Rose Coloured Spectacles ?
I nearly choked on my corn flakes this morning, (Monday 14 Oct) when reading the BBC teletext. "Pits Will Reopen", it shouted. The text went on to tell us the pits the employers have shut down in the last ten years will have to be reopened by the government to meet the forthcoming energy shortage. What a revelation ! the prediction comes from, hang on "an NUM Official". Well OK maybe its some new inside knowledge which one of the officials has gleaned and had to release to the press. No, it was Mick Appleyard, a member of Arthur's Socialist Labour Party, who runs the North Yorkshire retired members 'branch'. Well yes he is an 'official' but nobody elects him and he cant vote, not that that matters, what matters is he is sadly wrong. Anyone who thinks the government is going to step in to save our existing operating collieries, or the moth balled one at Thorne is probably guilty of well intentioned wishful thinking. The best we can hope for is some sort of public/private, government / European, assisted scheme to pay for new developments. At present UK Coal who 'operate'(mismanage and loot is more accurate) the owner of most of the remaining mines and rights to mine, have not the slightest interest in taking advantage of such a scheme should it even be offered. The clear sign is they want out of mining altogether and into land speculation and surface development schemes. Anyone who thinks the government is going to start undoing the careful deconstruction of British mining doesn't understand anything of what has happened these last twenty years in mining. Mick misses the point (not for the first time) about the forthcoming energy gap. The argument will be used in favour of an expansion of NUCLEAR ENERGY not coal. Anyone who heard the Energy Debate in the commons last month would see the arguments being pushed out for the construction of new Nuclear Power Stations, and maybe a few more windmills and wave farms. Nobody is talking about re-salvaging sabotaged coal mines, which were buried with the expressed intention that they could only ever be salvaged at astronomic costs. Apart from just being wrong, Mr Appleyard is sowing a complacent illusion, that the mines will be saved and closed mines rescued.,at a time when we need the loudest campaign to Stop The Closures of what remains and make people aware that they are being set up for a nuclear future.