Has history proved Arthur Scargill right......?

Question

For those that don't know the man, he was the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers in the 80's. He went head to head with Maggie Thatcher over the closing down of the coal mines in the UK.

He predicted the end of North Sea gas within 20 years and dire consequences for power generation and self sufficiency in the UK. The UK has coal resources for some 300 years.

Most people including myself (a "know all" 15 year old at the time) thought he was barmy and he was thoroughly riddiculed by the press and establishment, some even said he wanted the UK to become communist and join the Warsaw Pact. I remember the sloggans "Better to be red than dead" (It was at the hieght of the Cold War back then).

However seeing the UK falling into it's present energy crisis I am beginning to wonder if he was much misunderstood by the UK public, press and establishment back then.....

I can't help believing that maybe he was right afterall - Your thoughts please.

Answer 1

Socialism is the way forward and on most points he was right but on the term communism NO communism is ultra left socialism is just left

Answer 2

He was not right. The coal was running out even faster than the NS oil. And the miners pay was a bit too heavy. So what happened was some miners did buy a coal pit with their redundancy pay and a loan. They did very well for a while till a year or so ago when the coal ran out. We have to move with the times.

Answer 3

Arthur Scargill was correct in what he said!But he had the knack of alienating the ordinary person in the street by his leftist rhetoric!Unfortunately he came up against a strong willed person in Margaret Thatcher who was determined to bring him 'to heel'!who not only defeated the miners but bought the Trade Union movement down as well!

Answer 4

Was he right, i can't say not knowing what coal stocks are left underground. For years this country was blighted with strikes and Scargill was at the front, he let his political views get in the way. He wanted to bring down a Government but he failed, and the miners paid for it with their jobs. You could not rely on a steady coal supply for energy because of the strikes, that is why when they found the gas they started to use it to generate energy, and the mines started to close down. No one wanted to be held to ransom by Scargill and his strikes, anyway even back then they knew coal was a bad pollutant and it was being phased out in many areas. I think the question to ask is would we still have a mining industry if Scargill was not their leader. And did you know that he got a £100,000 mortgage from the union interest free, the miner could not get that. (ex miner).

Answer 5

He was right in what you say but he was dead wrong about the strikes all they did was line the pockets of the police with all that overtime. Just look at the state of the pits now.

One good thing though is that there is one pit in the East midlands, sorry cannot remember which one, which is to start producing again.

Answer 6

Putting all the c*ap about  alleged Scargill virtues to one side I seem to remember that when South Africa was under siege in the days of apartheid they were making petrol from coal. Maybe since we still have vast reserves of coal in the UK some intelligent scientist  could tell this useless government how to do it.

Answer 7

He was right.The pit closures were purely political,the miners being blamed for bringing down the Heath government.Thatcher,Keith Joseph etc then vowed revenge on the miners should they return to power.Remember McGregor,the american,brought in by Thatcher to close the pits and the steel industry.Scargill once said if he had the same subsidy as paid to the Polish coal industry he could give coal away and still make a profit.We are all suffering.

Answer 8

He was right....his big misstake was not to call a ballot before the strike (He would have won it)

Answer 9

Scargill was a fair man who represented certain beliefs for certain other people.  

He proved a common fact only those erudite could think of then and even today.  Like history shows; one must question everything, always.

Answer 10

Scargill, like a lot of the left were villified by the right wing media who all supported Thatcherism, the sale of national assets to fund the tax benefits given to the people who didn't need them. Camel herder, is totally wrong in the little he says, and obviously knows, and is an example of those who were brainwashed by the right wing media into thinking that working class people fighting to save their jobs, communities,  way of life, and get a decent wage were some kind of Marxist rabble.

When she shut down the factories and sold off the utilities, British Gas, the water, and BT, gave directorships to her cronies and sold North sea oil to fund tax cuts for the wealthy, Thatcher sold every working class person down the toilet. Production of everything was moved to companies in Asia where people work for nothing and we entered the global economy which depends on cheap labour in far off places and oil and we can see where that is taking us.

The irony is that basically nothing has changed that much in terms of the workers being screwed, the new industries call centres etc, are all in cheap countries, those who work in this country are still trying to get a decent wage and are told they will have to make do with 2% or whatever and captains of industry get bonuses of millions, MP's vote themselves 25% and anyone who doesn't like it just has to live with it because they have killed all the union laws and banned picketing etc. so Arthur Scargill wasn't exactly wrong in anything he said but the power of Rupert Murdochs press was so strong that even now with history behind us there are still people who think he had some kind of communist/marxist agenda this is totally an example of how thick sun readers really are

Answer 11

No.

Answer 12

I believe he was most certainly right and as for the right to strike that was then the only tool for the ordinary man to use in making his point. Maggie Thatcher lined the pockets of the police they should never have been a need for their heavy handed tactics. It would be a good thing to reopen the many closed mines and put some of the layabouts who are currently bleeding the country down them to earn an honest living instead of scrounging every day of their lives

Answer 13

He was right.  A concerted effort to convert coal to oil would result in the introduction of efficiencies into the process that would reduce the cost.  This in turn would put pressure on the oil producing countries to keep supply up resulting in prices being better controlled.

Between coal and shale, the United States has 300 years of energy available.  Instead of hugging trees, the world needs to find ways to clean up these fuels so they can be used in the future.

Answer 14

Yes, and the coal industry is on a comeback !!! Thatcher was simply WRONG !!!

Answer 15

This isnt a very clear conversation but yes he was correct in what he did.