The Coal War - BBC Panorama

The uploader acknowledges copyright to BBC Panorama. Here for editorial and education purposes. The Miner's Strike of 1984-85 became the defining ideological battle between the National Union of Mineworkers, and perhaps the wider union movement, and the hard-line policies of the Thatcher Government. The initial cause of the industrial action was the Coal Board's plans to close unprofitable pits that were being subsided by government. Unfortunately many of those targeted for closure were significant, and in some cases, sole employers upon which the survival of entire communities depended. Margaret Thatcher largely blamed the longevity of, and fallout from the strike upon a 'ruthless manipulating few', who had hijacked the National Union of Mineworkers. At the end of the strike, she said, “We had to make certain that violence and intimidation and impossible demands could not win.” Even Labour leader Neil Kinnock was critical of the union leadership, in particu