Group: uk.transport · Group Profile
Author: JNugentJNugent Date: Aug 12, 2008 15:36
Bazzer Smith wrote:
> "mentalguy2008" googlemail.com> wrote in message
> news:T8Fnk.19957$Z24.2567@newsfe19.ams2...>>> "Bazzer Smith" invalid.net> wrote in message
>>> news:UEEnk.17706$GP7.2433@newsfe23.ams2...>>>> With 5 million unemployed and sky high oil prices
>>>> why don't we open up all the pits Thatcher closed down
>>>> in her class war and kill two birds with one stone?
>>> I wouldn't be at all supprised if this happened in my life time. With a
>>> poor international security situation and lack of interest in green power
>>> sources I can see a future for coal. I'm not sure, however, that we'd
>>> get many miners in the UK now though. We may well have to import them
>>> from abroad.
>>>
>> Will the Labour MP's and supporters expect Gordon Brown to run mines at a
>> loss, like they expected Thatcher to?
>
> They were never run at a loss, who pays for the 5 million unemployed?
> Sliced bread?
The mines were run at an enormous loss to the taxpayer (which some call
"subsidy").
Part of the whole dispute which ran from the early 1970s to the later
1980s was this understated debate about just how big the loss should be
allowed to get. There were some who thought it quite proper that the
industry should lose money hand over fist - and who spoke out
vociferously in support of even bigger losses (among other things).
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