It would seem that, regardless of any political affiliation, the miners will continue to pay a high price for being pawns in the 1984 battle between Margaret Thatcher and the NUM until the last man dies.
Never let it be said that money isn’t the route of all evil.
The winding wheel at the entrance to Thoresby Colliery
The last remaining Nottinghamshire Colliery at Thoresby finally ended 750 years of production in the summer of 2015, closely followed by Kellingley in North Yorkshire At the time of originally writing this article Thoresby was winding away peacefully in my corner of the county where you once couldn’t walk five miles in any direction without landing in pit yard. The Nottinghamshire countryside has gained a few more hills as the spoil heaps have been grassed over. New Industrial and retail parks have sprouted where the pits used to be and a few more besides, funded by the European Area Regeneration Fund. I can’t help feeling a little sorry for Ted Heath, he was probably only one of a few politicians who I believe meant well, but fell foul of human nature and adverse consequence. Sometimes we forget politicians are human, but on the other hand, so do they.