The Truth Is Starting To Come Out

[Adam Hogg]

Seems the truth about the Thatcher government's plans for the Coal Industry are starting to come out:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23518589

Only a shame she can't be held to account over it now.

[Symptoms]

Every year, when these papers are released, I shake my head in wonder at the 'crimes' that were perpetrated by the ruling elite. Oh, for whistleblowers, Twitter, Wikileaks, Editors undaunted by 'D' Notices, back then!

[Orloff]

I have heard a rumour that in the miners strike the "police" that were used to break the pickets were in actual fact military.

My source said that bus loads of troops were taken to the same place as loads of spare police uniforms were delivered, and bus loads of "police" came out to be transported to where needed. A small give-away was the amount of mounted "police there was and also the tactics used by the "police" were more like squaddies to me.

[keith lockey]

I have heard a rumour that in the miners strike the "police" that were used to break the pickets were in actual fact military.

My source said that bus loads of troops were taken to the same place as loads of spare police uniforms were delivered, and bus loads of "police" came out to be transported to where needed. A small give-away was the amount of mounted "police there was and also the tactics used by the "police" were more like squaddies to me.

If only these rumours could be substantuated with some facts. And if only they had come out before Maggie's demise!! Very interesting story that.

[Adam Hogg]

Most Ex-miners Pickets or not, do believe troops were dressed up as police and there were some signs of this, "police" without I.D numbers, Tactics and behavior but unless papers are released with them orders on, most people will not believe it.

[Symptoms]

I heard this story at the time from my cousin who was a Sergeant in the Northumberland Peelers. He had a role in leading about 20 soldiers (in cops' uniforms) in strike-breaking duties; he told my that there were about 5 Sergeants with his group, each with about the same number of troops, and all under the direct command of an Inspector. His group was based at Catterick Barracks so they could deal with North Yorkshire strikers ... the plan was never to use local plod to thump local pitmen. He said that the Met Police (London) were the worst for dishing-out violence and all the cops were on terrific overtime pay ... he made enough just from the overtime to pay for a deposit on a house.

Of course, the Met Peelers are still dishing-out hidings to the innocent.

[threegee]

Pity no one here was listening to Neil Kinnock on the radio last week. He entirely blames Scargill, and his refusal to hold a ballot - like every other dispassionate observer. He details his problems in getting rid of the same left wing militants who were trying to hijack the Labour Party and is very honest about the mistakes he made at the time. Detached from all the party political malarkey he comes across as a really decent guy.

You can't review history through modern eyes and expect to arrive at anything approaching the truth. It's bad enough trying to pull things together at the time; later on it's so much easier to cherry pick what you choose to believe and what you chose to disregard. There was right and wrong on both sides, but at the core was a strike started undemocratically by someone who's sole aim was to overthrow a democratically elected government. Kinnock says that without Scargill the matter would have been settled by the usual compromise and without bitterness - as it had always been done. He's in no doubt about that, and he's right!

Reliving the past - with rose coloured spectacles, or second-hand from what you've been told to believe - is a recipe for repeating the same mistakes. Mrs Thatcher rescued this country from total industrial collapse, and she certainly wouldn't have supported everything done by government henchmen - she was very pro the individual, and individual liberty. On the other hand Scargill has done nothing in his life but cause misery and dissent, and still tries to sponge off the NUM. Demonising one and choosing to overlook the pure evil done by the other is plain silly. Look at how reliving the past (by people who were never there but who have indoctrinated their children just as they themselves were indoctrinated) has destroyed Northern Ireland.

The precise truth you will never know, even if you take the time to seek it out - which you obviously won't! The one big truth is that it should never have happened, and would never have happened if the NUM had not been so badly misled!

[keith lockey]

You're right, Threegee, we should look at things from both perspectives and prevention is always better than cure. I don't know that much about Scargill and maybe we should all take heed of both sides before we totally condem an individual. But it still rankles me that troops were used and that local bobbies knew they were being used. I had never heard of that until now.

Edited August 5, 2013 by keith lockey

[Adam Hogg]

I Agree with you Threegee on Scargill he is as much to blame for the closure of the British coal mining industry as Thatcher as he went into her trap, but at least he did not use the power of the office of prime minister to get everything covered up, Example: I looked on the national archives website papers of the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the National Coal Board. between 1943-1997 Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated. Why is that? unless they have something to hide.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Could be regardless of what anyone thinks, the workers of this world will get a day off and have to thank MT

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-naming-the-august-bank-holiday-as-margaret-thatcher-day

Edited February 26, 2014 by Eggy1948

[Adam Hogg]

Talk about adding insult to injury for those whose lives she destroyed (miners, Hillsborough Victims and their families and people who generally did not like her) if we are going to have a bank holiday named after someone should it not be someone who helped create a the nation of Great Britain (Military heroes, Industrialists, etc.) not someone who divided it.

I have an Idea:

Daniel Gooch Day

Celebrate a Bedlington Lad.

[threegee]

But enough of Arthur Scargill, can't we discuss Britain's best peacetime PM!

 

I think you'll find that Daniel was actually one of those hateful Tories who exploited the workers, and all that deeply socialist jazz. That's the reason the local Jealousy and Envy Party has done their damnedest to write him out of our history.  I'm all for seeing the past in a more balanced and truthful light. So... let's petition for a statue to the great man - a small step on the way to pulling this little town out of its entirely self-imposed impoverishment!

[Malcolm Robinson]

I personally like Michael Longridge for a statue!  

[threegee]

I personally like Michael Longridge for a statue!  

 

We could do a Mount Rushmore!   Umm... I strongly suspect that Michael Longridge was a "Thatcherite" too!

[Canny lass]

Got to agree with GGG on this one!