The 1980s were full of new things like pop culture and new trends and new strikes apparently. In 1984, 20 of the coal mines closed due to the prime minister (Margret Thatcher) thinking it would be cheaper to import coal. In the beginning she said “I love an argument, I love a debate, I do not expect people to just sit there agree with me, that’s not their job”. This could not have backfired on her more. The miners in Yorkshire didn’t agree with their livelihood being destroyed so they started what wax the biggest industrial strike ever recorded. The miners strike of 1984.
The point of the miners strike was to stop the mines from being permanently closed down, they did this but refusing to go to work until they reopened. The problem with this was the main source of income for the mining families was from the mines. This meant that they had very little money because jobs were scarce. It also made an impact on the rest of the civilisation too because taxes went up and there was no coal to burn. Eventually the police started getting involved. The NUM (National until of mine workers) and the people supporting them started attacking miners who were still working and even the police. By the end of the strike in March 1985, 11,291 people had been arrested and 72 miners had been injured. 51 police had also been injured and all together 6 people had died.
Many films have been made about the miners strike, this includes; Brast off: which is more of a political film about a band of miners who take up playing in a band instead of working down the pits, eventually they have to go back into the mines and the band gets shut down. Another film is called billy Elliot which focuses more on the family side of the strike showing how a young boy wanted to become a ballerina, his family don’t have enough money so his dad ends up going back into the mines instead of going on strike. Billy’s dad is presented as a typical miner who is angry with the government for putting them out of a job. It represents the reality of the strike because miners and mining families just had to wait until the strike was over.A final film about the miners strike is called pride, this focuses on how some of the minority groups supported the miners like the LGBTQ groups and the women’s rights groups.
The main leaders of the opposing groups was the Arthur Scargill (the leader of the NUM) and Margret Thatcher who was the leader of the government or the prime minister. The most known thing Arthur Scargill said was “if you have an industry where you’ve got investments, it doesn’t matter if you bring alternative supplies. You still lose the money on your industry”. This means that because the government were shutting down the mines and importing coal instead, it would still impact the money and eventually they would be losing more money than they would he gaining it by importing coal. To make matters worse the government were increasing the wages on the miners who did go back to work so that it would convince them to work again and keep them in the job. This was outrageous for the miners because it put more strain on their lively hood and their living because they had to keep food for their families and keep paying rent and heating. Meanwhile the government were thriving on the fact that the they had money and didn’t need to worry about whether they were going to eat that night.
Finally the miners didn’t help themselves either because they wouldn’t accept charity work and they wouldn’t accept people trying to help them because they saw it as being dependable and desperate. The miner strike ended in March 1985, in the end 20 of the coal mines got closed in England, most being in country Durham. The last operating coal mine closed in 2015 and from then on all the Uks coal has been imported. All because of the selfishness of a prime minister.
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