My father would like the coal industry of Great Britain to make a comeback (others; The Sun: wouldn't) can it

Question

In spite of the massive pollution and the questionable costs I agree with my father that it is strange to shut everything down when it has things going for it.

Answer 1

No the miners closed the pits and committed industrial suicide at the urging of comrade scargill

Answer 2

Margaret Thatcher had a grudge afainst the Coal Industry
dating back to the bitter struggles the Consevative governments of the 1920s and 1930s had with coal miners' unions. The industry certainly needed radical reform and rationalisation but not complete closure; the miner's leader Arthur Scargill whose views were of the extreme left certainly didn't help the situation either, but I doubt that the Thatcher government would have been willing to negotiate with a more moderate leader. The year long strike that occured against closures was one of the blackest periods in modern British history; hard working miners attempting to preserve their jobs and communities were pilloried by the right wing press as dangerous extremists; this epithet only applied to their leader, not to the men themselves. Peaceful demonstrations and pickets were violently broken up by the Police.
The mines have closed and we still import massive amounts of coal. Ironically their closure saved many lives because mining has always been one of the unhealthiest jobs
of all. I doubt that is feasible to re-open the mines now which must be in a significant state of disrepair, or that the investment would be available to install modern plant and machinery.

Answer 3

Our coal industry was closed down not because of pollution , because it had priced itself out of the market and it was much cheaper buying coal from cheap labour countries like the Baltics and Russia , It could follow that we have the last laugh being they are raping there reserves selling on the cheap while we sit on the largest reserves of coal in the world . coal is only solid energy and there are now many ways of using its energy without pollution

Answer 4

Being a miner and having lung trouble through silicone i thoroughly agree to open old mines plus sink new shafts to get the coal from underground.Times have changed i how coalis used and burned in the home and power stations plus by product from coal ie oil and medication and many others.
The jobs and community's,housing for miners famileys.
Coal can still be king.

Answer 5

Ask yourself why it was cheaper to buy coal from Australia, a fully developed nation, than to cut it from the ground in the UK. Answer Scargill's mob forced up the wages and tried to hold the country to ransom for his own evil communist ends. We were indeed fortunate to have a strong Prime Minister at that time.

Answer 6

However, burning coal produces about 9 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year which is released to the atmosphere, about 70% of this being from power generation. Estimates put carbon dioxide emissions from power generation at one third of the world total of over 25 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions.

New "clean coal" technologies are addressing this problem so that the world's enormous resources of coal can be utilised for future generations without contributing to global warming. Much of the challenge is in commercialising the technology so that coal use remains economically competitive despite the cost of achieving "zero emissions".

Answer 7

A accident at a coal fired power station would not be as bad as one at a nuclear powered one. One day they may have to mine the coal again.

Answer 8

When the price of energy gets even higher they will be forced to reopen some of the mothballed pits its a question of economics

Answer 9

When Mrs T stopped production of coal in this country, the coal we burned was mined by Polish miners. If we re-opened our pits tomorrow, it would still be mined by Polish miners. I doubt if we have the skill-base to mine our own coal any more.

Answer 10

No it was a drain on the Ecomomy for years before Maggie got rid of it!