UK Miners' Strike (1984–85)
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UK Miners' Strike (1984–85)
The miners' strike of 1984–1985 was a major industrial action within the British coal industry in an attempt to prevent colliery closures. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who wanted to reduce the power of the trade unions. The NUM was divided over the action and many mineworkers, especially in the Midlands, worked through the dispute. Few major trade unions supported the NUM, primarily because of the absence of a vote at national level. Violent confrontations between flying pickets and police characterised the year-long strike, which ended in a decisive victory for the Conservative government and allowed the closure of most of Britain's collieries. Many observers regard the strike as "the most bitter industrial dispute in British history". The number of person-days of work los ...
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Ridley Plan
The Ridley Plan (also known as the Ridley Report) was a 1977 report on the nationalised industries in the UK. The report was produced in the aftermath of the Heath government's being brought down by the 1973–74 coal strike. It was drawn up by the right-wing Conservative MP Nicholas Ridley, a founding member of the Selsdon Group of free market Conservatives. In the report he proposed how the next Conservative government could fight, and defeat, a major strike in a nationalised industry. Ridley suggested contingency planning to defeat any challenge from trade unions: *The government should if possible choose the field of battle. *Industries were grouped by the likelihood of winning a strike; the coal industry was in the 'middle' of three groups of industries mentioned. *Coal stocks should be built up at power stations. *Plans should be made to import coal from non-union foreign ports. *Non-union lorry drivers to be recruited by haulage companies. *Dual coal-oil firing genera ...
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Picketing
Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (" crossing the picket line"), but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause. Picketers normally endeavor to be non-violent. It can have a number of aims, but is generally to put pressure on the party targeted to meet particular demands or cease operations. This pressure is achieved by harming the business through loss of customers and negative publicity, or by discouraging or preventing workers or customers from entering the site and thereby preventing the business from operating normally. Picketing is a common tactic used by trade unions during strikes, who will try to prevent dissident members of the union, members of other unions and non-unionised workers from working. Those who cross the picket line and work despite the strike are known ...
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Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and served twice as Leader of the Opposition from 1935 to 1940 and from 1951 to 1955. Attlee remains the longest serving Labour leader. Attlee was born into an upper-middle-class family, the son of a wealthy London solicitor. After attending the public school Haileybury College and the University of Oxford, he practised as a barrister. The volunteer work he carried out in London's East End exposed him to poverty, and his political views shifted leftwards thereafter. He joined the Independent Labour Party, gave up his legal career, and began lecturing at the London School of Economics. His work was interrupted by service as an officer in the First World War. In 1919, ...
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Nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets or to assets owned by lower levels of government (such as municipalities) being transferred to the state. Nationalization contrasts with privatization and with demutualization. When previously nationalized assets are privatized and subsequently returned to public ownership at a later stage, they are said to have undergone renationalization. Industries often subject to nationalization include the commanding heights of the economy – telecommunications, electric power, fossil fuels, railways, airlines, iron ore, media, postal services, banks, and water – though, in many jurisdictions, many such entities have no history of private ownership. Nationalization may occur with or without financial compensation to the former ...
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UK Coal Mining Jobs
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 ...
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South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sheffield, Sheffield as well as the metropolitan boroughs, boroughs of Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, Barnsley and Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, Rotherham. In Northern England, it is on the east side of the Pennines. Part of the Peak District national park is in the county. The River Don, Yorkshire, River Don flows through most of the county, which is landlocked. The county had a population of 1.34 million in 2011. Sheffield largest urban centre in the county, it is the south west of the county. The Sheffield Urban Area, built-up area around Sheffield and Rotherham, with over half the county's population living within it, is the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, tenth most populous in the United Kingdom. The majority of t ...
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Grimethorpe
Grimethorpe is a large village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 4,672 at the 2011 census. Grimethorpe is located to the east of Barnsley and south of Hemsworth; until the local government reorganisation of 1974, it was part of the Hemsworth district and constituency. At the 2011 Census the village was part of the North East ward of Barnsley MBC. For much of the 20th century Grimethorpe's economy was rooted in coal mining. Since the 1984–85 miners' strike, the downscaling of UK coal mining accelerated and international cheap open-cast mining provoked closure of its colliery in May 1993. In 1994 it was regarded as the poorest village in the country. There are new roads linking the village to some of the country's major arteries, about 50 businesses have moved in, including the online fashion retailer ASOS. History It is believed that the name Grimethorpe originates ...
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UK Coal
UK Coal Production Ltd, formerly UK Coal plc, was the largest coal mining business in the United Kingdom. The company was based in Harworth, in Nottinghamshire. The company was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The successor company that contains the former property division, Harworth Group, is still listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The predecessor company of UK Coal was founded by Richard J. Budge in 1974 as ''RJB Mining''. In 1994, following the privatisation of the UK mining industry, it grew fivefold with the acquisition of British Coal's core activities. It changed its name to UK Coal in 2001 after the retirement of its founder, having acquired UK Coal plc. Former operations At year end 2008, the company estimated coal reserves and resources of 105 Mt at the mines, of which 45 Mt was accessible under existing five year mining and investment plans. Its most important customers were electricity generators. In 2010 the company proposed a series o ...
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Demonstration Effect
Demonstration effects are effects on the behavior of individuals caused by observation of the actions of others and their consequences. The term is particularly used in political science and sociology to describe the fact that developments in one place will often act as a catalyst in another place. Examples Parents may take care of their parents to create a demonstration effect by which their children later care for them. Countries and local governments may adopt laws and economic policies similar to those that appear to demonstrate success elsewhere. The proven success of the policies provides a demonstration effect that leads other governments to attempt to emulate that success. Tourism The demonstration effect has been observed as a natural consequence of tourism. One study argues that the demonstration effect can be broken down into four forms: exact imitation, deliberately inexact imitation, accidental inexact imitation, and social learning. Economics In economics, demonstr ...
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Trade Unions In The United Kingdom
Trade unions in the United Kingdom were first decriminalised under the recommendation of a Royal commission in 1867, which agreed that the establishment of the organisations was to the advantage of both employers and employees. Legalised in 1871, the Trade Union Movement sought to reform socio-economic conditions for working men in British industries, and the trade unions' search for this led to the creation of a Labour Representation Committee which effectively formed the basis for today's Labour Party, which still has extensive links with the Trade Union Movement in Britain. Margaret Thatcher's governments weakened the powers of the unions in the 1980s, in particular by making it more difficult to strike legally, and some within the British trades union movement criticised Tony Blair's Labour government for not reversing some of Thatcher's changes. Most British unions are members of the TUC, the Trades Union Congress (founded in 1867), or where appropriate, the Scottish Tr ...
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UK Miners' Strike (1972)
The 1972 UK miners' strike was a major dispute over pay between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Conservative Edward Heath government of the United Kingdom. Miners' wages had not kept pace with those of other industrial workers since 1960. The strike began on 9 January 1972 and ended on 28 February 1972, when the miners returned to work. The strike was called by the National Executive Committee of the NUM and ended when the miners accepted an improved pay offer in a ballot. It was the first time since 1926 that British miners had been on official strike, but there had been a widespread unofficial strike in 1969. Background Competition from cheap oil imports arrived in the late 1950s and the coal industry began to suffer from increasing losses. In 1960 Alf Robens became the chairman of the National Coal Board (NCB), and he introduced a policy concentrating on the most productive pits. During his ten-year tenure, productivity increased by 70%, but with far fewer pits ...
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Cortonwood
Cortonwood was a colliery near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The colliery's proposed closure was a tipping point in the 1984-85 miners' strike. The site is now a shopping and leisure centre. History Cortonwood colliery was sunk in 1873, a year after the formation of the Brampton Colliery Company, which took its name from the local parish of Brampton Bierlow, near Rotherham. By March 1875, two shafts had been dug to a depth of to work the Barnsley Seam which was at a depth of . The shafts were two of the deepest in the South Yorkshire Coalfield at that time. In 1908, the depths of the shafts were increased to to access the Parkgate Seam which was located at down. From 1927 onwards, the Swallow Wood and Silkstone Seams were being mined and the Parkgate and Barnsley Seams were worked out. During the 1970s, Cortonwood was producing only coking coal for steel plants. The Silkstone Seam which was first developed in 1927, was to become just a few years later, on 9 December ...
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