Quote:
Originally Posted by paul miller
It's incredible is'nt it what politicians have done to our country. You know what is more sad is that we have sat back and let them do it.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the miners strike, we have allowed an industry that could provide us with enough energy for decades, at least, to go to the wall.
I just find it unbelievable that we can now be so wise after the event.
Paul.
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Sadly Shed Cat is right Paul. THe equipment used underground in modern coal mines is only really effective with thick, dry shallow unfractured seams and these were nearly all worked out years ago. The cost of hewing wet fault-ridden 6 inch seams miles from the shaft and then sending the mix of coal and slag back to the pithead on conveyers or tubs to be sorted above ground was destroying the whole of the UK coal industry. The NUM always spoke of 300 years of coal but the cost of extraction would have risen to £000s per tonne when customers could buy shiploads from abroad for a tenth of that. It wasn't Thatcher who closed the mines, it was coal's own customers buying elsewhere.