The message
from John Cartmell contains these words:

His actions led directly to the splitting of the NUM and
undoubtedly brought forward the pit closure program.

That really is the big lie. The pit closures far more draconian that
Scargill
ever dared claim were prepared *in advance*. The whole was designed and
orchestrated by Thatcher.


You really are a piece of **** Cartmell. There is no lie to it, let
alone a big lie. You are the practitioner of the big lie, sprinkling
your propaganda with bull**** to back up the lack of facts.

I seriously doubt your basic claim - that the Thatcher government had
plans to close twice as many pits as Scagill claimed prior to Scagill
promoting the idea - if only because the outcome would likely have been
a negative number of pits left working. But there is a vast gap between
planning and successful outcome as the current government has found out.
Scagill picked a fight with the Thatcher government thinking he would
win and based on Heaths and Callaghans election defeats he probably had
a point. But it didn't matter to him that a majority of his members
would not have supported a strike vote at that time. He called them out
anyway relying on loyalty to the union and the subsequent strike was as
much a fight among the miners as it was a battle between union and
state. Once the striking miners had been driven back to work (or out of
the industry altogether) it became much easier to close pits at will.
The battle had already been fought and lost. A better general would have
played a waiting game rather than attacking the enemy prematurely and
taking on the silent majority of his own side at the same time.

Why don't you use the Freedom of Information Act to try and dig up some
supporting evidence. I am sure the present government would be only too
happy to release all available information that showed up Thatcher in a
bad light.

--
Roger Chapman