The mining industry was perfectly sustainable. As was half a hundred other industries that bit the dust under monertarism.

What really buggered English industry was leadership at every level. management, unions....the lot!

What made the defeat of the mining unions especially poignant was the fact that all the kings horses and all the kings men were assembled to do the dirty on an uneducated sector of society.

as for democracy - it only works if a spirit of fair play is involved. Nixon was impeached for much less than the Thatcher faction got away with.