feeling that no one is excluded from participation in capitalism. Nobody's going to put it on a plate for you, but nobody's going to bar you from the game either. And the other reason is just that there's a Merc or BMW on every street corner nowadays i.e., the reality is that we are all much wealthier than in pre strike Britain. Oh, I know that we always feel like we're skint, but that?s just because standard of living and wealth are relative things. I don't want to get into the rights and wrongs of the strike; I'm simply saying that is what I see from this vantage point some 20 years on.

I drove through the old Dearne Valley coalfield the other day. All the pits have gone and I was astounded by the transformation of the industrial landscape. It seemed that everywhere I looked there were brand new factories, units and industrial estates, and it went on for miles! I was gobsmacked. I was surrounded by commerce and opportunity. What were all these businesses, what were they making and selling? Who was running them, who was working there? The answer of course is that it's the veterans of the 1984 strike, their wives, sons and daughters. A lot of the old two up, two down, miner?s gaffs have gone now. Replaced by smart new Barrett House type estates. In the old days miners would never have dreamed of owning a new car or a new gaff. But here they were driving home in their new Ford Focuses to comfortable suburbia to probably spend the evening perusing travel brochures of Florida.

Officer Dibble

[mart]

In your dreams Dibble.
That wasn't what I saw when I used to return to my former coal-mining S. Wales valley town.
Not every body can afford a ?52,000 car like the one you were boasting about recently. Posts like yours make me see red but I'm restraining myself from a flame war.

Mart

[jj]

The scars from Thatcherism still run VERY deep, and a few Potemkin villages don't hide them- your entrepreneurial Utopia has led to a widespread feeling of insecurity- a lot of people literally don't know if they'll still be employed in a year's time. Of all those 'thriving' businesses you saw, 50% will be bankrupt within a year, and 80% after five. And all those lovely call-centre jobs will have gone to India. This drive to cut costs to an absolute minimum was one of the major factors that influenced the General Strike.
And look at the chaos engendered by the attempt to repair the damage the Tories did with their insane, ideologically-driven mass-privatisations, and the Poll Tax........and the gap between the haves and have-nots is ever-widening, with a disturbing rise in 'gated communities'. I expect you've got yer pension nicely sorted, unlike all those poor saps who believed their employers' and government promises and now face a retirement plagued by penury.
Oh yes, everything's coming up roses.........

[jj]

Yer quite right M, sorry, have only just woken up before I go down t'pit to mine more gold doubloons for Officer D's coffers (touch forelock, grovel....). amother 16-hour shift with a 5-min tea-break, still if it keeps him in caviar-sandwiches it's worth it, he's a model employer (well, he employs models....)..........

[jj]

Naturally- they're nearer the south-east, and therefore Tone's London-centric sphere of consciousness.....
How the hell he's supposed to be representative of a NE community is completely beyond me- not to mention that little tosser in Shields.