1980 Miners Picnic

NUM Yorkshire President Arthur Scargill, caught in the Market Place between Millne House and The Market Tavern in the year before his taking over as President of the NUM.

Four years later Arthur would attempt to bring down the government with the disastrous 1984–1985 miners' strike. This would prove to be the final nail-in-the-cofin for the UK mining industry, and have a profound effect on mining communities like our town's.

NUM Yorkshire President Arthur Scargill, caught in the Market Place between Millne House and The Market Tavern in the year before his taking over as President of the NUM.

Four years later Arthur would attempt to bring down the government with the disastrous 1984–1985 miners' strike. This would prove to be the final nail-in-the-cofin for the UK mining industry, and have a profound effect on mining communities like our town's.

I`m pretty sure that`s Roy Hattersly not Arthur Scargill, isn`t it?

I think you are right Cympil,he's got more hair and a thinner face!

Er......apart from the fact that it's not Scargill !!!!

Arthur didn't attempt to bring the government down,thatcher-the-hatcheter

deliberately tried to smash the N.U.M. ,with the philosophy,[in her own words mind..]"if i can destroy the miners union,then all the rest of the unions will follow"

The first page of Ian McGregor's biography reads...[and I quote].."margaret thatcher phoned me and said ..."Ian,i want a confrontation with the miners,how should i go about it?"

Ian replied...

.."you pick the time,and the battlefield,and you will win,margaret.."

The book is called "The enemy within",[which is thatcher's opinion of the

men and women,some pregnant and working underground like slaves,

and boys as young as six years,who died in their thousands,over time,to bring about the Industrial revolution,and make Britain great!]

People like thatcher,and churchill..["get the rats back down their holes".....]

treating miners and their families like dirt, just shows how callous and greedy they were in the coal-owner days,when a man,woman,or child,

was killed,it was always because they had broke some rule...never the neglect of the owner.

If a pony died,there was hell on....cos you had to buy ponies,humans were

dispensible.

Check out the archives of cases before the old bailey in the 1700-1800's!

The secret documents from the 1984 strike will be released soon,if they are not "amended"....that is,and the truth will come out.

"The Enemy Within" is McGregor's account of the strike.

Interestingly,the man was a metallurgist ,and a very skilled man.

He helped the United States to win the war against hitler.

Trouble was,he was a very ruthless person.

THAT'S why thatcher hired him to crush the Miners.

Er...may i add that I was given "The enemy within"  free of charge at a local boot sale!....no way would I put money in the coffers of the butcher who destroyed my [and the rest of the mining] community.

The link above says that miners claims about troops being used were false.

Well,I only wish an old marra of mine ,who also worked at Bates,as I did,

during the 1984 strike,could come on to this site,[if he is still alive...],and give his personal account of this claim.

He had a Son who was in H.M Armed forces,stationed in the Falklands.

He often chatted to me about his Son,and was proud as a peacock of him.

I didn't see My Marra until after the strike was over.[for a whole year]

As soon as we got down the pit,on our return to work,I asked how his Son was getting on,and his face fell looking very sad.

I instantly felt something terrible had happened to his Son,while in action.

He turned to me and said.."Billy,aal nivvor speak to him again,aav dis-owned him,after what he has done to me."

I said if it was confidential,I would understand,but he started to tell me how he was standing on a picket line,quietly,when squads of "policemen"

marched past him with "military precision"[in his words]

With a million to one chance of fate,His Son marched past him within two feet from his own face.

His Son was dressed in a police uniform..eyes forward,peaked-cap down over his eyes..head up.

He spoke to his Son quickly,asked what he was doing here in that uniform....

His Son never flinched,or even looked at his Dad,he marched with the rest,and only spoke to say..."Orders are orders,Dad"

My marra broke down in tears while was telling me this,and I could feel the hurt he was feeling.

He went on tearfully re-capping everything He had told me  over the years,how he had attended his Son's passing-out parade with pride ,etc,

and now he was a broken man,telling me he would never speak to his Son again.

I tried in vain to make him understand his Son's position,without success.

I never asked about the lad again,not wanting to hurt my marra.

Don't ANYONE ever try to convince me that thousands of police officers all over our country,marching in fours with military precision,naturally and

deliberately displaying acts of violence,drumming on riot shields to intimidate defenceless unarmed civilians,beating one of my close freinds black and blue,and breaking bones,are really our own canny police forces!!

I saw my friend in Ashington hospital,during the strike,on crutches,and I asked if he had been in a car accident,he was so badly hurt,and bruised. 

"Police beat me up in the big Police van,Billy,but the surgeons have taken photo's of my injuries,and are supporting me in my claim for damages

against the Police force."[He won his case]

Now,the big question is,WHERE did all the "Police " disappear to,after the strike was over?

I'll tell you where...Back to their bases.....!

Everybody,including the Police,recently,are starting to take useless strike action ,for more pay,with not a cat in hell's chance of success,cos thatcher made it clear,if she could destroy the miners unon,all the others would follow!!

Anyone qualified to dispute my comments?!!

Rant over for tonite!

Sorry for getting wound up!

Yes, of course it's Roy.  Thanks for the correction.  Think I identified Roy on pix elsewhere in the gallery some time ago as still going strong!

Fancy mixing up a militant Marxist extremist with a "cuddly right winger"!  Must have had far too much vino that night, or maybe I was just trying to wind-up HPW?

P.S. I deeply and genuinely sympathise HPW, but the fact is you were taken for a ride. I've covered this elsewhere so won't repeat myself.  There was right and wrong on both sides, but by refusing to hold a ballot Scargill automatically put himself on the wrong side of the law. The present-day NUM takes a much more objective view of your hero. You've misidentified your villains, and another of those could well be Ted Heath, who didn't act like a proper national leader when tested.

I agree with you that the McGregor + Tyler book is a good insightful read, but it's certainly not his biography.

Attempting to imposing modern standards on centuries-old history, and cherry-picking facts, are favourite practices of Marxists.  The popular capitalism you condemn has been responsible for the social improvements, whereas Scargill's Marxism enslaved the people it pretended to liberate, and surely (to mis-quote Marx) "contains the seeds of its own destruction".