Teribus wrote:
"Out of curiosity I'd like to know what exactly were those, "efforts by workers to better themselves." that the British Police Force opposed - Did chucking 21 kilo slabs of concrete through taxi windows from motorway bridges have anything to do with it Jim? What were those particular workers improving - their aim?"

Having lived in the Selby Coalfields at the time of the miners' strike, there is no doubt that the force used by the police was both disproportionate and unprovoked. Here is a description of the conflict at Gascoigne Wood, which, having lived just a couple of miles away, I believe to be largely correct:

"The atmosphere had been jovial, the pickets confident of their personal strength against the equally numbered police, as the pickets non-violently but relentlessly pushed forward they were singing. A sergeant after trying to hold back the swell but finally inched off the road conceded good naturedly "I think that's one to you !". Next the police drew back a few paces, a moment passed, then they drew truncheons and charged, swinging and smashing into the packed ranks of pickets. At this moment the pickets fell back into a ploughed field, and having nothing else to hand volleyed the police with lumps of clay and earth. The sky for a few minutes was black with flying mud. Both channels cut and reversed the film to show the clods of earth being thrown and THEN the baton charge, at the same time the pundits announcing:- "Police were forced to draw batons to protect themselves against stone throwing pickets!"

And before you say I'm biased in this, let me tell you that my eldest son is a police officer and that I blame Scargill for the demise of the British coal industry as much as I do Thatcher. The clash of egos is still echoing around this part of Yorkshire. I pass Gascoigne Wood colliery twice a day on the train and it breaks my heart to watch as it is dismantled bit by bit and carted away.

And as for Thatcher's legacy a bit further south in Sheffield....

I dodn't wish the evil old woman any harm but let's hope that we never see that kind of politics ever again; her 'everyone for themselves' approach is, as Richard Bridge said, responsible for the breakdown of social values that we are experiencing today.