The entire media is jumping on the 25th Anniversary of the Miners' Strike at the moment, but if anybody's near a radio at the moment it's being discussed on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2.

I'm not allowed to listen to Jeremy Vine on the radio.
I accidently broke one in a works van whilst listening to some pinko feminist equality type on his show a few weeks ago.
Her indoors has started removing objects from my reach whilst watching the news on telly now to prevent me hurling anything at it 🙂
apparently I get quite heated everytime a politician appears and speaks 😞

Scargill waited until spring then, legitimately, imposed a national overtime ban. It was obvious that if a national ballot had been held there would not have been the necessary majority in favour of a strike so he cheated. The NUM is a federated union, each coalfield having its own union. The more militant coalfields had branch officials who shared his views and there they called area strikes - quite within the rules. The more moderate areas, usually smaller, refused to go along with it - although some later gave in when told that their area union would be wound up and absorbed by another. I know that the feeling of many men could be summed up by what was said to me - "If he'd given us a national ballot I would have voted for it but that b****** isn't gonna tell me what to do". So all summer long the strike went on and oil came inso that when winter arrived there wasn't any problem in keeping the lights on.

The outcome was inevitable. The NUM was broken and the government finished the job by accelerating the run-down of the industry to remove any further threat.

The trouble is, as we are now seeing, the consequences, which many of us predicted at the time are all too real. Oil and gas prices are sky high, controlled by countries which were just waiting for us to be reliant upon them. And an indigenous resource sitting, part sterilised, and with the bulk of the skilled workforce now reaching an age where they couldn't do the job if neede

I think the lack of an energy policy is down to a third egomaniac myself.

Morlock..... have a read of this.... Its very black but I feel close enough to the mark we should worry!!
http://www.howitends.co.uk/infrastructure-investment.php 

I work in international rail but come across people from huge companies in the energy business as well as rail....

All agree the UK has left it too late and that the viability of green is not really viable when you add in all the costs. One guy (engineering consultant in nuclear industry) I was with recently at a railway auction told me of timescale studies carried out for this govt over 5 years ago said it would take 15 years to pass, procure, develop and build any proposed nuclear power station of which 3-5 years would be enquirys for each plant dealing with the Nimby's.
Another one of my contacts in private coal mining has said that even where reserves of coal in UK exist, they are often put off by the battle to exploit them ..... and have in fact been more or less told to back off as it doesn't go well with the gov't green credentials...

I think as a country we need to decide whether we want, power and jobs, or pretty flowers, cold winters and unemployment!

The govt seem to be ignoring energy in the hope it will go away!