My family wasn't directly involved with the strike but my dad ran a company making mining machinery and I remember the time very well, even though I was only about 9 or 10 year old. To say that the whole mine closure had a negative effect on family and friends who did work in the mine would be a massive understatement.

Mines, shipyards, steelworks, british manufacturing in general, where are they now? What little is left is all foreign owned even our electricity, water etc. Who takes the blame? She really knew how to "take care" of working people.

I try not to do politics but it cannot be ignored that just about every bloody thing you buy nowadays is made in China or India etc. You think you're buying something with a good old British name only to find where it was made. There's no wander there's no jobs here because the owners e.g. Dyson have buggered off abroad to pay a pittance to foreign workers and amass huge personal wealth, instead of staying loyal to British workers, (who put them where they are in the first place)-not all of whom were militant.
I look very closely to find place of manufacture and try and buy British but regretfully it's getting harder.
Whatever your view of Thatcher are she really nailed home the phrase 'I'm alright Jack!'
I bet she never went to Belle Vue either!

To wish someone was dead so you can dance on their grave is sick, ateotd that's someones mother who was trying to do their best with a crap hand.

Can't believe comments like those are allowed to stay on a public forum.

This thread is pretty much going as i thought, i wish i'd not added my comments.

On that note i think its not for this forum.

This.

Plus the fact that the sig material that started this whole debate weren't actually her original thoughts - she was (rather clumsily) paraphrasing the work of the Austrian philosopher and economist Friedrich Hayek, whom she later ensured was elevated to the Order of the Companions of Honour.

Evil [iand[/i unoriginal.

Plenty of class on show on this thread......

So you can only "do a days work" if you come home physically exhausted and covered in coal dust?

I think that's a simplification of the point that was being made; it's true to say that in many traditional manufacturing and mining areas, many of the jobs that were lost have eventually been replaced, but by lower paid, less skilled jobs such as warehousing, distribution and call centres. The people doing those jobs earn less, spend less, pay lower taxes and are more reliant on top-up benefits such as HB and tax credits - representing a net loss to the national and local economy and as the OP alluded to, a significant negative impact on wellbeing and happiness - a much ignored economic metric.

That overlooks such things as the national minimum wage, health and safety etc, all making the overall cost of british manufacturing more expensive that many other countries around the world.
What is also overlooked is that the world in the last twenty-thirty years, has become an awful lot smaller, and what were regional industries, were replaced with worldwide markets and corporations.
Industries of the 20th century have been replaced with industries of the 21st, peoples reliance on all things automated and computerised is a world away from dirty men crawling on all fours with pick axes, toiling in the ground.
I know what job i'd rather have my son doing when it comes around to his stint in the workplace.

However much you may (or may not) be correct about the benefits to the economy or not of those in subsidised employment - I don't think that's the point he was making at all. He was implying that working in an office isn't "real" work and those people employed in that environment had a lower quality of life because of their working environment rather than their "lower" wages being the cause.

Out of interest, what was the "average" wage for a miner?

I can't argue what the OP's specific meaning was because I don't know, but that's what I took from his post.

I also don't know what the average wage was, but a quick Google search suggests that following the industrial action of the mid 70's, miners were earning a higher average wage than their working class peers in other industries.

Quote: bren2k "I can't argue what the OP's specific meaning was because I don't know, but that's what I took from his post. I also don't know what the average wage was, but a quick Google search suggests that following the industrial action of the mid 70's, miners were earning a higher average wage than their working class peers in other industries.'" sorry but that is utter bollox the majority had below the average wage, some did earned above due to bonuses but the was the face and development workers. and guess what and some even died in producing fuel so we could all have basic electric in their house for light and heating Arther did say before bonuses was introduced it would put man against man and still has the same bickering effect today, can some one on here justify why footballers can be paid so much and why a high profile banker can warrant a £963,000 bonus it is just disgusting www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16752358

Quote: bren2k "I can't argue what the OP's specific meaning was because I don't know, but that's what I took from his post. I also don't know what the average wage was, but a quick Google search suggests that following the industrial action of the mid 70's, miners were earning a higher average wage than their working class peers in other industries.'" sorry but that is utter bollox the majority had below the average wage, some did earned above due to bonuses but the was the face and development workers. and guess what and some even died in producing fuel so we could all have basic electric in their house for light and heating Arther did say before bonuses was introduced it would put man against man and still has the same bickering effect today, can some one on here justify why footballers can be paid so much and why a high profile banker can warrant a £963,000 bonus it is just disgusting www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16752358