1984–1985 United Kingdom Miners' Strike
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1984–1985 United Kingdom Miners' Strike
The 1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike was a major industrial action within the Coal mining in the United Kingdom, British coal industry in an attempt to prevent closures of pits that were uneconomic in the coal industry, which had been nationalised in 1947. It was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain), National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), a government agency. Opposition to the strike was led by the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative government of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who wanted to reduce the power of the trade unions. The NUM was divided over the action, which began in Yorkshire, and spread to many other coalfields nationally. More than a fifth of mineworkers, especially in the Nottingham area, continued working from the very beginning of the dispute; by late 1984 miners increasingly returned to work. Few major trade unions supported the NUM ...
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of List of islands of the United Kingdom, the smaller islands within the British Isles, covering . Northern Ireland shares Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. It maintains sovereignty over the British Overseas Territories, which are located across various oceans and seas globally. The UK had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is London. The cities o ...
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Peter Wright (police Officer)
Peter Wright (21 July 1929 – 17 September 2011) was the Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police force from 1983 to 1990. During that period members of the force he commanded clashed with striking miners during the UK miners' strike (1984–85) and were responsible for the Hillsborough football ground in Sheffield on 15 April 1989 when the Hillsborough disaster occurred, where 97 fans died. Biography He was born in Stockport, Cheshire and attended Edgeley Roman Catholic School and Stockport Technical School. He then served as rating in the Royal Navy for two years before joining Manchester Police in 1954. By 1975 he had reached the rank of Chief Superintendent in the Greater Manchester Police. In 1979 he was appointed Deputy Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, serving in that role during the 1981 Toxteth riots in Liverpool. He was president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and put his name to the still extant 'Wright Protocol' that Chief Constables s ...
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Trade Unions In The United Kingdom
Trade unions in the United Kingdom emerged in the early 19th century, but faced punitive laws that sharply limited their activities. They began political activity in the late 19th century and formed an alliance with the Liberal Party in the early 20th century. The grew rapidly 1900 to 1920, lost their legal disabilities, and were well established by the 1920s. Union members largely switched from Liberal to the new Labour Party. Its leader Ramsay MacDonald became prime minister in 1924 briefly, and then again in 1929. In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher's Conservative governments weakened the powers of the unions by making it more difficult to strike legally. Most British unions are members of the TUC, the Trades Union Congress (founded in 1867), or where appropriate, the Scottish Trades Union Congress or the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which are the country's principal national trade union centres. History Trade unions in the United Kingdom were first decriminalised under ...
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1972 United Kingdom Miners' Strike
The 1972 United Kingdom miners' strike was a major dispute over pay between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Conservative Edward Heath government of the United Kingdom. Miners' wages had not kept pace with those of other industrial workers since 1960. The strike began on 9 January 1972 and ended on 28 February 1972, when the miners returned to work. The strike was called by the National Executive Committee of the NUM and ended when the miners accepted an improved pay offer in a ballot. It was the first time since 1926 that British miners had been on official strike, but there had been a widespread unofficial strike in 1969. Background Competition from cheap oil imports arrived in the late 1950s and the coal industry began to suffer from increasing losses. In 1960 Alf Robens became the chairman of the National Coal Board (NCB), and he introduced a policy concentrating on the most productive pits. During his ten-year tenure, productivity increased by 70%, but with ...
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Cortonwood Colliery
Cortonwood was a colliery near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The colliery's proposed closure was a tipping point in the 1984–1985 miners' strike. The site is now a shopping and leisure centre. History Cortonwood colliery was sunk in 1873, a year after the formation of the Brampton Colliery Company, which took its name from the local parish of Brampton Bierlow, near Rotherham. By March 1875, two shafts had been dug to a depth of to work the Barnsley Seam which was at a depth of . The shafts were two of the deepest in the South Yorkshire Coalfield at that time. In 1908, the depths of the shafts were increased to to access the Parkgate Seam which was located at down. From 1927 onwards, the Swallow Wood and Silkstone Seams were being mined and the Parkgate and Barnsley Seams were worked out. During the 1970s, Cortonwood was producing only coking coal for steel plants. The Silkstone Seam which was first developed in 1927, was to become just a few years later, on 9 Decem ...
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Hansard
''Hansard'' is the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official printer to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament at Westminster. Origins Though the history of the ''Hansard'' began in the British Parliament, each of Britain's colonies developed a separate and distinctive history. Before 1771, the British Parliament had long been a highly secretive body. The official record of the actions of the House was publicly available but there was no record of the debates. The publication of remarks made in the House became a breach of parliamentary privilege, punishable by the two Houses of Parliament (UK), Houses of Parliament. As the populace became interested in parliamentary debates, more independent newspapers began publishing unofficial accounts of them. The many penalties implemented by the governmen ...
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Seumas Milne
Seumas Patrick Charles Milne (born 5 September 1958)''Winchester College: A Register''. Edited by P.S.W.K. McClure and R.P. Stevens, on behalf of the Wardens and Fellows of Winchester College. 7th edition, 2014. pp. 582 (Short Half 1971 list heading) & 588 (entry for Seamus Milne). Published by Winchester College, Hampshire. is a British journalist and political aide. He was appointed as the Labour Party's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications in October 2015 under Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn, initially on leave from ''The Guardian''. In January 2017, he left ''The Guardian'' in order to work for the party full-time. He left the role upon Corbyn's departure as leader in April 2020. Milne joined ''The Guardian'' in 1984. He was a columnist and associate editor there at the time of his Labour Party appointment, and according to Peter Popham writing for ''The Independent'' in 1997, was "on the far left of the Labour Party." Milne is the author of '' The Enemy Wit ...
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1926 General Strike
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Some 1.7 million workers went out, especially in transport and heavy industry. It was a sympathy strike, with many of those who were not miners and not directly affected striking to support the locked-out miners. The government was well prepared, and enlisted middle class volunteers to maintain essential services. There was little violence and the TUC gave up in defeat. Causes From 1914 to 1918, the United Kingdom participated in World War I. Heavy domestic use of coal during the war depleted once-rich seams. Britain exported less coal during the war than it would have in peacetime, allowing other countries to fill the gap. T ...
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Second Thatcher Ministry
Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 4 May 1979 to 28 November 1990, during which time she led a Conservative majority government. She was the first woman to hold that office. During her premiership, Thatcher moved to liberalise the British economy through deregulation, privatisation, and the promotion of entrepreneurialism. This article details the second Thatcher ministry which she led at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II from 1983 to 1987. Formation The Conservative government was re-elected in June 1983 with a majority of 144 seats, with Labour in opposition having a mere 209 seats after its worst postwar electoral performance, seeing off a close challenge from the SDP–Liberal Alliance who came close to them on votes though not with seats. With inflation firmly under control and union reforms contributing towards the lowest level of strikes since the early 1950s, the Conservatives were now faced with the challenge of reducing unemploym ...
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Picketing
Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (" crossing the picket line"), but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause. Picketers normally endeavor to be non-violent. It can have a number of aims but is generally to put pressure on the party targeted to meet particular demands or cease operations. This pressure is achieved by harming the business through loss of customers and negative publicity, or by discouraging or preventing workers or customers from entering the site and thereby preventing the business from operating normally. Picketing is a common tactic used by trade unions during strikes, who will try to prevent dissident members of the union, members of other unions and non-unionised workers from working. Those who cross the picket line and work despite the strike are known ...
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Trade Union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages and Employee benefits, benefits, improving Work (human activity), working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees (rules governing promotions, just-cause conditions for termination) and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers. Trade unions typically fund their head office and legal team functions through regularly imposed fees called ''union dues''. The union representatives in the workforce are usually made up of workplace volunteers who are often appointed by members through internal democratic elections. The trade union, through an elected leadership and bargaining committee, bargains with the employer on behalf of its members, known as t ...
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Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister Advice (constitutional law), advises the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal prerogative in the United Kingdom, royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet, and selects its Minister of the Crown, ministers. Modern prime ministers hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, so they are invariably Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), members of Parliament. The office of prime minister is not established by any statute or constitutional document, but exists only by long-established Constitutional conventions of the United Kingdom, convention, whereby the monarch appoints as prime minister the person most likely to Confidence motions in the United Kingdom, command the confidence of the House of Commons. In practice, thi ...
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