Skinner campaigned for Brexit.

It always made me wonder why so many especially in the north east kept telling themselves Labour cared about them, when they themselves shafted miners while blaming the tories publicly for it. Look today, Labour don’t even try to appeal to working class voters anymore, they try the suburbia vote. Long term I’d be stunned if the Woking class vote gave more than 25-30% of their vote to Labour based off of Labour new coalition of uni students, cities and most ethnic minorities. Don’t see how the old Labour voters of old fit into that.

Why? Coal is mined commercially in over 50 countries. 7,921 million metric tons (Mt) of coal were produced in 2019, a 70% increase over the 20 years since 1999.Coal production has grown fastest in Asia, while Europe has declined. Since 2011, world coal production has been stable, with decreases in Europe and US offset by increases from China, Indonesia and Australia. The big problem with closing down industries is job loses, a lack of jobs to replace them, working in the service industry like in retail on much lower wages was not the right replacement for former miner's. Mining was skilled decently paid job for the working class now well paid jobs in skilled roles like manfacturing jobs are few and far between, now it's all about low paid work in the service industry.

@@JamJam0189 The coal industry in the UK had steadily declined from 1910 onwards. Wilson closed twice as many coal mines as Thatcher did.

I know he did but, Thatcher did this to destroy the unions more widely and manfacturing in general, with no good paid jobs replaced, so skilled working class had to work in service industry or be unemployed in many cases, record unemployment by the mid 80's thanks to Thatcher. @@JamesRichards-mj9kw

@@JamJam0189 He's a Tory, what does he care? Thinks he's above a proper day's work

@@JamesRichards-mj9kw Lord Wilson.

Does being a trade union leader put a person above criticism?

@@CanadianMonarchist From a failed plastic socialist 'statesman' - yes.

@@CanadianMonarchist From a plastic socialist failed 'statesman' - yes!

@@CanadianMonarchist From a plastic socialist failed 'statesman' - yes!

@@CanadianMonarchist From a plastic socialist failed 'statesman' - yes!

@19sept76 He is a corrupt EU politican.

The strike was technically not legitimate.

Because it might not of came true if he had a ballot, he would've had the support of the Notts miners and the Labour party and would of been able to gain TUC support to allow other unions to strike in support, especially the steel unions and the transport unions.

@@johnnotrealname8168 Yes it was we had a vote in 1981 to strike if the gov closed any pits without consultation with the union.

because they were spineless.

@@andrewd6830 No it wasn't. Why do you think so many crossed the picket and kept working? They were angry that they never had the chance to vote.

And yet after 40 years of the Tories' spiv mate asset stripping the country and repeated financial crashes the British peasant just keeps sucking it up

Thatcher’s government gave in to miner’s demands just a couple of years before this

@@briandelaney9710 Only to avert a strike. The government was not ready in February 1981.

Precisely. The lack of a ballot is a right wing excuse to delegitimise the strike.

Yes that Parasite Kinnock is now in the house of lords.

Kinnock help to kill the mining industry. Look at him and his wife milking the European Union in Brussels.

The 'engineer' of today's 'generic-politics' era - where it makes-no-odds whatsoever who you vote for!

The big problem with closing down industries is job loses, a lack of jobs to replace them, working in the service industry like in retail on much lower wages was not the right replacement for former miner's. Mining was skilled decently paid job for the working class now well paid jobs in skilled roles like manfacturing jobs are few and far between, now it's all about low paid work in the service industry.

Windbag baron Kinnock.

Baron Kinnock a anti working class Parasite.

From what I have read in the history books this is not true Thatcher wanted a confutation with the unions as the coal union was the strongest in the UK she choose them, upped police pay so they went harder on strikers and stockpiled coal to prepare, then announced coal mine closure and provoked them into acting, them aimed to use divide and rule tactics as Conservatives often do. Defeating this union meant she could easily defeat other unions which were weaker. Miners had skilled jobs those other jobs available for those who lost their jobs were mainly low paid jobs in the service industry and the likes of Meadowhall, poverty also increased during the 1980's

@@JamJam0189 Scargill did not have the resources to win.

Kinnock a hideous Parasite now in the house of Frauds.

Christopher Kealy you think that these mines would still be operational today? Mine work is a good job?

Supporting workers striking, too far left, apparently.

Kinnock sold out the mine workers. It just sounds like pure cowardice from him. Scargill didn't need to make it political. Strikes are political. The Labour Party failed to stand up for the very people who created the Labour Party. (The Unions).

@@kb4903 Some of them would be, yes, technology would have moved on as he said. Mine work is a perfectly good job, what do you do little fella? Pontificate on the internet in the most deindustrialised, privatised, hyper financialised husk in the Western world?

The strike was about jobs and community. Thatcher set out to break the unions and succeeded. It changed Britain irrevocably and for the worse. Every country with strong unions sees workers paid better wages, obviously. Without strong unions there is no-one to fight for them, which is one of the reasons why inequality has widened so dramatically in Britain, the most unequal country in Europe in 2023 except Bulgaria. Thatcher destroyed society no matter what her defenders like to pretend. Her project to transfer wealth from the majority to the rich was a runaway success on its own terms but the price paid by society has been incalculable. Privatisation has been a total disaster, with shareholder value driving business instead of quality of service. It is hugely ironic that the sewage issue is likely to cost the Tories dearly at the next election- it would not have happened if water had not been privatised. Even most Tory voters support re-nationalisation of the railways. Consumers have not benefitted from privatisation- higher prices have hit them in the pocket for decades. We have the highest rail fares in Europe and dreadful service.

@@eightiesmusic1984 Aussie coal was also cut from open cast mines..another thing if the industry needed to be run down..it could have been done in a planned long term way.

@@eightiesmusic1984 Right argument, wrong example to make the argument. Unionism can't save unprofitable or archaic industries, and Scargill's self-destructive nonsense was just as harmful to trade unionism as Thatcher. He didn't care about the miners, he was getting high on playing his games of revolutionary toy soldiers.

@@kailashpatel1706 Hard to talk about "long term" when imported coal was so much cheaper. Taxpayer money was being used to prop up a inefficient and unprofitable industry.

@@zippymufo9765 you need to grasp how poor investment in those industries (even one with rich coal seams across the UK) was undermining the industry's potential (South Wales had huge seams) even so at the time the British coal output was cheaper than in Europe but the nationalised industries had external polices pursued towards it which curtailed their potential

He is gracious enough to admit himself that he was a failure in terms of elections - but he did gradually improve Labour's standing and laid a lot of the groundwork for the 1997 victory. The party he bequeathed to John Smith after the 1992 defeat was in far beter shape than the one he inherited from Michael Foot in 1983.

@@lapponia77 Labour only became electable by abandoning socialism in 1995.

@@MarkHarrison733 I don't totally disagree with that, but I think it's an over-simplification. Labour was actually elected a number of times before 'abandoning socialism', as you put it, in 1995. The thing I admired about Kinnock was that he lived in the real world. After Foot, who was an honourable but naive man, he accepted that, if Labour were to become electable again, they would have to adapt to a changing world in which ordibary people had different aspirations for themselves and their families.That process inevitablly took a long time; Kinnock worked tirelessly and paved the way for later success, John Smith continued the work, and Blair made the decisive break. To be fair to him, Blair always acknowledged the debt he owed to Smith and Kinnock.

@@lapponia77 Smith caused Labour to lose in 1992.

@@MarkHarrison733 Again, you have a point, but I think that's also an over-simplification. I suspect that many people simply thought that there had already been enough of a change in 1990, when Major replaced Thatcher, and were not quite ready to trust Labour and believe that the reforms Kinnock had made were genuine. Five more years of Tory government and the arrival of Blair on the scene certainly did the trick, though :-)

Lame.

@@manaih5652 You silly arse.

Does saying, “Arthur Scargill was a bully who lived like Croesus while the miners starved” make someone a traitor to the working class?

Scab.

Tories in power 1979-2022

NACODS members voted by over 80% to join the strike, but their leaders accepted a deal to rescind this. The strike would probably have won had this vote been respected by the NACODS leadership

@@chasmac4055 Precisely. The strike was in the balance at this point and even the stockpiling of coal would not have been decisive if NACODS had gone on strike. Scargill was right in everything he said. It is absurd that his opponents always resort to generalisations and cliches to undermine him, such as ' he was a Marxist'. So what? Nothing wrong with being a Marxist- it was always seen as part of politics in many other countries. People are so immature in Britain. To my mind Scargill is a working class hero and history will vindicate him. It already has, really.

@@MrGoneTroppo 1979-2024 and 2024- if the red Tories form a government under Starmer.

Don't worry. Surely the prick is dead by now??

Yes but he was the leader. Not the movement. That was what dictated Kinnock's stance.

Better than Lord Gormley, that parasite was a traitor and a government informant.

Thatcher and the economics of capitalism destroyed the coal industry.

@@AbandonEarth911 Twice as many coal mines had closed under the Soviet agent Wilson.

@@AbandonEarth911 The coal industry in the UK had steadily declined since 1910.

Rubbish

@@tezer3496 Scargill did not have the resources to bring down the elected government.

The strike was illegal.

@@JamesRichards-mj9kw no is was not

@@tezer3496 Look it up.

@@tezer3496 It was ruled illegal in September 1984.

@@JamesRichards-mj9kw wrong

Sara Smith too right . Turned his back on his own he disgusts me

well reasoned post

The Enemy Within by Seumas Milne

I think it’s Marching to the Fault Line: The 1984 Miners' Stirke and the Death of Industrial Britain

@Dyn y Jawa Do you realise how idiotic your statement is? Are you seriously suggesting that seaside bed and breakfast lodging houses displaced 75 million tonnes of deep mined coal by 1985, on top of a 18 million tonnes from open cast? Really??

@@tracybeckett4107 What killed the mines was the environment and the fact that they did not want to use coal any longer. Unions, politicians should have come together with a plan to retrain the miners in other fields . But the fact that the Conservatives and the unions hated one another spelled the end for the mines. Also the NUM felt there was a chance to bring down Thatcher administration as they had with the Heath administration with the three day week and endless strikes . A very depressing state of affairs

what are you on about we didn't go to Spain only Scarborough, brid etc

@@richardboswell9306 do you no about punctuation no mate I don't fink u doo not never mind innit

Labour will stop that.

They have a sculpture nearby aberfan called the aberfan angel. Exactly where the statue should be in the valley where the tragedy happened, not in Cardiff 40 minutes away.

@@thomasrenshaw7730 should still be mother father and children / Child as the statue but you have what you want as long as you are happy

the main reason coal had to go was the CO2 emissions target. There was no way you could have a coal industry that large and reduce CO2 emissions.

@@ShahidKhan-ke8fe You are right in a sense. But I do believe that if the money for coal would have stayed in Britain, or Germany or elsewhere instead of going to Saudi Arabia we wouldnt have decidedly less problems including not enough funding for green energy