The point is also Ian, it wasn't just about the miners and trade unionism. Thatcher had stopped index linked allowances for the poor and disadvantaged in society. The strong miners union was quite rightly taking on a right wing government that was giving the poor a pasting. Those of us at the bottom of society were relying on you to fight our battles. We had no power - you threw away yours.

My wife and I worked throughout the 1870's until she got disabled. In that time, as well as paying huge amounts of VAT, tax on fuel, ground rent to the crown -we paid a third of my wages and half of my wifes wages at source. That was the deal - you pay a lot of tax, but when you get ill, you get taken care of. When we had to stop working, the allowances paid amounted to the wage of a newly qualified teacher. Thatcher welched on the deal and no government has since restored it.

The Notts UDM were not just betraying the mining industry, they were shitting on the poor. I know that's a bitter truth, and many UDM members can't live with it - but when they joined the baying to obey Thatchers diktats and call a ballot - that's what in effect what they were doing.