1984, england was a very different place, two years after we defeated the argentinians in the falkland war, mr's thatcher and the conservative government thought they were invicible and decided to take on the miner's, mr's thatcher described the miners as 'the enemy within, much more difficult to fight and a greater threat to liberty' i was working as a pipe fitter/welder at the time, one of the job's i was assigned to was a re-vamp of the doncaster royal infirmary in south yorkshire, i was working for a, [excuse me while i clear my throat] a nottingham firm, nottingham miners were seen as 'scab's' during the strike for not supporting their brother's in yorkshire, [even today at football matches you will hear the yorkshire fan's chanting 'scab, scab, scab!' at their nottinghamshire opposition in retaliation of the nott's miner's breaking the strike and carrying on working] i was stopped every day on my way to work in yorkshire by the police, i got pulled over because of the nottinghamshire address on the side of the van, they thought we were going to cause trouble with the yorkshire miners, we had the van bricked a couple of times because the local's thought we were 'scab's' intimidation was rife, either as a miner, strike breaking to pay his mortgage, or as a member of the police force, waving their wage packet at the strikers, boasting about the amount of money they were earning on overtime, the met officers were the worst, fucking cockney's, i got spreadeagled across the bonnet of the van one morning, no numbers on their tunic's, giving it large to the 'northern monkey's', 'what you doin' round 'ere you facckin' caannt!, you a facking picket?' there were no winner's, i've deliberately not posted any photo's of scargill or thatcher because, really, they were bit player's in the english civil war, whole communities ruined because of politic's and ambition, father's against son's, mother's against daughter's, brother against brother and a whole legacy of hate that still exist's in my neck of the wood's even today.....
When Johnny comes marching home . . . remember watching it all on the telly out here muckerbro, really realigned my melon as far as right versus left and the pathetic, ego wanking of politicians from both sides, compelling stuff Lovey, on ya mate.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post, sounds like you were in the thick of it. 1984, we had an ex-movie star prez, I was about 4 years into a career I had no idea I'd still be working at. It's amazing how politicians can wreak havoc on citizens lives. Our prez set things in motion that we'll be paying for, for years to come...
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