GaryC wrote:BarryW.
A fact
Derived from the Latin factum, is something that has really occurred or is actually the case.
The fact.
We chose to defend our communities and fight to stop the closure of the Kent Coalfield.
The fact is not open to your interpretation.
Whether that was a right or wrong decision, is open to opinion.
You stated
"If they really cared so much about their community and their jobs they should have been more sensible and moderate.
Was Thatcher sensible and moderate with us?
Nottingham chose to trust her, are their pits open now?
You also stated.
"As I said - they did not really care about their community"
If you really believe that, then perhaps you would like to go to Aylesham's Heritage Centre any Wednesday morning and repeat that statement, to some of finest men I know?
Your problem here GaryC is that the strikers lost all moral and legal authority and, indeed lost the strike, when Scargill used regional instead of national ballots and then relied on bullying and intimidation to force the moderate areas out on strike.
On that basis it is reasonable to assert that it was the working miners who were fighting for their communities, not the strikers. They also had the moral and legal high ground.
Mrs T was absolutely right in all she did. As national leader she gave the leadership needed to win this fight in the national interest, defend law and order and the right of working miners to go to work through the howling mob on the picket line.
Any and all attempts from some people to blame her are absurd. Scargill wanted this fight and was not going to let a mere matter of ballots and the law stop him. Yes, if the strikers cared about their community they would not have allowed themselves to be Scargill's cannon fodder - because that is all they were.
It seems from what you say though they have not learned any lessons and still have the same attitudes that lost them the strike. No-one likes to think they were wrong on such important matters and hanging on to this myth about defending their community must be comforting and is understandable but nevertheless it is a myth.