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Post by dazbt on Apr 4, 2012 2:01:03 GMT -5
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Post by shropshirebloke on Apr 4, 2012 3:29:37 GMT -5
Oh dear - couldn't happen to a, ahem, nicer bloke. Someone has commented underneath the story that they hope he's sent to Doncaster jail.
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Post by dazbt on Apr 4, 2012 4:02:19 GMT -5
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rac
Shotfirer.
Posts: 87
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Post by rac on Apr 4, 2012 4:28:27 GMT -5
Oh dear - couldn't happen to a, ahem, nicer bloke. Someone has commented underneath the story that they hope he's sent to Doncaster jail. i'll 2nd that - just deserts an all that!!!! |
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Post by John on Apr 4, 2012 6:37:57 GMT -5
I don't know much about his union past, but what's he done that all politicians are guilty of? Apart from getting caught.. 
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rac
Shotfirer.
Posts: 87
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Post by rac on Apr 4, 2012 7:43:08 GMT -5
I don't know much about his union past, but what's he done that all politicians are guilty of? Apart from getting caught.. he's guilty of treachery to the working class and being in thatcher's pocket during the strike and siphoning money from disabled miners is as low as it gets in my opinion.hope he geys a rough ride! |
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Post by John on Apr 4, 2012 7:54:02 GMT -5
I wasn't referring to his dubious past, just his present in politics.. ALL politicians are potential crooks or are now crooks, lining their own nest eggs.
I haven't known one single politician on three continents I lived on who isn't guilty of some fraud or another, and usually gets away with it.
Always note, How do you tell whether a politician is lying??? If his/her lips are moving, the question is answered. 
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Post by spanker on Apr 4, 2012 12:07:47 GMT -5
John unless i am mistaken i know of no wrong doings of our well loved Mr A.Benn or the Bolsover beast,who were both prominent during the 84/85 strike over here and who are still very vocal Mr.Skinner can still be seen in the house of commons every day bobbing up and down from his seat trying to get in on the act and give us a couple of his one liners, maybe some of you owder lads can remember summat i don't?
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Post by spanker on Apr 4, 2012 12:08:57 GMT -5
John unless i am mistaken i know of no wrong doings of our well loved Mr A.Benn or the Bolsover beast,who were both prominent during the 84/85 strike over here and who are still very vocal Mr.Skinner can still be seen in the house of commons every day bobbing up and down from his seat trying to get in on the act and give us a couple of his one liners, maybe some of you owder lads can remember summat i don't?
As for Mr greateaux he was always a grease ball.
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Post by dazbt on Apr 4, 2012 12:47:20 GMT -5
John unless i am mistaken i know of no wrong doings of our well loved Mr A.Benn or the Bolsover beast,who were both prominent during the 84/85 strike over here and who are still very vocal Mr.Skinner can still be seen in the house of commons every day bobbing up and down from his seat trying to get in on the act and give us a couple of his one liners, maybe some of you owder lads can remember summat i don't? As for Mr greateaux he was always a grease ball. Mr Skinner did end up with his wrists slapped for failing to pay tax on some of his taxable expenses ........... if I remember correctly. |
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Post by John on Apr 4, 2012 13:43:11 GMT -5
I'd been out of the UK a few years when that strike took place. I have read a lot of information and history leading up to it, and in hindsight, will say, even if every mineworker and NACODS had backed you all, I doubt the industry would be around today.
The strike would either have not taken place and have been a short had NACODS "downed lamps" and walked out the pit gates.
My thoughts are, Thatcher and her cronies would have just imported cheap coal and used the fact it was cheaper to buy from abroad than mine at home.
At the same time you lads were on strike, I worked as an electrician at a colliery in NSW that produced coal from a longwall and delivered it to our local power station, all for $A13 a tonne!! We were producing the cheapest coal in the world delivered at that time, and made a profit.
No colliery in the UK could cut coal at that price, let alone deliver it for $A13 a tonne.
A couple of years before that, mineworkers at colliery just down the road from us, were earning over $A1000 a week in bonus alone!!!!
Fair enough, we had seam thickness of 12 feet and higher, so all roads were cut in coal, our Coal Mines Act was just as tough as the UK's M&Q Act, most of our Inspectors were Ex mine Managers and a lot were Ex Pat Brits too.
One thing in our favour was we were drift mines, no shaft winding causing a bottleneck.
Can anyone see how a UK colliery could compete with the new ones in Queensland that now produce between 5million to 8million tonnes per annum?? And that's just from one longwall face!
Thinking back, my old pit produced 15,000 tons saleable from three low advancing longwall faces on two shifts. Our total manpower was probably 900 men!
Cotgrave had over 1000 men, operated five longwalls cutting three shifts, some on night maintenance and never made the million ton club in the 60's.
Realistically, how many collieries were actually in the black in the mid 80's?? Probably 6 or 7 in Yorkshire, maybe one or two in South Wales, a couple in Scotland, half a dozen in the Midlands, two or three in Durham/Northumberland/Sunderland, none in Cumberland, they had so many problems! I don't know if any of the Lancashire pits produced a profit, but so many were under cities they were limited to where they could cut coal.
Granted, Thatcher and her cronies weren't looking at the overall business plan, they were settling a debt and crushing the most powerful union in the UK.
The one thing none of them even gave a thought, how many jobs relied on the coal industry, from some of the biggest engineering plants that developed and made coal face machinery, to medium sized repair shops that overhauled NCB/BC equipment.
Just saying 200,000 mineworkers lost their jobs is shortsighted, the industry probably supported over 1 million workers nation wide.
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Post by nixter on Apr 15, 2012 14:46:21 GMT -5
Find a Job M&S Wine Our Papers Feedback Sunday, Apr 15 2012 9PM -1°C 12AM -3°C 5-Day Forecast TAKING STOCK: It's crunch time for UK Coal as it heads for big restructuring By Tom Mcghie PUBLISHED: 21:32, 14 April 2012 | UPDATED: 11:51, 15 April 2012 Comments (5) Share The very survival of Britain’s coal mining industry depends on the success of a massive restructuring of UK Coal, which is to be announced in the next fortnight. When the company, based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, reveals its profits alongside the details of that restructuring, it will provide a good indication of the changes it will have to make to ensure its long-term existence. UK Coal, when it was operating as RJB Mining, acquired the bulk of British Coal when it was privatised in 1994. More than £1billion has been poured into the company since, but its survival has always been problematic as coal has become more difficult to mine and competing fuels such as oil and gas have grown more competitive. Changes: The aim of UK Coal's restructuring is to ensure the company will survive if its mining activities go too far in debt Changes: The aim of UK Coal's restructuring is to ensure the company will survive if its mining activities go too far in debt The fall in jobs and production has been dramatic. In the Twenties, the industry employed 1.2 million workers, with annual production of well over 300million tons. This compares with 7,000 jobs now and production of 7.5million tons. In 2010 the company lost £125million when production stopped for four months at the Daw Mill deep mine near Coventry because a new coal face was not ready to be mined. More... Big five internet firms paid 0.8% tax on UK profits JEFF PRESTRIDGE: It's your society so make sure you get heard This was the second £100million-plus loss in succession and it placed a question mark over the firm’s survival. Now after massive efforts by the workforce, pay freezes and better work organisation, UK Coal has managed to make a small profit for the year that ended on December 31. Numis Securities, the joint house broker, reckons the company will report full-year profits of about £33million – smaller than it was expecting because of more production problems. The aim of the restructuring is to ensure the company will survive if its mining activities go too far in debt. To that end it will confirm the closure in 2014 of Daw Mill, Britain’s biggest mine, with the loss of 800 jobs. While production there has recently increased, it has still not doubled – the scale of improvement necessary to prevent the colliery’s closure. Production is 175,000 tons behind target. UK Coal will also provide details of how it will divide itself into two smaller companies with separate listings. One will house its large estates of former mining land and the other will contain its three deep mines and its six surface mines. The company’s growing wind farm interests will be folded into the property business. The market will need convincing that, this time, UK Coal has got it right. Its shares, which are languishing at 15p, last week hit a 12-month low, a period that recorded a high of 48p. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2129824/TAKING-STOCK-Its-crunch-time-UK-Coal-heads-big-restructuring.html#ixzz1s8hjIRdfbreaking it up even further /sorry to see us relying on imports from China the biggest user of fossil fuel and the biggest carbon footprint alongside U.S.A , whilst we have unemployment reaching an all time high and gas prices alongside household fuel bills strangling the economy/ we reap what we sow comes to mind!!!!!!!! |
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rac
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Post by rac on Apr 15, 2012 16:07:13 GMT -5
Find a Job M&S Wine Our Papers Feedback Sunday, Apr 15 2012 9PM -1°C 12AM -3°C 5-Day Forecast TAKING STOCK: It's crunch time for UK Coal as it heads for big restructuring By Tom Mcghie PUBLISHED: 21:32, 14 April 2012 | UPDATED: 11:51, 15 April 2012 Comments (5) Share The very survival of Britain’s coal mining industry depends on the success of a massive restructuring of UK Coal, which is to be announced in the next fortnight. When the company, based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, reveals its profits alongside the details of that restructuring, it will provide a good indication of the changes it will have to make to ensure its long-term existence. UK Coal, when it was operating as RJB Mining, acquired the bulk of British Coal when it was privatised in 1994. More than £1billion has been poured into the company since, but its survival has always been problematic as coal has become more difficult to mine and competing fuels such as oil and gas have grown more competitive. Changes: The aim of UK Coal's restructuring is to ensure the company will survive if its mining activities go too far in debt Changes: The aim of UK Coal's restructuring is to ensure the company will survive if its mining activities go too far in debt The fall in jobs and production has been dramatic. In the Twenties, the industry employed 1.2 million workers, with annual production of well over 300million tons. This compares with 7,000 jobs now and production of 7.5million tons. In 2010 the company lost £125million when production stopped for four months at the Daw Mill deep mine near Coventry because a new coal face was not ready to be mined. More... Big five internet firms paid 0.8% tax on UK profits JEFF PRESTRIDGE: It's your society so make sure you get heard This was the second £100million-plus loss in succession and it placed a question mark over the firm’s survival. Now after massive efforts by the workforce, pay freezes and better work organisation, UK Coal has managed to make a small profit for the year that ended on December 31. Numis Securities, the joint house broker, reckons the company will report full-year profits of about £33million – smaller than it was expecting because of more production problems. The aim of the restructuring is to ensure the company will survive if its mining activities go too far in debt. To that end it will confirm the closure in 2014 of Daw Mill, Britain’s biggest mine, with the loss of 800 jobs. While production there has recently increased, it has still not doubled – the scale of improvement necessary to prevent the colliery’s closure. Production is 175,000 tons behind target. UK Coal will also provide details of how it will divide itself into two smaller companies with separate listings. One will house its large estates of former mining land and the other will contain its three deep mines and its six surface mines. The company’s growing wind farm interests will be folded into the property business. The market will need convincing that, this time, UK Coal has got it right. Its shares, which are languishing at 15p, last week hit a 12-month low, a period that recorded a high of 48p. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2129824/TAKING-STOCK-Its-crunch-time-UK-Coal-heads-big-restructuring.html#ixzz1s8hjIRdfbreaking it up even further /sorry to see us relying on imports from China the biggest user of fossil fuel and the biggest carbon footprint alongside U.S.A , whilst we have unemployment reaching an all time high and gas prices alongside household fuel bills strangling the economy/ we reap what we sow comes to mind!!!!!!!! |
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rac
Shotfirer.
Posts: 87
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Post by rac on Apr 15, 2012 16:11:45 GMT -5
hmmm another product of thatcher's britain me thinks! wont be long before we have nothing as someone once said in parliament we have sold the family silver.
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Post by spanker on Apr 29, 2012 15:23:23 GMT -5
Poor old Neil he got 4 years wouldn,t think anyone will be shedding no tears.
He stole from his mates but not for gates he needed a new kitchen to enhance his position.
Poor old Neil he got 4 years wouldn.t think anyone will give a damn on here.
He sat on telly years ago breaking the strike and telling us No.
Poor old Neil he,s got 4 years nows the time for him to shed some tears.
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rac
Shotfirer.
Posts: 87
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Post by rac on Apr 29, 2012 15:26:19 GMT -5
Poor old Neil he got 4 years wouldn,t think anyone will be shedding no tears. He stole from his mates but not for gates he needed a new kitchen to enhance his position. Poor old Neil he got 4 years wouldn.t think anyone will give a damn on here. He sat on telly years ago breaking the strike and telling us No. Poor old Neil he,s got 4 years nows the time for him to shed some tears. just hope he has to pay it all back.snake!!!!! |
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Post by spanker on Apr 29, 2012 15:34:06 GMT -5
One would think so owd miner wouldn,t one ;D if it were me or thee and we were behind we rent it ,d not be long before we ewere sat in atent
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Post by spanker on Apr 29, 2012 15:37:25 GMT -5
Looks as though i have gone a little dyslexic there rac but pressed wrong key glad im not in charge of global policing.  |
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rac
Shotfirer.
Posts: 87
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Post by rac on Apr 29, 2012 15:54:34 GMT -5
no probs mate know wot you were on about.make allowances when ya gerrin on a bit eh.lol. ;D
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Post by John on Apr 29, 2012 16:01:33 GMT -5
Try not get into politics lads, the UDM/NUM split and the long strike still cause antagonism, even among the Notts and Derbyshire coalfields mineworkers in small towns and villages still remain split and bitter.
We are here to record mining history and our experiences within that industry.
I don't think you'll find any arguments about what the "Iron "Lady" was or is from anyone on either side of the strike though.
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Apart from getting caught.. 
