"It's interesting to see how her tearing the country in half still persists." - Jim Carroll

For me, I would never give the credit for still affecting anything. Both political parties had hitherto produced papers questioning the long term viability of coal. The difference was that she did not believe in communities and the bonds that hold them together.

I would have laughed to hear the tory politicians moaning about destroying communities and wider effects when this present government abolished fox hunting. However, irony is wasted on most of the politicians I know and have to deal with these days.

Yes, Scargill was duly elected. I voted for the other guy, Bell I think his name was, but accept that he won the national leadership ballot so called him my leader. I only wish he represented us, that's all. I only wish he had the talent and wit to achieve the aims of the union. I only wish he didn't use trade unionism as a springboard for regime change at Westminster.

I only wish the rest of the country saw the struggle as a plea to keep jobs, save communities and for 20,000 people to carry on doing what they did best, feed the energy demand for the rest of the country.

They couldn't whilst both sides rattled on about class struggle, political might and win / lose. You knew it had all gotten out of hand when the Prime Minister of your country, the person who vows to represent you refers to you as the enemy within, on the basis of what you do for a living... Now there's a thought.