A place to rant mark ii

David ... my heart is with you. I am proud to be Welsh, as I know my Sis, Kedi-Gato from Germany is. We are from coal mining stock from the Valleys, born in Pontypridd, and very proud of it.

I too am more than proud to call myself Welsh.

 

LOL, it`s amazing how much media coverage there has been today about this one simple act. And it is so uplifting to see the dignity with which the people of Hirwaun have carried themselves.

 

Hmm. Pete I might disagree with you about that. I thought the coal mining industry was destroyed so that Maggie could show that the Government was more powerful than the people. I would suggest, that is one of the reasons that the Police Force is now considered as an an arm of Government, not a protector of the people.

 

I'm the only one on site ( that's cause I've just finished work!) N.N. Hope you all slept well.

 

Going to bed early then Cajary :D

 

cajary, in my memory are still the days of the early 70s when Arthur Scargil was out for trouble and the whole country was held to ransom for unrealistic wage rises.
Those of us not involved in the dispute were trying to carry on working without electricity or heating, they were grim times.
No country should be in that position, that one set of workers can bring it down like that.
When the crunch came, (and it may have been Maggie that did it), there was cheaper forms of energy around, from abroad and natural gas.
In short the miners just priced themselves out of the market.
Not many did badly as far as redundancy payouts come either, as I remember.
The enviromentalists will tell you that fossil fuel has had its day anyway.

I might sound a bit hard, but thats just how I remember it, it was a ****ty job, and probably passed its time, it couldn't compete with opencast mining abroad.
I think they were even still using ponies in the eighties.

Cant see where the police thing comes in.

 

Hi,PeterS. Didn't see any other names on site. Sorry mate, would have stayed and chatted.
Pete, at that time I was a copper policing the disputes. I was also of the opinion that it was a small fraction holding the country to ransom. Shortly after that I went back to my roots and worked in a factory. All of us working-class peasants needed was a "secret ballot". That woul'd have sorted the whole problem out. We wern't stupid. We could see the problems. Maggie, with the approval of the electoral system (and I guess that means you) continued to turn the screw on ordinary working people. In a previous post I said "Maggie knocked the patriotism out of me" that is how it happened. The electorate were happy to persecute me and mine. Patriotism is a two-way street. I'll look after you, if you look after me.
As regards the "Police" question. Before that, the Police were someone that anyone could rely on for help. After they were used by the Government, of that time, to crush working people, they became an arm of the Government to enforce the Governments will.
Well, look at the war in Iraq. Does anyone trust the Government now?
Before anybody starts insinuating that I'm anti-democracy. I'm not. Winston Churchil said " democracray is rubbish, but look at the alternatives" (I'm sure geaoffhandley will give the correct quote).
That's just the way it was then

 

PeterS. You're not here now. Can I go to bed now please :D

 

Night,night caj. :D

 

Dai, that was last night. I'm awake now. Well, the body is, the brain's in it's usual state. :D

 

Comatose? :D

 

I Must be a bit thick cajray, I think I get the main drift of what your saying but I'm a bit confused.
I think the police lost public support when they started to appear to be doing there best to clamp down on the ordinary bloke in the street that had just "stepped over the line" and at the same time, turing a blind eye to the real trouble makers in society.
Dont think for one minute it goes back as far as the miners disputes.
Everyone slags off Maggie, but I think they tend to forget just how bad things were when she took over, her last gasp was the poll tax, in principle the fairest idea that anyone has come up with to date for collecting local taxes.
You could argue that the level set was too high, thats another issue, but the idea was fair.
Unlike now, we just have a copy of the old "rates" system with a different name.

 

Lets be fair here, if we are going to talk about taxes and the like, we have never been robbed of our money as we have been robbed by "New Labour". Gordon Brown, as chancellor, introduced how many "stealth taxes" ? Over 10 years, some people say as many as 400!!! And it`s still going on, when will it stop? How can we make it stop?

 

Got to agree David, id rather a conservative goverment anyday even at a hudge push the public school prat cameron.

 

Hi pete. No I don't think you're thick, far from it. I think we come to the problem from a different angle.
The miners dispute was when, to peasants eyes, the Police attacked us at the behest of the Government. They then stopped helping us and attacked us. Bearing in mind, we were just, "ordinary people". From then, they knew that they could suppress anyone, by force (not neccasserily physical) without any comebacks.
They now have "targets" to hit and it's probably easier to show "numbers" by getting the easier offences than the more serious ones.
My main problem with the Poll Tax was that I would have to tell "authority" when I moved house and where to. To much '84ish for my liking! I'd agree that the present system is a mish-mash that makes no sense.
PG. If you work, you're gonna get screwed whowever is in power. I've seen both types and I've got screwed by both. Either be very rich or don't work. They're the ones who win. This is why I put up a thread about chat-rooms, it's easier to do this type of thing if we're all on line at the same time.
Dai, I live my life comatose. If you want proof, read this :D