Big Al,

1: You do not get to tell people what they can and cannot save or invest in.

2: With Britain's track record on labour relations in the 1970s you would have to have been a complete and utter idiot to invest in anything in the UK that would be dogged by unnecessary politically driven disputes.

3: Coal produced in the UK from deep mining cost £250 per ton - you could get coal from Poland and from Australia delivered at £8 per ton. If you rely on coal powered power stations where do you buy your coal from if you wish to stay competitive? Matter of good financial common sense. As Iains has pointed out the UK's coal mining industry had been in decline from the start of the twentieth century.

4: The "Winter of Discontent" came before the miners strike that Maggie famously crushed. Callaghan's "moderation" had been spurned by the Trades Union Movement before Maggie entered office.

5: When did Maggie offer the miners 30% pay rise Al?

6: Scargill's position that no pits should be closed on economic grounds, even if the coal was exhausted made sure confrontation would not be avoided. Arthur Scargill brought coalmining to a close in Britain far faster than would have happened had the NUM been led by some prevaricating, dreary old-style union hack. Yet somehow he gets a free pass.

7: Fact of life Big Al - you cannot spend money that you do not have - high time those on the left of the political spectrum realised that.