Oh dear . You don't get it do you ...
Yes, I get it very well thanks. You have a different opinion to me but some of your language is, well, risible. "Brutal" "Dictatorial". That government, good or bad, won three consecutive elections.
Loss of traditional jobs was (and still is) the result of technological advances and competition from emerging economies. This has been the case throughout history and has affected every industrialised nation. It's lifted hundreds of millions of people in other parts of the world out of abject poverty, real poverty. And we can't ignore the effect of union instransigence and weak management in UK industry during the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Still the miners get treated as the rock starts of the union movement. Where were the miners when textile workers lost their jobs in the 70s, or jobs were lost by steelworkers, dockers, car workers, shipbuilders, or (more pertinent to Lincolnians) in heavy engineering? Everyone of a certain age knows the names Rustons, Ruston Bucyrus, Robeys, Clayton Dewandre, Smith Clayton Forge. Most of the jobs there were shed way before 1984. Do you remember NUM support for any of those?
And so, for that matter, had mining jobs disappeared as the graphic I posted about coal production shows. Even the NUM's own website admitted that Wilson's Labour government "decimated" (their word) the industry.
Also from the NUM's own history referring to the 60s "Central Government seemed determined to smash Britain's coal industry. Other European governments were decimating their coal industries as well."
A moderate like Gormley knew that trend was inevitable, but a revolutionary communist like Scargill, with his immense ego the size of Yorkshire, had grander plans for himself.
Did the Thatcher government deny the plans to close mines? Yes. Were the police politicised during the strike? Yes. Those are not things any of Thatcher's fans should be proud of, especially the latter.
In reality the further closures only continued the trend seen under Wilson and Callaghan.
Socialist France had no coal mines left at all by 2004. Are you going to blame Thatcher for that too?
Ironically, if coal mining was a major industry in the UK today, it would be Momentum and the Green Party who would be trying to shut it down in order to save the planet.
Meanwhile the depleted and hard-up NUM has had to try and prise Scargill out of his Barbican flat which he thinks he should have for life. And the working class "hero" didn't get much traction when he tried to use democratic means to get elected to parliament did he?
Neither you or I are going to change our views one bit, but don't try and tell me that mine aren't because I don't have principles or care about the welfare of the country.