The Miners Strike 1984

I well remember the miners strike. However, it has to be said that Labour closed more mines than Margaret Thatcher. Although there were less mines when she came to power so on a pro rata basis, maybe not. However my MiL was a steel workers wife and during the miners strike, she was asked to contribute to whatever collection was being made outside the local market. The request came from a woman who was smoking and my MiL’s response was a resounding No - saying that if you can afford to smoke etc and adding that why should I support you when you didn’t support the steel workers when they were on strike. A lot of the problems related to Scargill, in our valley there are still bad feelings between the Police and ex-miners.

We were a Coal Merchant and this had a terrible impact on us too.. our lifetime family business was gone.

We were trying to put on a Gilbert and Sullivan show at the time of the power cuts and it was hit or miss if we managed to put on the show.

Agree

Scargill was the other side of the Thatcher coin. Intransigent, arrogant and lacking humanity.

Most of my family were Welsh valley miners. One died in the Senghenydd pit disaster and his body was never recovered.

Scargill was just a muck stirrer to put it mildly. He didn’t help the miners one bit.

Strike 1972 brought down Heath

1978 Winter of Discontent brought down Callaghan gave us
Thatcher

Miners strike 1974

My FIL worked through it too. My husband said neighbours used to spit at him He said it was awful.

It’s a hard watch but we lived amongst it. My granddad and great granddad were both miners and dad went into the army. We lived in the north east at the time and times were terrible. Families fell out with each other for life. One of our neighbours returned to work and our car was vandalised as we were mistakenly targeted by miners thinking my husband was the said miner who had returned to work. My kids were pelted with eggs and the police did nothing to help us. The riot vans and buses used to park near to our house. It was a horrible hateful time. I felt sorry for the poor mining families and still do. The strike was a total waste of time as less than 10 years later the pits were all closed. Horrible times.

1972 , the power cuts, Heath was brought down

I remember the start of it all, going back to the three day week, under Edward Heath. I was a student then, and we (myself and four other students) lived in a flat and had to put money in the slot for electricity.And then we had to get candles for the power cuts. And it continued on and off throughout the seventies and eventually to the big strike under Thatcher.

The unions were too powerful when Wilson was PM,

And this was white privilege? We should never forget how the rich cruelly made their wealth from the working class who worked in appalling conditions particularly the miners. And there were mines everywhere, long since disappeared but the names live on in cities like Bristol and in the Somerset countryside.

I don’t think Scargill helped the miner’s cause. I remember the awful violent scenes on the telly between the miners and the police including horses which was horrific. The unions had become very powerful and Scratcher, sorry Thatcher was determined to smash them.

Anniebach

My emotions are so mixed, I doubt people who haven’t lived in a mining community could understand

True. It's hard to actually explain the devastation it caused to entire communities unless you lived in one.

My two cousins were miners. One went on strike, the other went to work. They fell out big time and still don’t speak to each other.

My emotions are so mixed, I doubt people who haven’t lived in a mining community could understand

I remember the marches when I worked for a building society in our city centre. I also remember the number of miners who lost their homes because, despite every strategy available to help them, it became impossible for them to pay their mortgages. It was heartbreaking. I remember Orgreave too. My husband had been a miner in Wales before he joined the Army, and he had a great deal of sympathy for them at that time, but no respect for their leaders.

We lived in S Yorkshire then. We weren't directly involved but did know striking miners.

My abiding, and chilling, memory was travelling south on the A1 and seeing bus loads of police travelling northbound and police lining every bridge on the lookout to stop miners travelling to other areas for secondary picketing.

I had huge respect for the miners but not for Scargill, who pivked the wrong moment and exploited (squandered?) the miners' solidarity fighting an unwinnable fight.

‘Inhumanity’ - such an accurate way to describe it marydoll

No miners in my family, but I remember the strike very well.

Iam64

The legacy of the strike remains with us.

Of course it does. No-one can ever forget what happened and the inhumanity of those involved.. ☹

The legacy of the strike remains with us.

I can still remember how bitter my mother was about the miners' strike and how much she hated Thatcher. Her cousin, who had been brought up as her brother, was still working as a miner at that time.

Anniebach, I agree, Scargill should have called for a national ballot.

My dad was in Lancashire Constabulary, his section moved into Gtr Manchester in the 70’s. He died in 2002, his funeral well attended by other retired officers of his generation. All working class lads who served in ww2 and joined the police in the late 1940’s. The subject of policing inevitably came up. These men retired as senior officers, without exception the remained furious at the way Thatcher used the police during the miners strike. They were shocked by the horses used to pursue miners. Horrified that ‘the men from the Met’ waved pay slips at striking miners. They were horrified at the damage caused to the reputation of the police, to the way it wrecked trust between police and public. We police by consent the said, it will take a generation to begin to repair the damage.