Arthur Scargill - Miners - Thames Television - 1974

[@jrushen4235]

I love the way people gave straight answers to questions rather than ducking and diving and using semantics as they do today.

[@vinceramone6080]

Until you ask Scargill "What happened to the money"?

[@davidodonovan4982]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bWS2e6qgjqyXma8

[@frankzappaspussy7362]

@@vinceramone6080 that was ten years later - this is when he was still on the way up and essentially honest.. ironic that he, thatcher and the catholic church have all ended up screwing the min*rs..

[@brymorian]

Scargill was in the pocket of the Russians to undermine this country, he stole money which was donated to his "beloved" miners, and he and his cohorts lived the high life, whilst their children starved. Putin would have made him a Hero of The Soviet Union. He was an out and out communist.

[@Escape_From_UK]

Wish we had programmes like this today. Both sides evenly reported so the viewer can get an informed balanced perspective. Shows how bad the media is in 2022

[@matty6848]

True 100%

[@rationalmartian]

Great post. Thanks. Fascinating to watch the years leading up to the strike again, given 40 years hindsight.

[@juliemarshall7913]

Here's to the Irish the working men who fought so hard. My dad who slaved so hard and shared his food with people who didn't have much to give. God bless you all

[@baysidelad1]

he was a Marxist twat

[@il9237]

What have the thick paddy Micks got to do with this?!

[@willduggan6170]

12:25 Jack Smart, later to be Knighted by the Queen. "Arise Sir Jack Smart, thank you for your services to the state". In 1984, he was part of a secretive group who worked together to nullify the strike by encouraging miners to break the strike and go back to work.

[@5thdimensionliving727]

Such a huge privilege to watch this old footage from the early 70s and how the discussions about a living wage were negotiated by unions 😮

[@happyuk06]

Scargill is a perfect example of why one should avoid extreme ideology. It literally cabbages up otherwise sane minds.

[@jbmuggins8815]

top tier idiot opinion my man

[@No.Handle31]

Don't know what it feels like. To have management look down on you. Need a voice when know one else wants to hear you.

[@happyuk06]

@@No.Handle31 I don't disagree. I've been in that situation. However it's often the case that ordinary people get side-lined because of the crazies in both management and in the unions.

[@ronmccullock1407]

Fantastic side burns from a bygone time

[@jackharrison6771]

I would like someone to explain why do workers like the Miners and Trawler crews do not deserve higher wages and better conditions. And why is it, that those in such dangerous jobs, are praised and cheered when not taking action - yet as soon as they ask for a rise or improvement, they're attacked as reds and trouble makers?

[@andywarrington4738]

sounds like the NHS now , heroes when the pand was in full swing , but now they want a fair pay they are enemies , same old story millions made by the banks but not for you the workers

[@immortallvulture]

At this time it was not so simple. Mining industry had been nationalised after the war along with a lot of other ‘key’ industries but going into the 70’s they were employing massive numbers of people but the industry had become unproductive, cheaper coal from Poland was dragging down export prices and the government was having to pour a lot of money in to stop job losses. A lot of other working class turned against the miners because they were basically asking for massive wages from the government even though everyone was struggling and they were making threats and striking whenever they didn’t get their way. People don’t like to remember it but thatcher won her election on the back of promising to be tougher on unions.

[@juliemarshall7913]

My dad was the only ones to see it through, not like the tories, my dad loved Labour because that's all they knew. And the rich used to get my father's and Grandfather's early and I mean early after they have been slaving all day oh I love my daddy and his and my Ancestors

[@MarkHarrison733]

Coal mining should have been phased out during the 1960s. Scargill destroyed the NUM by starting a fight he could not win.

[@truth.speaker]

I'd never work in a mine. It's beneath me 🤣

[@patriotictwinsuk5758]

Well how about the cows

[@althomas3168]

I’d never work on the surface.. it’s above me.

[@jackgamer8562]

Should have had a ballot

[@jackgamer8562]

JCBAirmaster73 Should have has a ballot .

[@jackgamer8562]

JCBAirmaster73 Should have had a ballot mate.

[@jackgamer8562]

JCBAirmaster73 Should have had a ballot mate

[@whatamalike]

Should we have had a ballot mate?

[@jackgamer8562]

madcapoperator Should have gad a ballot

[@andywarrington4738]

love him or loath him you cant fault Arthur Scargill for his commitment to getting the best for his fellow miners

[@LesHearn-h2o]

and aledgedly pocketing the donated moneys meant for the striking workers

[@andrewh5457]

Calling a strike, without a national ballot, with coal stocks at record high and in the summer, that's really getting the best for the men. Make you wonder who he was working for, because it definitely wasn't the miners.

[@KimPhilby203]

He had no foresight.. Conservatives were waiting with baseball bats in 1985.. There is something admirable about him though..

[@JupiterThunder]

He was a Communist traitor revolutionary, he couldn't give a damn about the miners, they were just his personal army of thugs in trying to overthrow the democratically-elected government. He had to be stopped, and he was stopped, by a government with a spine that stood up his extremism and thuggery.

[@none194]

Yes you can. In 1984-5 Scargill would not put the TUC on the spot by demanding other unions come out and stay out, to support the miners' strike. His subordination of the NUM to his relations with the TUC cost the NUM and the entire working class the strike. The consequences have been catastrophic for the working class, not least its self awareness as a class with its own interests and belief in socialism as the way forward.

[@golfr604]

I wish i had the opportunity to have experienced/worked in this industry . Unfortunately i missed out them closing as i started comprehensive school . Dad and brother were both miners .

[@angelacooper2661]

I was only four at the time- too young to understand or remember that period. Ten years later, the Miners Strike would be a memory etched in my adolescent brain. By which time my father, a policeman, would be called to help keep order in Notts. It is now fifty years after the video and I turn 54 in four months' time!

[@ProjectFairmont]

Ramifications of nationalization, wages and rationing since it’s not based on proper supply and demand.

[@robotmad]

14:36 Ronnie Kray out on day release to sort things out.

[@StuartVallantine]

5m 50s into the clip: a snatch of Shipley Douglas' contest march 'Mephistopheles'.

[@SuperSaintGaz1884]

Did I see Austin Mitchell at the start of this clip?

[@SuperSaintGaz1884]

ITV Yorkshire or Yorkshire Television as it was known as then.

[@edannan1067]

Yep, you did. I was trying to work out if he was working for Yorkshire TV then. He wasn't yet an MP, but he used to be a presenter on Calendar so not sure if he was working, but he walked out alongside Scargill like he was a colleague of his.

[@IJHougfhton]

thatcher couldn't have been blessed with a better opponent

[@ally11488]

Scargill was also cursed that other unions didn't back the miners, and put the evil cunt out of office. It's historically wrong to imply Thatcher had it easy.

[@andrewh5457]

@@ally11488 it's all well and good blaming the tories, Labour closed more pits, scargill called a strike in the summer, with record coal stock piled and with out a ballot, no matter what happened, the result would have been the same at the end of the day, but if scargill had accepted some pit closures, instead of trying to over throw a democratically elected government, other pits might have survived longer.

[@ally11488]

@@andrewh5457 Labour did indeed close more unprofitable pits, but it wasn't under the pretext of weakening unions so as to usher in neoliberalism and fuck workers.

[@ally11488]

@@andrewh5457 You utterly misrepresent the situation at the time. Thatcher's government were unwilling to compromise. No amount of concessions other than complete closures would have been acceptable.

[@fincaman2]

This was the beginning of the end of the mining industry, Scargill has a lot to answer for, he paid his mortgage off and bought a new house with money from Libya that was intended for the hardship fund during the miners strike

[@robbibittybob20]

Lies from the Daily Mirror. Read the Enemy Within by Seumas Milne.

[@belzc6020]

An absolute hypocrite of a man, a typical Marxist.

[@andywarrington4738]

absolute bollocks

[@fincaman2]

@@andywarrington4738 Research it it's true

[@doogigiro4328]

Great man.

[@ajs41]

God, Jonathan Dimbleby has a low voice here. Usually people's voices get lower as they get older but it seems to be the other way round with him.

[@AL-PAKA]

hes a middle class pansy boy, thats why

[@absjones2916]

He was talking money left and right

[@archiebald4717]

Scargill, the miners' worst enemy.

[@tomv4408]

Growing up in the the US, I'd heard of Scargill, but didn't think he was that young. I thought he an old guy.

[@jaysoncarmichael1238]

This footage is from 74, ten years before the strike in Thatchers time

[@Phil-yn1er]

HUMAN-CENTERED CAPITALISM - NOT SOCIALISM

[@JupiterThunder]

04:19 Scargill repeats the fear of the older miners, and their fear proved well-founded, Scargill led them all to destruction.

[@margaretsmallallan28]

I like Arthur'sDonald Trump hairstyle!

[@vincentreynolds2127]

Vote for Ignatious McFart.

[@robertjones-eb4xo]

All hard to believe and digest. WHY did Media not make more of it at the time ?

[@sherlockgnomes8971]

I was born in 1992 and have little knowledge/ understanding of the miners strikes, but from the little research I’ve done online it seems Scargill just ended up being a self serving egotist. All this talk about Communism etc, it sounds like he ended up being an extremely greedy individual..

[@j2msu341]

well YOU are right he was a corrupt little thieving bastard

[@matty6848]

Yep very true. My dad always said the unions and the union reps were in it for themselves. Remember Scargill paid his mortgage off and became a wealthy man with money from Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. That money was supposed to support the struggling miners on strike, who couldn’t even afford too feed their kids. Like most union leaders he was a corrupt champagne socialist.

[@elwolf8536]

36 going on 60

[@andrewwells531]

what really gets me is why the hell would you ever want to fight to keep your job working in such horrible dangerous unhealthy conditions as being a miner

[@matthomedrums7890]

Someone had to do the work.. I doubt any of them enjoyed it..They wanted more money for all the reasons you've outlined above, and so ultimately the country did'nt have to grind to a halt as a result of strikes.

[@sammyanne1985]

Because it was the only industry in the towns and villages they lived in. It was an identity. It was a steady wage. It was all they had. Now its gone and people are still lost.

[@agfagaevart]

Not everyone can get an IT job, y'know...

[@sammyanne1985]

@@agfagaevart exactly. Not everyone is cut out for a desk job. Some of us wouldn't thrive.

[@MarineAqua45]

teddy edward In places like Cornwall, like in County Durham, Middle & southern Kent, etc, that was one of the only industries going strong. It was a job for life, with a final salary pension, etc. However, the UK unlike Germany & elsewhere in Europe, was & still is incapable of working together in, industries, resulting in strikes & being led by far-left nutcases like Scargill, Robinson, etc & being attacked by short-sighted right-wing nutcases like Thatcher, etc. Thats the UKs problem, no proper, centre-ground. This is Britains problem. Both the left & the right, don’t want to work together, as they want things done, their way, all of the time. Other countries like Germany have outlawed this type of behaviour & made everyone work together.

[@petergreen2552]

If only Scargill had held a ballot. The miners would have won that dispute and their industry would have survived.

[@willduggan6170]

Flaming Hell Peter! I did 32 years in the mines at two pits, both in headings and advance/retreat faces where one could only crawl. that's why my knees are messed up today. and I couldn't wait to get out of the place. Looking back, we should have been creating modern working places of employment not filthy, sweaty, medieval holes in the ground. I'm delighted they are all shut.

[@petergreen2552]

@@willduggan6170 I am sorry for your plight and am in full respect of you. The Bevin boys dug for victory. Yes coal mining was a dirty dangerous job and its now an industry of the past. Both main parties treated your colleagues like shit. You deserved better. Your health sir,I raise a glass

[@kailashpatel1706]

@@willduggan6170 I met a Yorkshire miner five years ago..i told him would you work down a pit again?...'yep, i loved it...you can't knock the camaraderie.'.

[@willduggan6170]

@@kailashpatel1706 Thanks Kailish. I did 32 years but to be honest I wouldn't do it again, once was enough.

[@zeddeka]

This programme is about the 1974 strike, not the 1984 one. they did have a ballot in 1974

[@il9237]

The Police used to wave their pay packets at the miners on the 1984 picket lines 😂😂😂

[@robertcolcombe6893]

I take it you were one of them with the emojis , while a lot of coppers were on picket lines some miners were with their wives 😂😂

[@arthurmckeown1937]

Would not expect anything better from men so easily bought. Bit of double time and they would betray their mothers

[@robertcolcombe6893]

I know pal 👍

[@Finding457]

Before the strike, the miners would wave their pay packets at everyone else!

[@il9237]

@@robertcolcombe6893 vice versa mate 😀😀😀

[@CraigWilkinson-n1u]

You have got to admire the man 100 percent for the miners and everything he said came true if it wasn't for the government owned media the miners would have had a chance

[@HRHooChicken]

Higher wages! Better conditions! Aaaaand coal mining is gone.

[@spencerhardy8667]

A lot of Coal Board money was spent in trial sinks that came up negative. An ex miner on the Wigan World website describes the amount of money lost, and all the work done to no avail. Mining is a bit of a gamble at the best of times, let alone when you've extracted the obvious rich seams. People forget how much work went in before you even start your main vertical.

[@zeddeka]

It must be said - coal mining was in serious decline for decades, if not centuries. Previous Labour governments had closed down more pits than the conservatives had. Coal is not a crop - once its extracted, it doesn't grow back the next year. Britain had been on notice for centuries that the coal would run out and the mining industry would disappear at some point. If there's any criticism to be made, its that britain made absolutely no attempt to plan for that

[@marymcgranaghan9918]

How much did they get?

[@tuddles71]

0.40...is that Liam Gallagher with the microphone?

[@receipt022]

The NMU now has less members than any shitty small town football club 😅

[@nigelbrown2933]

Love or hate him he was right about the government wanting to close all the pits and end to the coal industry.alot of the community's never recovered.

[@matty6848]

That’s because the mines were running at a massive loss and costing the UK tax payer millions too keep open. Even back then with the dawn of more efficient power stations especially nuclear, coal was a old form of energy simply not needed.

[@nigelbrown2933]

@@matty6848 MacGregor help dismantle the coal industry, for the government for the change over to gas that was introduced in the 60s for domestic use ,and power stations using renewables, people knew this especially the miners and that it was only a matter of time, but was how the government lied and played pits and county's off of each other to achieve their objectives,I bet the public wish they would have kept some pits and stations open now with the price the energy bills, corporations making the decisions government playing it out.

[@matty6848]

@@nigelbrown2933 yes true. And because more people have coal and wood burners now, coal is in more demand than ever. My parents have a coal burner which heats up the entire downstairs and saved them thousands on they’re gas bills. They burn wood and coal in they’re burner and it’s lovely. Especially on a cold winters night listening to it crackle away and watching the flames. So old school and cosy.

[@richardhanney7950]

Scargill had dinner with Kruschev before he was 18?

[@retrorambles517]

Scargill screwed the miners more than Thatcher

[@boeingbwoy]

An ex miner said this to me

[@robbibittybob20]

You're right; the miners won the strike and that's why the pits were closed, because they won it. Thatcher definitely didn't win it and definitely didn't plan to get rid of the mining industry to destroy the most radical union, no siree.

[@andrewbates2816]

Meanwhile Europe modernized and now has all the industry.

[@billygiles3276]

At least he supports brexit which the Stalinist governments won’t Allow

[@richardsharpe2966]

How true

[@richardsharpe2966]

How true

[@TheFantasia93]

Arthur Scargill is a legend.

[@JupiterThunder]

He's a legend in his own mind

[@whatamalike]

Interesting to see how Yorkshire NUM organize it essentially as an open meeting whereas Notts NUM have a more organized yet stuffy approach. Kinda demonstrates how the left are open, democratic if somewhat dogmatic at times whereas the right just want 'owt for an easy life' and the definition of being a pushover. Notts may be seen as more professional, but Yorkshire was on the right side of the argument. The militants were prepared to fight for jobs, the moderates were willing to lie down and take it...

[@whatamalike]

Aye, notts in general seemed very complacent about their employment situation; this sense that if they lose the pits then they have other industries to fall back on. Not the same in South Yorkshire i'm afraid. Pits and Steel, both raped by thatcher and the effects still felt today. The warehouses, retail parks and call centers that popped up in their place? Well, it's something I suppose. Shame just about none of them have any on site trade union representation...

[@harmlessdrudge]

When you say they're fighting for their jobs what you really mean is that the militants were strong enough for a time to extort money from the government to subsidise an uneconomic industry. The only way to have kept British coal profitable and competitive would have been to have wages so low they'd have been unacceptable. Inevitably the day of reckoning came when that unpalatable fact had to be faced and Thatcher faced it.

[@ajs41]

Why can't people in South Yorkshire develop other industries other than pits and steel?

[@whatamalike]

@@ajs41 Asked the tories who smashed said industries and put nothing in it's place!

[@zeddeka]

this is about the 1974 strike, not the 1984 one. It wasn't about jobs in 1974 - it was about pay and conditions. The miners got a 35% pay rise after the 1974 strike, on top of the 27% pay rise they'd got in 1972.

[@MrGranfield]

Asking for £20 per week is fair for a miner.

[@LesHearn-h2o]

ask scargill where the donated money went ,,, ask how he bought his house

[@GreenerHill]

Scargill looks a right hardcase.

[@retrorambles517]

I think you meant to put headcase Ruddy predictive text

[@No.Handle31]

Good old fashion Union leader. I wish I had him by my side in my Union job.

[@alexander8688]

@@retrorambles517 I was going to say nutcase myself.

[@matty6848]

@@alexander8688 more like a bully like most union reps and leaders were..

[@MrGoneTroppo]

Jonathan Dimbleby interviewing Joe Gormley while dressed as a 1970s pimp

[@peterreid9769]

There are a lot of things I disagree with Scargill on but back then, the miners probably needed someone like him.

[@davidodonovan4982]

They needed him like a hole in the head. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bWS2e6qgjqyXma8

[@andrewh5457]

Someone who calls a strike, without a national ballot, with coal stocks at record high, and in the summer, yes, they really needed a bloke like him.

[@vincentreynolds2127]

TRUE?

[@matthew1882]

God knows Thatcher was no saint but Scargill was either grossly incompetent or he had nefarious motives. Man lined his pockets while ordinary miners suffered big.

[@matty6848]

Yes with money from Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. And absolute enemy of Britain and democracy..

[@GlenMcGlone]

Composite? WTF? Is that "not quite" a compromise? Is it a compromise on a compromise?

[@jbmuggins8815]

a composite is something made from two or more different things, in this case different resolutions

[@edannan1067]

One of those terms that get used at a moment in time, and years later, we wonder why they keep saying that word that no one ever uses.

[@mattbull2991]

Thatcher destroyed him

[@watchfan6180]

Roger Cook Report. Where did the money go? Arthur Scargil. Check history, Labour closed more.

[@drbrownwings5720]

Did I hear that right he was a communist? I’m 34 years old find the pits fascinating. Surely that’s not right

[@G55-j9z]

I am glad the miners lost their jobs and the mines got closed, Their greed held Men Women and Kids to Ransom every Winter, No More Miners means No More Power Cuts and Now We Have the Tach Not to Need the Miners Ever Again, And Now I have the Kit Never to Need companies like British Gas Ever Again with Their Bonus's and Share Holder Handouts F Them Too but most of all F The Miners, Revenge is SWEET and We No Longer Need You, As Kids we suffered with trying to get home work done in the dark and then getting Punished At School the Next Day and getting Caned, And Now it's your turn, and has been ever since the Mines Closed, Justice Is Sweet. And Since the Mines Closed you have a lifetime of Suffering, Hoo Bloody Ray.

[@wind.del.change]

Oooh A Yoooh ?

[@pinburg]

In the 70,s it was the Gormley and Ezera show... Gormley was a Judas goat ....

[@rapman5363]

Pip Pip Cheerio Bob’s your Uncle

[@richardsharpe2966]

Arthur Scargill is a spent forse who lives in the past

[@jackgamer8562]

JCBAirmaster73 Millionaire Scargill lined his own pockets and he didn't care about the Miners. He done very well out of that strike while he putting the miners through hell. Moreover, he just used the Miners to lever power but was stopped. The horrible bastard was far more evil than Mrs Thatcher.

[@richardsharpe2966]

jack gamer You know Jack you are so spot on about Scargill

[@richardsharpe2966]

JCBAirmaster73 Yes I can spell but I was typing it in a hurry as my meal in the oven was cooked and the timer went and what I do is my business ok

[@richardsharpe2966]

jack gamer He is Jack as a relation of mine worked for him as a office clerk at NUM head office in Sheffield he is rude and aggressive

[@jackgamer8562]

Richard Sharpe Well you just have to look at him. I'm from the North East and worked in a factory at the time and I can tell you everybody detested him. Even most of the working class hated him. To be honest it's a wonder someone hasn't killed him

[@jeebus-br7mo]

The Nottingham lot really where so far up the government's arse they should have just joined them.

[@robbibittybob20]

Absolute chad Scargill.

[@silondon9010]

We need strong unions in 2024 😢,unfortunately we have a gig Economy jobs everywhere

[@happydayssunny7830]

Fuck me Ronnie kray a fucking miner 😂😂🇬🇧

[@hariowen3840]

They can't even pronounce the word composite correctly 😂

[@martinmanifold2241]

His way or the high way

[@DOCTORDROTT]

That guy took money from Libya and kept it for himself

[@anthonydeary874]

Unions are greedy...but Tories are too! Unfortunately..Tories are only here today!

[@No.Handle31]

Both are here you nob.

[@martinmanifold2241]

Multi millionaire socialist and marksist

[@Roscoe.P.Coldchain]

Donald Trumps Dad