Timeline for What is the social history of British popular opposition to Thatcher over the miner’s strike?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 6 at 0:00 | comment | added | WS2 | In 1973 a miners' strike had led to the bringing down of Edward Heath's Conservative government. The latter had called a General Election using the mantra "Who governs Britain?", the implication being that unions were usurping the government's role. The elctorate answered - by a very small margin "Not you mate" - and Labour took over under Harold Wilson. This caused fury among Conservatives and many agree that the miners' strike of 1984 was provoked by the Thatcher government as a punishment for what the miners had done 11 years earlier. | |
| Feb 22, 2019 at 15:21 | vote | accept | DRF | ||
| Feb 11, 2019 at 16:51 | comment | added | Fred | Having spoken with a number of Brits who lived in Britain during the Thatcher years the impression I got was the hatred towards Thatcher & her government was due to the sense of abandonment they felt after the mines were forced to close. Apparently very little, if any, attempt was made by the Thatcher government to provide alternate forms of employment or to maintain society within the affected communities. The closes were the result of hard uncompromising economic policies that results in the affected masses having to fend for themselves in the aftermath. | |
| Feb 11, 2019 at 12:36 | comment | added | Rekesoft | @jamesqf Maybe not small, but surely minoritary. In any case, the Falklands war did wonders for her. According to polls, she wouldn't had been re-elected without that conflict. | |
| Feb 10, 2019 at 18:13 | comment | added | jamesqf | I can't help but wonder whether the "popular disagreement" is coming from a small (but vocal) segment of the population. After all, she did manage to remain Prime Minister for more than a decade. which certainly suggests that the majority of voters preferred Conservative policies to the Labour alternatives. | |
| Feb 9, 2019 at 18:13 | comment | added | J Asia | @DRF - Welcome to the site. Closer to original question, miners were symbolic of Thatcher's policies to dismantle unions. See Battle of Orgreave on the brutality of Police in disrupting strikes. Even after 30 years (2015), there were still calls for an independent inquiry in police misconduct. That should give an idea of how badly miners were treated then. Not sure if this little info fits an answer. Hence, made as comment. | |
| Feb 9, 2019 at 11:55 | review | Close votes | |||
| Feb 9, 2019 at 21:07 | |||||
| Feb 9, 2019 at 11:54 | comment | added | Samuel Russell | I’ve stripped the closed ended bias, and given your real question which is the social reason for continued disagreement with a policy from the 1980s | |
| Feb 9, 2019 at 11:52 | history | edited | Samuel Russell | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Strip confirm my politics, ask the question historically, tag for content
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| Feb 9, 2019 at 11:43 | comment | added | DRF | @SamuelRussell I'm happy for any suggestions for removing any political bias from the question. I'm sure I'm more Tory than Labour coming from a country who spent 40 years under communist rule, and personally being much better off under the capitalist (right wing) regime, but this was not meant to be a confirmation bait question. | |
| Feb 9, 2019 at 11:22 | answer | added | Ne Mo | timeline score: 5 | |
| Feb 9, 2019 at 11:21 | comment | added | user12387 | +1 Interesting to me as an Asian. Back then Thatcher looked like an Iron Woman The Strong to me. | |
| Feb 9, 2019 at 10:45 | review | First posts | |||
| Feb 9, 2019 at 12:21 | |||||
| Feb 9, 2019 at 10:43 | history | asked | DRF | CC BY-SA 4.0 |