Originally Posted by
millmoormagic
No, vast majority were very small operations, with dwindling reserves, or reserves which would be much easily won by combining the small pits into bigger concerns.
As for you mentioning the tales of fitters/electricians, do you still believe in santa claus as well?no doubt there's an element of truth in some of them, embellished for effect, but as ever, while those fitters/electricians are sat doing nowt then it's therefore logical to say the machinery was working, the colliers were mining, grafting, earning their corn so to speak......
You mention best job, best pay, best pension why do you think that was?? I'll tell you why, because each and everyone believed in the union, and each other, and action created the better pay, the better conditions, the better pension, what were you doing to make your workplace better? Best job?? i think you'll be hard pressed to find many miners who say it was a good job, great in terms of cameraderie and 'the craic'. All said and done, that same job was also open to you, couldn't hack it though eh?
Another reason British mines may have been more expensive to run, again due to the miner's and the unions, was that they were the safest in the world, something i'm sure you'd be happy to go with??
Someone mentioned the gov't subsidies and the banks, fella we've spent more money bailing banks out than we ever did subsidising the pits...
Real world eh, yeh, real world....some folk will gobble owt.