Thatcher Dead

[mdf290]

The Ridley plan.

The government should if possible choose the field of battle.
Industries were grouped by the likelihood of winning a strike; the coal industry was in the 'middle' of three groups of industries mentioned.
Coal stocks should be built up at power stations.
Plans should be made to import coal from non-union foreign ports.
Non-union lorry drivers to be recruited by haulage companies.
Dual coal-oil firing generators to be installed, at extra cost;
'Cut off the money supply to the strikers and make the union finance them'.
Train and equip a large, mobile squad of police, ready to employ riot tactics in order to uphold the law against violent picketing.

They also divided the miners by giving the nottinghamshire pits modern equipment and assurances about their future (they still closed them all).

Thatcher and her cronies set out to destroy the miners from the start they planned for it well in advance and they succeeded. That doesn't make her a heroine to me, just a ruthless, callous destroyer of countless communities.

You are looking at things as if the miners were actually more important than the country.
Maggie did not just have miners jobs to worry about she had a country to run and the rest of the population to support. In th 1974 miners strike the economy of the whole country was devastated for 3 months while electricity was rationed. Every other business not involved in mining was made to suffer greatly but the miners did not care about self employed businessmen like my dad and how it affected the food on my table as a child when my father could not manufacture in his workshop.
The Ridlay plan was not a preconcieved plan to destroy the mines but simply a sensible set of options put together to deal with a repeat of 1974.
The facts are despite all the noise and whineing that has suddenly appeared when Maggie died that 80% of the population SUPPORTED maggies actions in the miners strike.

It was not the miners strike that made her unpopular but POLL TAX.

 

[joe-90]

Poll tax = Council Tax. What's the difference?

 

[JohnD]

Poll tax = Council Tax. What's the difference?

tax per person ≠ tax per house

 

[Graeme1983]

When you take off the ridiculously tinted rose tinted specs you will find out that Arthur Scargill was bankrolled by Marxsist Russia who saw the trade unions as a great way to ruin our country. Of course the dewy eyed wanabee socialists in this country only saw Russia as a big cuddly bear and failed totally to see the true reason for the support.

'Some' mines were to be closed as the coal industry had been heavily subsidised for years. This was a problem that had to be addressed and measures were put in place to close some mines and mechanise and make more productive and cost effective others. Of course this would have meant job losses but only in the way these things happen when any business moves with the times.
However Arthur Scargill decided that NO mines were to be closed and therefore he called an all out strike. This strike was actually against the unions own rules as no ballot was given to the members.
The unions acted appallingly forcing miners to strike even when they wanted to work.
Maggie remembering what happened with the 1974 strike and the country being brought to its knees without power had given productivity bonuses the effect of which was that there was a sufficient stockpile of coal to ride out a strike.
80% of the population supported Maggies actions which were purely to stand up against the miners and not give in to their demands.

This is where the Unions botched the whole thing up big style. Mines were unmanned and regular safety work was not carried out. This made many pits close purely on safety grounds not productivity or profit , it was a massive own goal. In the light of our troubles we had offers that we could not turn down in the form of cheaper coal from abroad. The longer the strike went on the more irrelevant our pits became. If the unions had not started the strike in the first place our mining industry allthough at a smaller scale would have continued on for a much longer time and with much fewer job losses.
In the end the unions got increasingly desperate as miners were forced to brave the picket lines to feed their families after months without pay. to stop this return to work pickets became increasingly violent leading to the murder of a taxi driver taking a miner to work.
The public had no sympathy for the miners with 80% backing Maggie to fight the obnoxious self centered union bosses.

Of course its much easier for miners or people sympathising with miners to say that Maggie shut down the mines and ruined communities but the truth is the Unions had an equal hand if not a bigger hand in their demise but for anyone to admit that would mean they would have to admit being wrong and that they had helped in their own dwownfall but that wont happen will it?

Excellent. Very clearly explained.

Now I await with interest one of the 'Maggie destroyed the mining industry' brigade to try to deny any of these facts.

I cant trust that someone has got such a grasp of the subject and that Scargill was in the pocket of the USSR when the writer cant even spell Marxist, I stopped reading there.

 

[mdf290]

I cant .

The second word you wrote was 'cant' . I am at a loss as to why you wrote that! I don't seriously believe you were actually trying to tell us all that you are leaning over. I must therefore presume you don't know how to use the apostrophe in the word can't.



HA ha ha ha ha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahaahah

Nothing makes me laugh more than arrogant idiots falling over at the first hurdle...


You cant . . . lol

 

[mdf290]

Still laughing . . . .lol

 

[Graeme1983]

ooohhhh missing apostrophe, you must of went over that post with a magnifying glass. I wasnt being grammar police.

For me if I held such a strong opinion on something it would be a subject that I know well and have read up on and researched. So as someone with an interest in politics I wouldnt get something as basic as Marxsist mixed up with Marxist or Marxism with Marxsism. Where my mistakes are down to laziness with abbreviation and posting quickly in between work, yours is down to general ignorance of the subject your wasting your time typing four paragraphs on.

Why write about Marxism if you cant even spell the word? You probably wouldnt know what Marxism even is unless Lenin strolled out of his mausoleum and kicked you up the arse.

 

[JBR]

ooohhhh missing apostrophe, you must of went over that post with a magnifying glass. I wasnt being grammar police.

Come on. You started it. You can't (cant?) expect to be pedantic about someone's spelling and then bleat about them doing the same to you!

 

[JBR]

Actually, the mining industry had been in decline since the 1960's Pit closures were commonplace in the 60's and 70's (lefties either don't realise this, or choose to ignore it )

They also divided the miners by giving the nottinghamshire pits modern equipment and assurances about their future

Sources please

You're perfectly correct. In fact, it has been in decline since 1918! That was the year of peak coal production in this country. After that, coal gradually became less important due to use of other sources of power, such as oil fuel in ships.

 

[JBR]

Thatcher and her cronies set out to destroy the miners from the start they planned for it well in advance and they succeeded. That doesn't make her a heroine to me, just a ruthless, callous destroyer of countless communities.

Still waiting for you to deny any of the points in MDF's post of 10 April. Those are the real reasons for the mine closures.

Still, I suppose it's much easier to call Maggie a ruthless destroyer!

 

[mdf290]

ooohhhh missing apostrophe, you must of went over that post with a magnifying glass. I wasnt being grammar police.

Oh yes you were and you were
. . . . . . wasnt and wouldnt by the way are also seem to have caught the missing apostrophe illness too..

You probably wouldnt know what Marxism even is unless Lenin strolled out of his mausoleum and kicked you up the a**e.

Typical 'socialist' when everything else fails lets start just start with violence

 

[Graeme1983]

Actually, the mining industry had been in decline since the 1960's Pit closures were commonplace in the 60's and 70's (lefties either don't realise this, or choose to ignore it )

They also divided the miners by giving the nottinghamshire pits modern equipment and assurances about their future

Sources please

You're perfectly correct. In fact, it has been in decline since 1918! That was the year of peak coal production in this country. After that, coal gradually became less important due to use of other sources of power, such as oil fuel in ships.

Coal is back in fashion these days.

Germans are switching back to coal now after getting scared of nuclear power after Fukushima. Bit of long termism from Thatcher and the UK could of been supplying the new generation of coal fired plants the krauts are building. Instead the krauts will be getting inferior brown coal from here, Poland, themselves and Russia.

 

[ajrtd]

Typical 'socialist' when everything else fails lets start just start with violence

Whereas the other lot get their violence in first

 

[Graeme1983]

ooohhhh missing apostrophe, you must of went over that post with a magnifying glass. I wasnt being grammar police.

Oh yes you were and you were
. . . . . . wasnt and wouldnt by the way are also seem to have caught the missing apostrophe illness too..

You probably wouldnt know what Marxism even is unless Lenin strolled out of his mausoleum and kicked you up the a**e.

Typical 'socialist' when everything else fails lets start just start with violence

Would you believe Im a qualified English teacher certified by a London school working abroad? Standards are slipping eh? The country has gone to the dogs. You can blame me if a Czech plumber doesnt put enough apostrophes on your itemised bill.

Anyway Im looking forward to your next impassioned dissertation on subjects you dont know enough about. Fashun in medieval Venice maybe or hijean during the late Roman period.

 

[pred]

Lighten up you lot.

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2013/04/10/danny-boyle-to-create-thatcher-closing-event/