RANT MODE SELECTED. Before joining the RAF I had the misfortune to be a policeman on the front line during the miner's strike, and for quite a while was at Bilsthorpe Colliery - a pit that wasn't on strike but was being targeted by flying pickets. My recollection of talking to those miners at Bilsthorpe was that the strike was politically motivated to topple the Government of the day - a Government that had been ELECTED by the people of this country. It had little, or nothing to do with coal and the closing of mines that were no longer producing coal economically. The so called pickets were, for the most part, hired thugs whose weapons of choice were platic bags filled with paint stripper and apples and potatoes with sharpened 6" nails through them or razor blades embedded in them; they were used to roll under the police horses - such nice people. I was also at Orgreave Coke works on that infamous day when Scargill told the world that he had been assaulted by the police. Trust me, he wasn't; I was within 10' of him and, if I could have got closer, he would have been! So, guess where I'd rather live, a country run by Mrs T (who was by no means perfect), or one run by Scargill and his ilk (and I include Blair and Brown) - the "something for nothing" merchants.SORRY, RANT MODE OFF!
