Married to a former Prime Minister of course.

Was that why they were stockpiling coal? I think its safe to say that Thatcher and the tories were planning to take on the Unions and 'break them' and central to that was defeating the very powerful miners union.

In terms of strike power, at the time, the NUM could bring governments down, simply because of the dependency on coal of the UK power industry. Tactically from the outset, the government and coal board planned to divide and conquer. Even if coal had a decade left, the Conservatives knew they needed to break the NUM power to 'hold the country to ransom'

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

Can anyone elaborate on what the government could have done (nationalisation aside)? Kinnock seems to believe that some action should have been taken in the 2 months since the board meeting was scheduled but as the interviewer failed to ask what exactly, no suggestion was put forward. He also alleged that Tata executives expressed surprise that the government hadn't entered in to any dialogue with them, which might have illustrated to the company the severity of the situation. Pretty clear to everyone though that 40,000 jobs is a lot to lose when Wales has f*** all else. You don't need Dave to turn up to a meeting to point that out.

Edited by johnfirewall (01 Apr 2016 10.43am)

That says it all then... if you feel like that with your extensive knowledge then it is difficult to back a move for nationalisation or any other costly solutions.

Sad, but inevitable that our Steel industry will die.

Hopefully a lot of the workers can be employed by TVR, Aston Martin and any other major manufacturer that will be persuaded to set up in South Wales?

Should be given jobs in the council.

The Gov could help the BRITISH steel industry by just charging 5% VAT oe 0 rated on all they make for the next 2 years, that would be better than putting import charges on China steel which would lead to other trade Friction.
The Gov would loose money by reducing the VAT but some is better than None which would happen if it all closed down.+ paying all the dole money etc.
Quick easy and could be put in place tomorrow. Help like that would make Tarta think the Gov is behind them .When If all our steel has gone China prices will rise through the roof.