Still Generating Thatcher Hatred By Corrupting History

We have to accept that the days of honesty in political discourse are well and truly over having been replaced by spin, deceit, lies and propaganda. Distorting history has traditionally been the preserve of the victors in battle, in the case of modern political power seeking, politicians indulge freely.

These unscrupulous power seekers will say or promise anything to get their grubby hands on political power regardless of the cost to honesty, decency or moral integrity. It would appear that poisoning young minds by generating a visceral hatred of an opponent is an acceptable practice.

A chance meeting in a social club with an aspiring eighteen year old writer/politician revealed the truth about deliberately generated hatred. It was reminiscent of the 'three minute hate' made famous by George Orwell in his futuristic novel 1984.  

The young man in question has a "deep burning hatred in his heart for Margaret Thatcher...he will never forgive her for destroying the Welsh coal industry and his community".  Hatred on such a scale is a wasted emotion but it is a tragic waste when it is based on deliberately distorted history.

The fact that the correct version of history is easily accessible confirms that the young man has accepted the version of history given to him by unscrupulous ideologues and sadly fostered his burning hatred on the basis of it.

Presumably he will pass it on to the next generation and so forth with the result that the corrupted version is accepted as fact. Consequently political loyalty and votes will be assured in perpetuity.

I am not an apologist for Margaret Thatcher by any means nor do I endorse her policies but this gentleman's ignorance of the history about his local community is staggering. I feel it incumbent upon myself to put it right, demonstrating how history has been shamelessly distorted in the process.

The following facts are taken from South Wales Coalfield Series, Book 62. Merthyr Valley - Ray Lawrence Bsc. Also Collieries Of South Wales: Volumes 1 and 2 - John Cornwell

Our young friend's town and the surrounding area were thinly populated backwaters until the rise of iron making in the late eighteenth century. Four great ironworks were built between 1760 and 1780 causing an immigration boom which took the population into the tens of thousands. So it was iron and not coal that was responsible for the rise of his community in the first place.

Due to technical innovation and market pressures, the iron industry, along with the surrounding communities, went into decline in the 1860's and by the turn of the nineteenth century it was all but finished.

The remaining coal industry was still substantial consisting of over two hundred registered deep mines, drifts and levels in his home valley. The discovery of cheap, easily accessible oil started the decline of the coal industry but it was the recession starting in 1929 that just about finished it off.

By the time the industry was nationalised in 1947 the two hundred coal mines was reduced to four (4) and by 1955 that was reduced further to just two (2)

For the record Margaret Thatcher was born in 1925, became a research chemist then a barrister. She entered Parliament in 1959. She held the Education and Science portfolio until becoming Leader of the Opposition in 1975. By the time she became Prime Minister in 1979 the coal industry and its communities had already declined to the point of dereliction.

The facts that our aspiring friend chooses to ignore are that Margaret Thatcher wasn't born when the iron industry ended and was only four years old when the coal industry went into decline. She wasn't in Parliament at the time of nationalisation or when the industry was reduced to two mines in his valley.

The coal industry that remained was old, inefficient and costly. This necessitated a re-organisation which saw the Labour governments under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan closed two hundred and ninety mines.  The ongoing re-organisation saw a further one hundred and sixty close under Mrs. Thatcher's Conservative government. That's one hundred and thirty less than her Labour predecessors.

It was the year long miners strike of 1984/5 that raises the emotional temperature but the blame for that lies with the politically motivated leadership of the mine workers union. Arthur Scargill and Mick McGahey were two lifelong communists who had a deep loathing for the Conservative government and for Mrs.Thatcher in particular.

They misused the traditional loyalty of the mining communities in an attempt to bring down the democratically elected government. They refused to hold a national strike ballot and forbid local union lodges to hold one either. They left it the local miners whether to strike or work normally, those who decided to work normally were picketed out using threats, violence and intimidation.

It is the considered opinion of MR. Lawrence that had a ballot been allowed, the South Wales area would have voted to work normally.

The democratically elected government of fifty five million people was never going to submit to a union comprising one hundred and ten thousand members.  The remaining industry never recovered from the political ambitions of Messrs. Scargill and McGahey but agenda driven commentators ensured that Mrs.Thatcher got the blame.

Our aspiring young friend was horrified that someone could actually exonerate the object of his anger and vilification and pass the blame to his heroes. He obviously has an emotional need for fiction to become fact and vice verca

*In a footnote to this history it should be noted that if the industry had survived in some form after the malign attentions of Scargill and McGahey, it would have been finished by the restrictions set out in the Climate Change Act.

This industry killing legislation was put in place by the then Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change,  a Mr. Edward Miliband. Better known today as Red Ed, the leader of the Labour Party.

Obama Kills The Coal Industry - Mining Communities Self Destruct And Get No Sympathy

A motley association of eco-warriors, hippies, associated lefties and the 'climate change' industry will be breaking out the organic, alcohol free champagne today after their leader fulfilled his promise to kill off the coal industry. Without putting anything in place to mitigate the effects of their actions, Obama together with the vested interests that support him have put their ideology before the wellbeing of the people.

As anyone who follows the behavior of politicians will know, this latest action by Obama has got little to do with cooling the planet and everything to do with controlling the people. As important as that debate is, for the purpose of this article it is peripheral to the one about tribal, party based voting habits and will be dealt with separately.

Electors are obviously unaware that casting ones vote for a particular political party on the basis of family tradition degrades democracy, disenfranchises the voter and emboldens the politicians to indulge in self serving behaviors that are detrimental to the well being of both community and country.

Safe in the knowledge that they will never be voted out of office, the political class in 'safe' constituencies routinely ignore the wishes of the people and follow their own ideological agenda regardless of any detrimental effects and often enriching themselves in the process.

The issue of blind tribal loyalties and the part it plays in the downfall of communities is common to both Great Britain and the USA.

As a native of the South Wales coal field I witnessed first hand the consequences of the closure of the British coal industry and subsequent effect on the traditionally close knit communities. The blame for this lies entirely with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM),  its two politically motivated leaders, Arthur Scargill and Mick McGahey together with their supporters and sympathetic political activists, including the Labour Party.

The reasons for the demise of the British coal industry can be read here.

It was obvious from his background and his initial utterances that Senator Obama was the most ideologically driven presidential candidate in history, so when he told the American people that his energy plan would mean "that energy bills would necessarily sky rocket", they should have sat up and taken notice.

His next statement was an open declaration of war against the coal industry, the miners and their communities:  "if somebody wants to build a coal fired power plant they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them".

With a clear, unequivocal declaration of that nature one would think that the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and its leadership would beat to quarters and mobilise the membership either to lobby against Obama's proposals or to back the other candidate.

Ignoring the threat to the livelihoods of the coal miners or the well being of their families, the UMWA leadership endorsed candidate Obama and in an act of blind obedience, or utter stupidity, the membership complied.

By this mindless action the mining communities were party to their own downfall and therefore deserve no sympathy; they brought it on themselves.

In mitigation it can be said that Obama did promise that millions of 'green' jobs will be created as the energy sector moved to renewables together with millions more 'shovel ready' jobs as part of the stimulus package. The mining communities should have known that these were promises made during an election campaign and shouldn't be taken as truth.

These jobs didn't materialise and adding insult to injury, one 'green' energy company, the infamous Solyndra, made off with billions of taxpayer money before declaring bankruptcy.

As a further kick in the teeth for the coal mining industry Obama chooses to appease the green lobby instead of mitigating the disaster facing the coal mining communities.  He is refusing to endorse the Keystone pipeline project with the consequent loss of well paid jobs.

He is also refusing to drill for oil on federal lands or to fully embrace fracking for natural gas which would go someway to replacing the lost coalfield jobs and help move America towards energy independence.

With this record of antagonism toward the mining communities one would have thought that the UMWA leadership would endorse anyone but Obama for a second term but in an act of supreme cowardice and without a care for the welfare of the membership they held off their recommendation until late in the campaign before advising an abstention.

This was a cynical manipulation of the traditional loyalty of coal miners with the intention of not being seen to be endorsing the anti-coal Obama while at the same time preventing the membership from effectively campaigning for the other candidate.

It is worth noting the attitude of UMWA leader, Mike Caputo who like his British counterparts, Scargill and McGahey, puts his own political loyalties above that of the people he is sworn to represent.

Caputo combines his leadership of the UMWA with being a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. This dual representation brings into question his loyalties should there be a conflict of interest between his political party and his membership.

This question was answered during the second term election where he endorsed Obama knowing full well his malign intentions toward the UMWA membership. By leaving it late into the campaign before recommending an abstention he effectively prevented any opposition to Obama being organised from within the coal mining communities.

Caputo's cynical manipulation of his members can be highlighted by his statement after he recommended an abstention:

"I am a hardcore Democrat, I intend to vote for Obama. I am loyal to my party".

Like his British counterparts, Messrs. Scargill and McGahey, Mike Caputo is loyal to his party, not to the membership or the communities that have put their faith in him to look after their interests.

It would appear that the idea that trade unions are there to look after the interests of their members and their families doesn't apply the coal industry in either the USA or Great Britain.

I would suggest that the coal mining communities learn from this treachery and stop their tribal voting habits. In West Virginia and elsewhere they should treat Mr. Caputo with the same contempt with which he treats them and boot him out at the earliest possible opportunity from both the Legislature and the UMWA.

Update: 

It would appear that I am not the only one who thinks they are stupid. See here.

Mrs Thatcher's Last Laugh - Arthur Scargill Humiliated In Court Decision

With the news that Arthur Scargill has lost his court case which he brought against the remnants of his own union, this is an opportune moment to reflect on the history of this hypocrite who put revolutionary politics before the interests of his members, destroying entire communities in the process.

Free marketeer and avowed anti-socialist Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister of Great Britain at the same time as the two unrepentant communists Arthur Scargill and Mick McGahey took control of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Great Britain's most powerful union.

Coal mining was one of the biggest industries in Great Britain which not only powered the industrial revolution but the Royal Navy as well. The entire economy was powered by coal and the industry employed hundreds of thousands of workers with the NUM having a membership approaching half a million. The NUM wielded immense power and in 1974 they used this power to bring down the elected government of Prime Minister Edward Heath.

The discovery of oil in the 1920's  and the conversion of the Royal Navy ships from coal to oil started the decline of the coal industry, this fact combined with the availability of cheap coal from overseas made the nationalised British coal industry uncompetitive and an unsustainable drain on the economy.

The Labour governments of Wilson and Callaghan, under their infamous Plan for Coal, were forced to rationalise the industry which inevitably meant that unproductive mines would have to be closed.

These closures were continued by Edward Heath's Conservative government and were used as an excuse for the NUM to strike work. By using blackmail, intimidation and the usual threats of violence they brought the country to its knees and the downfall of the Heath government. 

Due to the timing of the strike this sad period in British history was known as the 'winter of discontent', there were power cuts, a three day working week, mountains of uncollected rubbish in the streets and even the dead were left unburied.

This collapse of the economy resulted in a general election where power was handed to the union controlled Labour Party who promptly caved in to the NUM. Regardless of the collapsed economy and the dire state of the coal industry, wages were increased by a staggering 20%.

This was a typical piece of socialist logic which did nothing for the long term viability of the industry and only made matters worse in the longer term.

Enough is written about Margaret Thatcher's ideology and motivation elsewhere, but the same is not widely known about Scargill and McGahey.

Arthur Scargill followed his father into coal mining and communism. While his father was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), young Arthur was a member of the Young Communist League (YCL).

As part of the infiltration strategy of communists into mainstream democratic socialist parties, which is laid down in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, Arthur Scargill resigned the YCL and joined the Labour Party.

Scargill resigned from the Labour Party when it dropped Clause IV from its constitution, this clause committed the party to nationalisation of all the major industries and utilities. He formed his breakaway Socialist Labour Party which went on to get an average of 1% of the popular vote in subsequent elections.

Scargill was and still is a revolutionary Marxist and like the rest of his ilk he is a hypocrite of the very highest order.

What the membership of the NUM didn't know while they were striking work and impoverishing their families was that Arthur Scargill was busy setting himself up with some not very communist sweet deals.

There was to be none of this Marxist nonsense about abolishing private property for our Arthur. He bought his own piece of real estate in Barnsley, after which he negotiated the fuel bills, the security system and even his own tax returns to be paid for out of his members subscriptions for the rest his life.

Scargill also negotiated an all expenses paid apartment in the *Barbican Centre, London, for his use and that of his surviving widow, paid for from the members' union dues. Somewhere along the line he also negotiated a 'Papa' Doc Duvalier President for Life deal.

* For information, the Barbican Centre is an up market housing development in London occupied by the operators of the capitalist system such as bankers, stockbrokers and various other 1%'ers. The very people that Scargill professes to despise.

Arthur Scargill had nice things to say about Stalin and also claimed that the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin "explained the real world".

Mick McGahey, Scargill's deputy in the NUM, was a life long unrepentant communist who's father was a founder of the Communist Party of Great Britain, when that dissolved, McGahey joined the Scottish Communist Party.

McGahey was a communist fanatic who supported the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the subsequent repression of the Hungarian people. He is also quoted a s saying that the USSR "is a beacon of hope for humanity." 

Looking back at 1974 strike and the downfall of the Heath government, Scargill and McGahey were going for a repeat performance with the Thatcher government, a government and Prime Minister they ideologically opposed and hated with a passion.

The only thing that they needed was an excuse to strike work.

Armed the knowledge that many of Britain's coal mines were over 100 years old and suffered geological problems thus making them uneconomical, Scargill and McGahey committed the NUM to fight any mine closures except on the grounds of exhaustion.

As a result of this commitment the entire coal industry needed a massive subsidy from the taxpayer and this made the industries that were dependent on coal, such as the steel industry and electricity generation,  economically uncompetitive.

In order to rescue the bankrupt British economy, which was sunk by previous Labour Party mismanagement, the Thatcher government proposed to remove the subsidy and close uneconomic mines. Scargill and McGahey had their excuse and a year long strike followed.

Scargill and McGahey refused to hold a national strike ballot, instead by using the 'no mine closure rule' they struck work at  a mine that was earmarked for closure.

They went on to abuse the traditional loyalty of the mine working communities by demanding  sympathy action, they resorted to bullying, thuggery and violence to browbeat dissident communities into line.

Mrs Thatcher had read Scargill and McGahey like a book, she knew what was coming and had long prepared for their politically motivated strike by stockpiling supplies of coal. Her government also organised a fleet of trucks ready for its transportation if required.

More controversially she put the police on a war footing to make sure that any mine worker who wished to work would be able to do so without intimidation.

The rest is history, the NUM split with the formation of the Union of Democratic Miners (UDM), the strike collapsed and with it the entire coal industry.

Thanks to Arthur Scargill and Mick McGahey membership of the once mighty NUM plummeted from a peak of 450,000 to around 1,700 today. ( that's not a typo it really is only seventeen hundred)

Instead of a managed introduction of new forms of power generation, the political ambitions of Scargill and McGahey resulted in the industry being shutdown within a matter of years destroying entire communities in the process.

Mick McGahey departed for the great communist utopia in the sky in 1999 to spend eternity with his hero Stalin, the inhabitants of his home town of Cambuslang in socialist Scotland have insulted the murdered victims of Stalin by erecting a memorial in McGahey's honour.

Arthur Scargill still endures with the unshakable belief that the collapse of the coal industry and the most powerful trade union in history was nothing to do with him, it was all Thatchers fault.

It doesn't enter Scargill's thick skull that the duly elected Prime Minister of some 60 million people, including the tens of thousands of NUM members, had a duty to stand up to the bullying and blackmail of two communists fanatics who continually failed to get elected to parliament under their true banner.

Currently, the NUM is in financial straits and can no longer finance the perks of their 'President for Life'. The burden of this largess, as always, falls on the membership.

The NUM reviewed his contract and were unable to understand how these perks found they way in and if they are appropriate.

The financial plight of his union doesn't bother Scargill, his priorities have always been himself and his political agenda, this always took precedence over the interests of his members.

He took his own union to court in order to continue with his 'entitlements' regardless of their affordability.

The judge found in favour of the NUM so Scargill now has to finance his own extravagant bourgeois lifestyle.

Perhaps he could start selling the Big Issue or sitting outside the House of Lords with his dog on a piece of string waiting for his old friend the multi millionaire Marxist Neil Kinnock to pass by and drop a few coins in his battered cup.

This is a final ignominious and humiliating end to a once powerful union baron who abused that power in order to pursue his perverted ideology and a reason for the Iron Lady to indulge in one last laugh to herself.