Author: Stephen Whyles

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2014-09-12

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 1499089589

The writing of this book came as many friends and acquaintances told me that I should write a book on my experiences of the miners strike in 1984-85 and how it changed my life forever.. I never gave this idea much thought until early in 2013 when a BBC TV journalist suggested that it would make good reading. I realised that the 30th Anniversary was very soon to be upon us, and felt that this would be the end for me with regard to TV interviews about the family break up caused by the Miners strike. The thirty year mark seemed a good a point in time as any to round it off as it were. Having said that I could find myself doing interviews at the Fortieth anniversary. I could not believe even now just how raw this industrial dispute would feel even after all this time. When one looks at other industrial disputes you could be forgiven for not remembering one Two years ago let alone Thirty. The reason I think that the miners strike lasted so long in peoples hearts and minds was that it wasnt just a job, it was a way of life, a heritage, an industry that was so vital to the economic wellbeing of Great Britain. Whatever your views on the miners strike this book is to give you an insight into the experiences of a normal unassuming coal miner and how his world was turned upside down and thrown into the public eye through the normal act of going to work but with a twist doing a non-normal act in a very unordinary climate. Crossing a picket line of over 800 angry miners is not an easy thing to do. The dilemma I found myself in was quite simple, I did not believe that a strike would solve anything, I felt that holding the country to ransom was immoral. The casing point that made the decision once and for all was Arthur Scargills refusal to give us, his members, the fundamental right of a national ballot. Although I was against the strike from the outset had we been given a national ballot and had that ballot resulted in a majority in favour of strike action then I like all the other miners that crossed the picket lines in 1984 would be out on strike without question. That after all is democracy. Men and Women in English history have died fighting for the right of a democratic vote, in a lesser way that is what I and others like me did, we fought for democracy. My closing remark on that, is that the only way to have kept the pits open albeit lesser in numbers was to work them, not abandon them for a whole year.