The 1980′s Miner’s Strike
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My paternal Grandad retired from coal mining two weeks before the strikes began. The government punished him and others by withholding pensions for former miners for 18 months before a journalist threatened to put them on the national front pages.
A colleague in Newcastle once recalled to me how her miner husband and their children had to cycle 10 miles to the soup kitchens and got spat at because she was the daughter of the local policeman. Many people have vivid memories of the political and local clashes surrounding the loss of so many jobs in such a short space of time.
Many areas still bear the scars of mass unemployment. Meanwhile, as predicted, there is some talk of reopening many mines, with some discussion of apprenticeships being offered to modern miners in Britain. Thatcher broke the power of unions at massive cost to small communities.
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