The 1972 Miners Strike | Yorkshire Miners | industrial Action | This Week | 1972

[@buckspa]

The video looks like it was filmed yesterday; excellent quality.

[@explorer806]

16 mm probably?

[@plummetplum]

It does, some 80s/90s TV looks worse. Quality camera.

[@callumsykes1307]

Especially good quality at 6:43 !

[@Sater109]

You're totally right.... assuming this comment is 45 years old XD

[@dillonryan4161]

You all prolly dont care at all but does anybody know a way to log back into an Instagram account? I stupidly lost my account password. I appreciate any tips you can give me.

[@Elmwood-ze3cr]

I remember my Dad being on strike in Teesside approx 72 , although he was not a miner he had great belief in the working mans rights etc , i will ALWAYS remember his words to my Mam " Betty i will NOT break this strike cos theyre treating men like shite" he was out for 7 weeks without a single penny coming into the house , we even burnt the back fence on the fire just to keep warm , men t like that and the one in the video are a rare breed to find nowadays , full respect to my Dad and the couple in the video

[@johnmoore9862]

Elmwood 1965.👍. Full respect to you, your dad & your family, I wish we would stick together like this nowadays.

[@anthonyevans9718]

Good honest hard working men true through and through till the end

[@courtneycharlie]

Credit to the idea and principle, but I never met a miner who supped "halves"

[@donnasmyth45]

Full respect to your father indeed!

[@Elmwood-ze3cr]

@@donnasmyth45 Thank You so much :)

[@stormytempest3907]

Hard dirty job, but it paid the bills, it was all they had, these people got old before ther time, good honest grafters.

[@whatamalike]

@Elegant Fowl It was the 70's; everybody was a nonce and/or wife beater...don't like that sweeping statement? Don't make them in the first place then...

[@whatamalike]

@Bri C I was being sarcastic; taking the piss out of sweeping statements in the first place. No need for your life story

[@briansaiditsoitmustbetrue4206]

@@whatamalike Actually you are not that far from the truth .. EVERYONE thinks the "Good old days" were somehow better times than now... I can confirm this is bullshit. OK 2020 was shit and 2021 looks like it is going to be pretty much the same.. But we will return to better times soon.

[@muckle8]

Briansaid. no we won’t , the Uk is finished .

[@armjos1]

250000 miners on strike, now we have nothing

[@bbbf09]

Neither do we have any neolithic flint chippers. The call for barrel coopers, wheeltappers and shunters is also markedly zero - or as good as. We simply don't need coal. We don't really need oil or gas even now ...but still they linger - like unwelcome toxic sidekicks. But won't be there for ever. You know why...technological change. Things move on. So much futile effort.

[@ianwatson194]

We use as much coal now in our power stations as we need when we had the mines.. we just import coal from Poland now instead

[@ianwatson194]

@pbr streetgang yes I'm serious. We imported over 8 million tonnes of coal last year. Is using Russian gas to generate electricity the best way forward?

[@Not_Yandere_Im_Ayano]

@GARETH TAYLOR in scotland we only have two genders. you know common sense

[@alanpartridge2140]

@@ianwatson194 It's generally gas from Qatar and Saudi. Better or worse than getting it from Russia? I'm unsure

[@incurableromantic4006]

I can barely comprehend that this was a mere 50 years ago. Easily within the living memory of a huge number of people. It feels like centuries ago in how different everything was.

[@stevenclarke5606]

Why do working class people vote for the Tory’s, when they treat people like this, absolute police brutality, riding on horseback swinging batons to break people’s skulls open, absolutely disgusting

[@jonnyc429]

I often think about this with big British industry, only 40/50 years ago there was so much, must have really felt like a different place.

[@MarkHarrison733]

@@stevenclarke5606 Labour closed more mines.

[@the_jester5448]

They are doing similar, at a greatly lesser extent, to railway staff now. Government could fix the strikes in a second but they don't care about you and me.

[@angelacooper2661]

I was a mere toddler in the pushchair at the time. Too young to understand or remember that period first time round. My Grandad Cooper was a miner, but by 1972 he had retired some years earlier.

[@spinynorman8217]

People seemed to treat each other better then.

[@michaelcaldwell3709]

3:00 disagreement vocal but reasonable and within the law. Just a better community spirit back then.

[@jonathanleblanc2140]

Yessss ThamesTV more like this!

[@alexanderharris8310]

Prophetic words at the end. Because of the defeat of the workers' movement in the 70s and 80s, the UK is now a workers' nightmare, with wages never lower, zero hour contracts and conditions never been worse meanwhile the bosses are getting fatter and richer like never before. But the workers are starting to wake up again that's why I'm optimistic. You can't get away with exploiting workers forever.

[@PibrochPonder]

They can. They will just import them from other countries that are poorer, that’s what they seem to be doing.

[@alexanderharris8310]

​@@PibrochPonderthere's a limit to what workers can take. Capitalism isn't for ever. Eyes can be and will be opened. Look at what's happening with the train drivers junior doctors etc.

[@Matt-Durham]

It's nice hearing the very young Peter Taylor in this!!! He is a fantastic journalist for the BBC.

[@defunctt]

thank you for these vids thamestv....probably the most important source of english history at home for this period. and so much nicer to watch than the shite that is pedalled out as documentaries these days

[@politicalphilosophy-thegre3894]

Thanks for posting, good documentary which you wouldn't see the likes of on ITV nowadays.

[@mickd6942]

That looked like mad frankie frazer in armthorp club, my dad stopped out the full year in 84 85 ,we pulled together as a family and got through it.

[@alanpartridge2140]

Was it worth it though?

[@mickd6942]

Alan Partridge yes it was

[@alanpartridge2140]

@@mickd6942 Well the jobs all went soon after anyway, they'd have been better off just accepting not getting a pay rise or looking for work elsewhere

[@0ldw3lshm4n]

@@alanpartridge2140 the strike was to maintain viable money not for wage increase.

[@stevenclarke5606]

I can’t imagine how difficult being a miner would be, you don’t start getting paid until you are your work station, so you have to travel down without being paid. The work was really physical, dirty, dangerous and in hot and stuffy conditions.

[@davesimon3861]

Your wrong about not getting payed until you were on the job . I was a miner in notthinghamshire . That comment is untrue A shift was just under 8 hours long unless you did overtime 👍

[@PaulCarew-j9j]

Same as most people, l never got paid until l started. Difference is that l didn't get a huge rise followed by another the year after. I also never held the country to ransom so that l would have to get paid more.

[@clivebonneywell6967]

What brilliant reporting stays neutral, let's them say their piece, dosnt enforce his own opinion watching this is sad it brings home how are country has been taken from us and given away to the 3rd world

[@cookerldc]

Clive Bonneywell Peter Taylor is a superb journalist. He made some brilliant programmes about the Republicans, Unionists and security forces in Northern Ireland during the troubles for the BBC a few years back. He’s made some about Islamic inspired terrorism in recent years. Always straight down the line and no bias.

[@clivebonneywell6967]

@@cookerldc absolutely right I forgot what a good journalist sounded like going by all the biased women reporters on BBC, itv, chanel 4, sky they sound so unprofessional

[@cookerldc]

Clive Bonneywell I think it is a problem with all media. Whilst i think the internet is an incredible thing it does sometimes make the mainstream media dumb down a bit. I always loved the BBC and whilst the radio is still good, apart from 5Live, it seems the telly is pretty awful now. Like a lot of people these days I watch a lot on KZbin. Old shows and documentaries. Mainstream seems to have to have a joke at the heart of it, you get a serious subject and it always ends in a joke. It’s like chat shows, audience whooping like a bunch of demented monkeys and the host making a joke every 20 seconds. I watch an American talk show host called Dick Cavert from the 70s, he asks a question, the guest talks and the host shuts up, the audience are quiet because they want to what the guest says. If the guest is Orson Wells or Laurence Oliver you want to hear about their life. No wonder the host these days has to tell a joke if the guest is some reality show non entity who is famous for shagging someone on live telly!

[@cookerldc]

Clive Bonneywell I don’t know if you are in the UK Clive but the other night there was a programme about Peter Taylor on the BBC about his experiences in Northern Ireland. It is on the BBC I-Player but like I said if you are outside of the UK it might be difficult to watch that. I would recommend it though. Best wishes.

[@clivebonneywell6967]

@@cookerldc thanks for that mate, yes I'm in UK so shall look that up

[@CR-xr7xp]

Thanks for posting this.

[@Vesnicie]

"If you're fighting for something, if you believe in it, then you've got to go out and do something about it. That's all there is to it. If it's worth fighting for, that's it." Take notes kiddies.

[@rat_king-]

We lost all the industry BECAUSE OF THE UNION. Im a child looking at the LACK of JOBS because of the striking.

[@jonnyc429]

But then extinction rebellion get slagged mercilessly by the older generation.

[@SBanderaB]

that's what the Nazi's did in WW II -- take note kids on what happened to them........ ignore this dumb advice and get yourself an education (its free so you have no excuses and no one to blame except your parents)

[@Vesnicie]

@@SBanderaB No, that's the difference between having real conviction and being informed what it is you believe in.

[@mogznwaz]

So the miners basically wanted the right to keep expensive unproductive pits open, no matter what - and insisted on taxpayers paying for it….. how does going on strike help exactly? They want to close the mines so the miners strike and prove why it’s necessary.

[@rickallen6378]

Would be interesting to see what happened to this guy, and how his life unfolded.

[@pod9538]

Rick Allen I always think of that TO

[@edwardogrady6587]

If anyone can track this guy down, (assuming he’s still alive) it has to be Peter Taylor. Of the many reports he made on the NI troubles during the same period, he would later go back & interview many of the people who featured at the time, many years later. I absolutely love his work & the detail he includes in all his interviews

[@theabsurd9416]

Solidarity!

[@freyjamulhall3615]

indeed comrade

[@SBanderaB]

all Labour voters who open the flood gate to all the migrants and crime we have now........ big thanks, well done for destroying British culture. Communism is the scourge of the planet and these miners embarrassed it because they were uneducated and selfish (of course not their faults - it was their parents)

[@patdbean]

Reminds me of my granddad, he was an out of work lamplighter waiting for gas light to make a comeback. 😁

[@leonblittle226]

Only fools and horses line

[@SBanderaB]

exactly...... my Dad use to bottle air by hand until windows with openings were invented. He went on strike too to no avail.

[@patdbean]

@@TheCrescentFusilier0961 gas street lighting?

[@StuartVallantine]

"A government determined to hold down wages" - Same Old Tories, back in 1972. Nothing ever changes.

[@ianwatson194]

Let us never forget the Tories also opposed the creation of the NHS.. let's remember Tories never change

[@ianwatson194]

Today is also the day 200 years ago that a Tory government sent the troops in to kill peaceful civilians in what would become known as the Peterloo massacre

[@Not_Yandere_Im_Ayano]

@@ianwatson194 i really think we should kill them first

[@leonblittle226]

Fuck off Labour grunt, your lot only cared about these men when it was voting time and it's no bloody different now. Labour area's are run into the ground because you never achieve ANYTHING.

[@harmlessdrudge]

Higher wages for workers in a loss-making industry? How does that work? The inescapable fact was that British coal was unprofitable.

[@colind9638]

Fantastic footage but I have mixed feelings about it. The working man can now have the cars, foreign holidays and luxury items that the miner craved but are we any happier? I’m not so sure.

[@Not_Yandere_Im_Ayano]

not everyone , our area has never recovered. i had to leave and go abroad. now crime is the best payer it seems. i am glad i am not young now. this country is a disgrace.

[@Not_Yandere_Im_Ayano]

@pbr streetgang we dont fight back. the police have low moral i hear. i was treated better abroad than here. my life was split in two and i watched people with no skills other than bullshit become business men ie criminals . half of them were unemployable. dog eat dog is no way to live. so called pillars of the community crooks to a man. the workers are scared.i myself am raging. if i did not work europe i would have nothing. my son is on minimum wage so i help him get by. i worked mid east and came back racist, we are so much better than them at everything as they will find out soon.

[@Mod-rw9cw]

Working men had cars then and owned houses and went on holidays because they earned real wages.Now they work for pennies and food banks.I should know as I was a miners son in The seventies.

[@KKTR3]

Colin D your in cloud cuckoo land I work if I do 40hours a week for about £3 a hour if it goes well

[@colind9638]

David Pickering in what way am I in cloud cuckoo land David?

[@colshythecomedian]

Fascinating insight to life in 1972

[@angelacooper2661]

Especially when you are still a toddler in the pushchair! I was just two and not old enough to understand or remember that period first time round.

[@politicalphilosophy-thegre3894]

Very good to see the media covering these issues.

[@DavidWren-qc1hy]

I worked down this pit for 10 years in the 70's knew lots of the people in it including Tommy. Knew the 2 pigeon fancier lads, went to school with the little one's brother, the pit manager's daughter was in my class through secondary school. Lived 400 yards from the pit gates. That brought back memories, brilliant. It was shit but something special, I sometimes have one of those dreams that seems real where I'm back down there, it scares the living daylights out of me. 😂😂😂

[@craigisaac8411]

5.50 I heard she made the big time voice of an absolute angel 🤣🤣 the miners had my respect part of my heritage awesome 👌

[@WickerMan73]

My late granddad was a miner and he said it was very hard hot dangerous underpaid work.

[@klausvoor]

I respect your honesty. Nobody loved going down the mines. The real issue is the lack of opportunity and terrible inequality that still exists.. It makes good economic sense to import coal from Poland but it makes no sense to stop investing in the future of young people in The UK. We need affordable housing, modern and efficient public transport and lots of investment in industry. There is no need for whole communities to have suffered if the government had acted responsibly and with compassion.

[@mottthehoople693]

@@klausvoor thatcher had no compassion ......fucking torries have no compassion...fuck the lot of them

[@jonnysl6560]

Hello wicker man , Yes it was sometimes hot but often very cold and wet , soaking wet or flooded . Sometimes 3 miles out under the sea . Best Regards .

[@sarjim4381]

The best thing to ever happen to Britain was the closing down of the coal mines. It was rough for the miners, but burning coal for industry, home heating, and cooking was causing levels of pollution and health problems far in excess of the value of the coal mined. The North Sea oil and natural gas discoveries free Britain from a 19th century energy supply and moved it into the 20th century.

[@mottthehoople693]

dumb arse...the pits were not closed because thatcher wanted a cleaner world..So many miners wives ended up working as prostitutes simply to pay the bills.....Thatcher died a better death than she deserved...

[@martincowling6562]

I was born in the late 70's nd grew up in the early 80's watching my dad going to work down the pit and watch the miners fight amongts themselfs. Thecoal mines might have now all gone but they cant take are memories away of what the men had to do as we still have the best coal in the world. And if you ask a young kid what a piece of coal lookes like and what a coal mine looks like? theu will have no idea, But there was fun and laughter despite desatsters down any coal mines WE need all schools to do about coal mines now in there history to keep it in are hearts. But it was the fat cats and fat bastards who was not bothered what happened to the lads as long as they had there pockets full of money

[@uglycustard1]

Sar Jim another one who has fallen for the “climate change “ agenda “it’s all mankind’s fault bollocks”

[@martincowling6562]

To all who have different opinions about the coal mines, we wouldn't be where we are today as British coal was one of the biggest uk employees and when it comes to climate change when it comes to coal ,they can make coal cleaner to use and, it's a life circle and mostly a money racket, and for those who care about the earth of which everyone does there part to destroy the earth by creed. I bet the climate activist dont realise they still pollute the atmosphere when they use electricity and cars and other resources. Theres only one winner and that's mother nature. But the memories will never be broken when living when coal was king.

[@0ldw3lshm4n]

@James Henderson wtf you on about? inferior to what?

[@jacquiethompson8665]

I think this was the pitt my grandad worked at before he, moved to Bettshanger pitt in Kent in 1949

[@samgrimshaw388]

Who is singing dont go down the mine dad? I cant find it anywhere

[@daviddouglass5399]

some heros on there, Tommy Mullanny, hatfield delegate and EC member and Sammy Thompson

[@KKTR3]

I was listening to this not watching till past halfway- and it just did not make sense. I thought it was about 84 /85 Not 1972 / how things change 72 was about making things better 84/85 was just about surviving.

[@martinjenkins5471]

84 was about closing pits that don't make money. The English are too socialist. It's like having people on the dole but you pay them at a mine. Like the guy said, the young don't want to work down there anyway.

[@krazytroutcatcher]

My father with all the other miners were told there was coal to be mined for three hundred years, that there would be jobs for them, their children, and their children’s children, the miners lived in strong, gritty, and a unified community. The pits were invested in back the 1970’s and 80’s, new collieries built, and the old ones redeveloped. Within a few years the tide turned, they were told the pits were being subsidised, had no future and would be closed, this was in the mid 80’s. Those communities degraded, many miners moved away, the communities became drug addled and the smaller satellite businesses struggled and closed. These satellite businesses was not just the local shops, it was the large engineering companies that built the machinery, wire rope manufacturers, office supplies that looked after both the Pits and engineering companies. This snowballing run through many industries, and affected more communities than that of just miners. It slaughtered British industry as a whole. Today you’re told that coal cannot be used because of pollution, this is absolute bullshit, the technology for the cleaning of pollutants is there. Power stations today are oil fired, reliant on the petro-chemicals industry, this wasn’t accidental, it was a greed and power play, just like the closing of post war railways when McAlpine “won” the contracts for road building.

[@hugehandelfan]

I watched the same thing happen to the timber industry in western Washington. The environmentalists told us that we were going to need to stop logging in National Parks. Ok fair enough, it’s a National Park. Then they said National Forests are getting limited. Wait, everything out here is National Forests, maybe that’s getting carried away? Then private land got harder and harder to log. And the screws just kept getting tighter. Now the schools all have to be subsidized by the state cause the property tax base is gone, while Long Beach to Quinault is economic wasteland. Somehow, the “tourism industry” never really appeared for people to go watch Spotted Owls…

[@dodgydruid]

One of my formative events was when in the family car driving back to London from Scotland, the M6 and M1 were both closed and we were diverted somewhere in Yorkshire and I was a young lad watching out the window the police kick the stuffing out of this one miner, I mean a proper six blokes full on kicking and that horrible sight never left me. It caused a massive row too in the car with my dad being anti-union and my mum being a mother of chapel for both the NUJ and SOGAT/Natsopa, horrible times :(

[@MiG2880]

@@shibuya3185 That's the most stupid statement i've ever heard.

[@shibuya3185]

@@MiG2880 : But then then you're a snowflake who loves to put all the blame on the police when it was actually the miners who were acting illegally and who were beating up and smashing the cars of those who wanted to go to work. It was the miners who murdered a taxi driver. It was the miners who were throwing shit and piss as well as bricks and bottles at the policemen, often even before they had reached a picket line.

[@courtneycharlie]

Them miners were tough (probably needed six coppers). Hope you've got over it now.

[@retrorambles517]

£30 a week in 1972 is £398 in 2021 It's just a bit less than I earn and I work in an office

[@ronniemacdonald2768]

So you get paid more to do a much easier job?

[@sutherlandA1]

Just like in the thames tv 1984/85 miners strike, everything was brown, grey and so dreary. Lack of colour and sunshine must've been so depressing. Unfortunately coal mining was a double edged sword, increased pay increased costs and ruined profitability, investment in technology modernised pits but at the cost of jobs, closures removed work safety hazards and environmental pollution but destroyed communities and livelihoods

[@iseegoodandbad6758]

Notice in the most grey and dull environments come out the most tallest and strongest people. Why are Eastern Europeans so lofty? I bet people from county Durham are taller than the British average too even though they live in such a from place!! MKes you wonder!!

[@alanpartridge2140]

@@iseegoodandbad6758 Why are Glaswegians so small then? That's about as dull and grey as it gets.

[@iseegoodandbad6758]

@@alanpartridge2140 Glaswegisns are not small. I know iv been there!!! Maybe people from dull places make more vitamin d and eat heartiest foods like potatoes, cabbage and red meat. The cold maybe stimulated bone growth too! Who knows!

[@alanpartridge2140]

@@iseegoodandbad6758 Yes they are if you got to the deprived areas and see the men above 40 they are well below national average, same for the welsh valleys, could be a lack of protein growing up in the 70s and early 80s

[@iseegoodandbad6758]

@@alanpartridge2140 The women errw Tall and you cannot deny that!!!!

[@Mod-rw9cw]

Candles every night wind up radio and beano books and being starving my mam crying all the time and my Dad being on strike and on the picket line those were the days.

[@andrewbrown-hf6wx]

what an amazing young man what is his name

[@AnEnemy100]

Interesting discussion with that scab lorry driver. I’m not sure I would have been so polite:

[@SBanderaB]

The miners were the most selfish bunch of communists we have ever had. They expected us to pay them for producing coal uneconomical coal at a lost then expected us to buy it at a further loss (scam was okay and ignored under Labour with Unions becoming rich). These people all voted Labour and so look no further on who to blame for the pedophile gangs we now have and all the illegal migration that has killed this great nation..... all because they wanted pints of beers and not halves..... even in this documentary the guy still had enough money for his beer and fags, but not food?

[@ThomasDanielsen1000]

Yeah, how dare he do his job and provide an income for himself and his family!

[@tilerman]

Is that an older Bubble's from Trailer Park Boys driving that crane at 15.54? Probably pays more than stealing and repairing broken shopping trolleys LOL.

[@marnaparkes1849]

How right they turned out to be

[@51516]

Did they win?

[@whatamalike]

they did on this one

[@jusb1066]

yep untill 1981 when thatcher closed them all

[@whatamalike]

@@jusb1066 well, by end of 1993 but yeah. Fucking bitch.

[@dub_cub8936]

Won the battle but lost the war

[@vantheman1238]

Jusb1066 nothing to do with Thatcher. There should have been a secret ballot. The miners in Nottingham didn’t want to strike. The Nottingham pits were the finest and most productive in the country. However, Scargill forced those miners and other miners from other pits to strike. The miners and Scargill were holding the country to ransom. What was Thatcher supposed to do? Neil Kinnock has said many times, Scargill lost Labour the election in 1983. Learn tour history instead of listening to anti Thatcher clap trap.

[@richards9407]

Loved the car chase best, especially when the Corvette nearly ploughs into the truck......oh sorry, wrong video.

[@tilidie5272]

fuck off you melt

[@whatonearth9809]

This is who the Labour Party used to represent, not anymore.

[@edlawn5481]

Just like our Democratic Party here in the States.

[@politicalphilosophy-thegre3894]

Labour are even more left-wing today than they were under Wilson. Would do a lot more to re-distribute wealth and bring back union rights, wage-bargaining etc. Has passed idiots like you by completely, though.

[@andyaim4764]

Thatcher stockpiled coal at power stations BEFORE she picked a fight with the NUM... Premeditated and ruthless. To put balance on it Scargill was just as bad, he was offered a good deal and turned it down.

[@andyaim4764]

Thanks for the correct. My bad. Wasn’t she snatching milk from the school kids around that time?

[@andyaim4764]

Margaret Thatcher began laying plans to break a miners' strike within months of becoming Conservative leader, records released this weekend disclose. The minutes of a key shadow cabinet meeting in April 1975 show how she approved measures to reduce threats to power supplies - nine years before eventually confronting Arthur Scargill's NUM. Lady Thatcher, who had replaced Edward Heath two months previously, chaired the meeting at which methods of "combating major strikes" were discussed.

[@billgowland3250]

A good deal The good deal was we eradicate the mining industry and close all pits Or we eradicate the mining industry and close all pits Scargill had no choice As history will prove All prime ministers papers can be released 30 years after they left office except Thatcher's The rule for her is 50 years I wonder why No one left who was there to expose the lies History as we know is written by the victors And is usually far from the truth

[@vantheman1238]

Mandy Milton the milk was warm and none of us wanted it anyway. Let’s leave Thatcher out of this one shall we.

[@andyaim4764]

Vantheman12 3 Thatcher has no role in uk mining history?

[@CARLIN4737]

No loo roll. Right lads all out! That's the way it was. Constant strike action.

[@Mod-rw9cw]

It's because of people like you making fun of the unions that we are in the position we are today working for absolutely nothing and going to food banks

[@alanpartridge2140]

There was a cartoon in one of the newspapers around the time of a strike in one of the major car assembly plants, it shown a caricature of a German man wearing VW overalls coming home with a bottle of wine and flowers saying "Good news darling, the British are on strike again" In the global world these other nations loved the striking action of the petulant British working class. Likewise I'm sure Ford in Dagenham loved it when British Leyland were either on strike or turning out badly made vehicles (because nobody could be reprimanded for poor work). So please remind me which one is still manufacturing and employing people?

[@CARLIN4737]

Andrex

[@colinjennings3661]

British Leyland was a fucking disgrace and a laughing stock during the 70s. Look on you tube for the biography of that dinosaur Derek Robinson to see what I mean.

[@marcnews75]

A lost industry and way of life

[@melgrant7404]

Thank thatcher for that.bloody cow.

[@alanpartridge2140]

It needed to go, both the industry and the way of life/attitude, the country is better for it.

[@shibuya3185]

@@melgrant7404 : I certainly thank her for getting rid of a bunch of selfish twats happy to live off the British taxpayer.

[@Vesnicie]

@@shibuya3185 live off the British taxpayer? If you're referring to the miners, then they worked damn hard and were British taxpayers themselves. Why don't you look elsewhere if you want to find the real spongers? And you talk about subsidised Industries as if they were some kind of evil that just needed stamping out. What they did was keep work domestic. The absolute shitstorm of problems that has arisen since then is testament enough to why subsidies and regulations were there in the first place.

[@shibuya3185]

@@Vesnicie : Of subsidised industries are wrong. If you want government ownership of industry then move to Russia, Cuba or some other shit hole socialist/communist state.

[@Vesnicie]

Poor blighters.

[@AnEnemy100]

Fascinating to see an even handed treatment of the miners by Thames TV in 1972. I remember how skewed the reporting of the miners strike 10 years later was and cannot but think something happened to the press in the intervening period though I suppose it is possible that TTV were atypical in their approach.

[@danieloconnor5089]

aye the candles in yer living room then i was 14 in 1972 power cuts

[@paulvickers3800]

Was only a kid myself, my Late Dad got arrested for nicking coal of the pit tip. Me great grandad at to bail him out. Lol My Mums side of family was miners

[@angelacooper2661]

I don't remember it first time round - being just two and in the pushchair back then. Grandad Cooper was a miner, but by then had retired.

[@thefettfan3994]

Oil, Coal makes these type of documentaries look so pre-historic along with the 1984 "Coal Wars" never mind referring to them as "Strikes"!!!!!!!!

[@DaBriars]

Very sad to see what the country has become today

[@bbbf09]

@Chadwicked B Spot the white guy.... UK ethnicity is 87% white - so it's quite an easy challenge if you keep your eyes open for more than 5 seconds.

[@Mechanicalrob]

Fast forward to 2019 the 1970s has still left it's mark on this country, mainly sinkholes and lung disease.

[@felipecarrasco7404]

This reminds me of the movie Billy Elliot ¿is this the same conflict that the one represented on the movie? Maybe not on the same period of time but may be the same context

[@martinjenkins5471]

That was set in the strike of 84 with Maggie.

[@carlkirkham7538]

I had an uncle that worked there I went to Danum school just up the road happy days till they closed It

[@mickharrison9004]

My main regret in this life, was that thatcher didn't get it, when the hotel went up in Brighton, i was gutted, she hated normal working people having anything, like now the rich are bent on most people being in poverty and strife, they don't give a fk for the country or people.

[@shibuya3185]

Stop playing the victim. The "rich" pay the vast majority of taxes and employ most people. Without them, whiners and those with a sense of entitlement, like yourself, would be living in a slum somewhere.

[@mickharrison9004]

@@shibuya3185 it's been looked at, said and proved, the average man and woman of this country, pays the tax burden, as we know the rich greedy bstds are scientifically syphoning off there money so as not to pay there taxes, don't talk shite.

[@shibuya3185]

@@mickharrison9004 : You really need that chip on your shoulder attended to so that you can get over your envy of those that have been more successful at earning money than yourself. You talk nonsense about "it's been looked at, said and proved" without providing any facts. Well here are some : "The highest earning 1% in the UK pay an estimated 28% of all income tax" "the percentage of income tax paid by the bottom 50% of earners has fallen from almost 12.6% to just fewer than 10%." fullfact.org/economy/do-top-1-earners-pay-28-tax-burden/

[@politicalphilosophy-thegre3894]

@@shibuya3185 "The highest earning 1% in the UK pay an estimated 28% of all income tax" Yes, and if they earned 99.9% of the wealth they would then be paying 99.9% of the tax, since everyone else would be too poor to pay any tax. And then, by dint of not having to pay any tax the vast majority would be better off! Astounding logic.

[@shibuya3185]

@@politicalphilosophy-thegre3894 : Your "logic" is not only astounding but idiotic. The wealthy DON"T earn 99,9% of the wealth so why make up nonsense? The top 1% of income earners now pay 33% of the tax (up from 28%) Which means they are paying 33 times their share. Only a greedy leech would suggest that they should pay more than this.

[@Robbiewa-bg4lu]

Whatever the rights and wrongs and there were in my opinion as a right winger on both sides,it was probably inevitable that mines would close down and as we now see we have none or very little mining left. And in my opinion and I am not from a miners family though I live in an area where there was a coal mine the miners who lost their jobs did not get the care and help they should have got along with the communities that were devastated by pit closures.That is frankly a disgrace and something the country as a whole should be ashamed of.It is one thing shutting down industry but another in providing care and help to those affected.

[@mottthehoople693]

the politicians involved should be made homeless

[@jonnysl6560]

Robbie Wa Thank You . That's because the Miners and their folk were Proud People .

[@mattsmith87]

Not care. They didn't want charity. Reinvestment. The govt should have provided incentives for other industries to open in the areas. This is what should have been on the negotiating table, but it wasn't, because the miners were hated because of their strength.

[@mtsenskmtsensk5113]

The mine owners in WW2 were making money hand over fist , a numerous strikes occurred because of their attitude. miners wages were pitifully low despite the hardships of hewing 4 tons of coal per man per day. It was the public that supported the miners which ultimately led to post war nationalisation, and better conditions and better pay. Governments have/had too much power over the legitimate miners' grievances and most governments do not support the man in the street. Then Thatcher destroyed the mining industry rather than encouraging a very successful UK mining industry. Thatcher's shorted sighted political revenge, over the Heath government's defeat, was not financially logical nor sensible, or in the interests of the U.K. PLC. The government then rubbed salt in the wounds and wasted £10million on a state funeral for Thatcher, rather than building jobs, in the devastated parts of the UK. Her government was bent on pushing Britain back two centuries in cultural and social development and industrial relations . Investment in UK industry is needed, but instead the UK is importing cheap labour to keep the UK using old machinery compared to her competitors, forcing the UK working class on the dole. Enough globalisation, a new party that is genuinely interested in the UK population, rather than just profits and power is required. Even the UK's MPs have their noses in the trough and their heads in the sand, and are not entrepreneurially backing Britain. Remember it was the very rich Andrew Carnegie, who showed the way to cultural and social progress. He used his wealth to build schools and libraries. It was he who said if a rich man dies rich( instead of investing in the people) he dies disgraced. The wealthy nowadays display no such morality, nor any intention of investing in the country of their birth, are they therefore foreigners, who must be schooled where to put there investments?

[@johnmoore9862]

Mtsensk Mtsensk, If look back at Thatchers upbringing in Grantham during the war years the daughter of a grocer, she must have seen the under- the- counter black market profiteering most shop keepers engaged in, always a little more than your ration book allowed if you could afford it. She witnessed this spiv behaviour first hand, & applied it full scale when in government, sold off as Macmillan said “the family silver” branded decent men who had the audacity to take industrial action to save not just their jobs, but their industry, livelihoods, & communities “the enemy within”, she was an short sighted spiteful hateful woman, I hope she is suffering the same mystery her heartless policies caused.

[@shibuya3185]

It was the greed of the miners that caused most of the problems. They constantly went on strike for more pay for less work. When the pits no longer made money, they blamed everyone but themselves.

[@Not_Yandere_Im_Ayano]

@@shibuya3185 you ever work down a pit?

[@shibuya3185]

@@Not_Yandere_Im_Ayano : You ever been to school?

[@Not_Yandere_Im_Ayano]

@@shibuya3185 ha ha i only asked . you ever been to japan?

[@richard9444]

So what did the establishment do, .... Get rid of the mines no more miners no more strikes , it's how the bastards treat the working class.

[@melgrant7404]

You're so right.

[@klausvoor]

I wonder how many young people today would be so emotional about being lowered half a mile below ground every day to work in dirty , dangerous and unhealthy conditions ? And what happened to the coal that they worked so hard to send up ? They set fire to it !!!

[@melgrant7404]

@@klausvoor you have a point But working class miners of the time were treated badly especially In 1984.

[@klausvoor]

@@melgrant7404 Yes, a very shameful chapter in our history and another example of how when the nation is in the grip of a media frenzy then politicians make catastrophic decisions in order to remain popular with their supporters and the press. Sounds rather familiar doesn't it ?

[@Daveofdonny]

@@klausvoor We weren't lowered we where dropped at great speed then slowed as we neared the pit bottom :)

[@JamesTilsley1]

It was a Pyrrhic victory; they won in the short term, but lost in the long.

[@georgel74]

They worked in awful conditions 😩

[@Jeremy-y1t]

Coal mining should have been phased out during the 1960s.

[@elora179]

Much better intro

[@philipeaton3102]

they lost just like 84

[@chevinbarghest8453]

I was a police officer in the 1972 strike and I was there at Thorpe Marsh power station and several pits... I was spat on every day and pushed under the wheels of an articulated lorry... I kept the lights on in the hospitals ... I was 23 with 2 children... When the miners got violent, I preferred they did it at the end of a shift so I could get overtime while I processed them... We were based at Doncaster police station so we could be deployed quickly... Every day, I got home to North Yorkshire (30 miles each way), and showered all the spit off and changed my uniform...

[@Gfdsa40]

Scab

[@chevinbarghest8453]

@@Gfdsa40 Your eloquence and vocabulary and education are set out for all to see, and a good summary of why that particular underclass needed to be dismantled....

[@brianlamey7291]

We miners NSW AUSTRALIA levied millions of dollers to UK miners , all lost In transit

[@rudbel88]

AND ALL IS HISTORY, good was closed down , big drama but all is past

[@flashuk26]

true

[@iseegoodandbad6758]

Britain was still a developing country then like Russia is now!!!

[@jsmesoercy6436]

The workers made a mistake. They were too English and believed too much in the idea of British decency. They should have taken up arms. Alas, they lost to better tactics and more sensible men.

[@clivejones5880]

I never understood the miners strikes. They were striking for more money but got no pay while striking. They would never make the money they lost up again.

[@CR7966]

If you don’t show the bosses you’re tired of their shit, things will only get worse.

[@andy654shaz]

Do you suggest we all roll over and have our bellies tickled

[@martinjenkins5471]

Did he say 30 pound in 72 . I thought it would be 150 to 200.

[@CARLIN4737]

Wild cat strikes.

[@theabsurd9416]

The best kind of strike.

[@xSUBIACOx]

D O N C A S T E R.

[@puppets.and.muppets]

15:53 / im stealing this as a meme

[@astarpropertygroup8137]

Proper folk

[@philippinespaulregbruceukl7802]

Yes hard Times

[@rjjcms1]

Looking at old footage from 1972 because it's the last time we weren't in the EEC or EU!

[@politicalphilosophy-thegre3894]

Yeah, while the EEC/EU was bringing in the Social Charter (1961), Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers (1989), Safety at Work Directive (2003), Working Time Directive (2004), Parental Leave Directive (2010) etc. Terrible. I'm sure we'll all be much better off outside with people like Boris Johnson to care for the workers.

[@radioandtvmemories6178]

Armthorpe was quite a left wing area in terms of the NUM and elections. It even had communist members of the local council back in those days.

[@andrewbates2816]

Order, order, now then ,the committee,

[@jimmycarrollgodblesspoland5521]

The boss's got their way, husband and wife now have to go to work, which made labour cheaper, working people are slaves to big industry

[@shibuya3185]

Stop playing the victim. Wages in the UK are extremely high compared to most other places. Why do you think so many immigrants want to come here?

[@markfelts3976]

The modern day bell man social media.

[@kierangoddard2198]

I remember working in a unionised workforce. What a great bunch of bullies the union officials were to the workforce. They ruined the industry.

[@anthonyevans9718]

People today would'nt live 2 fucking minutes in them days that's a fact

[@georgewashington1990]

These men were on the left, but they loved their country and believed in strong borders - they were patriotic. What would these men say about the current British hating Labour Party? You only know how valuable something is even it’s gone. We always thought the Labour Party would love Britain, but they turned their backs on our culture, heritage, customs, traditions, anthem and way of life.

[@hooliganlusc]

Proper grafters

[@stephanblack4558]

Giz-a Job !..

[@rapman5363]

Pip Pip Cheerio Bob’s your Uncle

[@brightspark54]

no money but they always meet in the pub and have drinks and smoke

[@jonnysl6560]

Club not pub . And it was at the weekend . And maybe you'd be needing a smoke after being down there . One thing is Certain , FOOD ON THE TABLE CAME FIRST . ALWAYS .

[@NewMinority]

The Labour Party closed the majority of the mines. The mines never kept up with tech. The miners was there own worst enemy

[@0ldw3lshm4n]

WTF do you think the mines never kept up with tech? Examples please? Also why were the miners their own worst enemy?

[@alanpartridge2140]

The mines were struggling to recruit enough people to become miners at this time, they couldn't get the new ones in and people were leaving the industry for higher paid jobs with better working conditions

[@alanpartridge2140]

@Blob B Nationalising the mines was the worst thing for them, they should have been sold nit closed

[@lazylad9064]

Look at zero hour contracts town centres emptying. Many millions were unemployed in the 80s. They were only fighting for there lives and families

[@shibuya3185]

They are not achieving anything by beating up workers who wanted to go to work, or by attacking the police. Only scum do that.

[@billgowland3250]

@@shibuya3185 corruption in today's police force is estimated at 20 to 25% higher than in ordinary society No change there

[@shibuya3185]

@@billgowland3250 : And what evidence do you have for that claim? I doubt that you have any at all.

[@scottsimpson9659]

Arthur scargill for pm

[@tyqwdybijo]

I empathize with struggling workers but picketing is illegal

[@queeng1018]

It actually wasn't before 1980 and was only strangled with changes to employment legislation by Thatcher because this strike humiliated Heath and lost the tories the country.

[@mottthehoople693]

your a fucking idiot......without the right to strike a worker is a slave...Are you a slave or part of the aristocracy? Any law that turns workers into slaves isnt a law worth caring about and the cops were fuckig cunts and should have been charged

[@XtreemMetalManRedToTheBone]

Strikes are theft.

[@XtreemMetalManRedToTheBone]

@@mottthehoople693 you're delusional. Striking is theft.

[@JohnSmith-qq8tx]

XtreemMetalMan Fuck off gobshite!

[@markharrison2544]

Closing the coal mines was a good thing.

[@billclan]

No point in digging British coal from expensive dangerous underground mines when it can be imported cheaply from countries with low cost open mines like Australia

[@KKTR3]

Mark Harrison I would like to say you b🤷‍♂️sta🤡d but I’ve read the introduction and it tells me I can’t say that

[@billybellend1155]

People complain about Fracking what about coal mining?

[@doubledeckers]

Coal mining isn't so brilliant either. There are parts of the country where there are so many old mine workings that subsidence is a concern if you own a house. Bedlington area is one. There is an interactive website which shows all old mine workings around England and there are more than you would imagine.

[@Rugbygorilla]

Terrible time. Turned the working class against each other. People caught between standing for what they believed in or continue to try and keep and roof over their families and food on a table.

[@stephendavies8510]

The Tories are taking us back to Victorian times and we are becoming a sweatshop economy were people are having to do the work of 2 people to get 1 wage and people are literally working til they drop sounds like modern day slavery to me. And other European countries for instance Scandinavia seem to have better balanced, happier and more content people who are not obsessed by money and materialism and are not dominated by corporate interests and foreign ownership which puts our divided broken country to shame.

[@davidgiles6356]

DIDN'T WIN DID YA ! ! ! ! The only winners were the police officers who got big fat wage packets with overtime ! Some of them paid their mortgages off early ... HAPPY DAYS xxxxx