Quote Leyther14="Leyther14"A pit town voting for the Tories after Thatcher destroyed their industry. And you believe they will look after a working class town like Leigh. Lol.'"
And there is also this information.......
160 mines were closed under Thatcher’s time in office (1979–1990) Approx 11 years
290 were closed under Harold Wilson’s premierships alone (1965–1969 1974–1975) Approx 10 years
The more important detail is the number of deep pits closed, disregarding small mines, sometimes privately owned
Labour in total closed 371 deep pits.
Clement Atlee closed 101 in the early days after nationalisation
Harold Wilson closed 235 between 1964 and 1970 and 18 in the years after the miners strike during Heath’s term in office
James Callaghan continued the policy of supporting the NUM by closing just 4 mines in 1977- 1979
Blair closed 10 in 10 years and Brown 1.
Thatcher closed 115 deep pits.
MacMillan closed the most: 246 during the times that “we never had it so good” 1957- 1963 Previously Churchill had closed 78 and Eden 35. There was little protest at mine closures during this time or throughout Wilson’s time in office.
Heath closed 24 pits but disputes over pay and 2 miner’s strikes resulted in him losing power when he called a general election hoping to gain popular support in refusing to agree to the miner’s claims. This gave the NUM the impression that they held a great deal of political influence.
Although the number on mines closed by Thatcher was just marginally more than Atlee it was a much greater percentage of mines remaining. Cheap imports oil and nuclear power had made British coal less profitable and the militant miner’s union had put politics before production. The decline continued under Major with 55 pits closed and the last deep pit in Britain shut down in December 2015 due to lack of orders. By 2025 it is planned there will be no coal fired power stations left in the UK.
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