UK miners' strike 1984-1985: Encyclopedia II - UK miners' strike 1984-1985 - After the strike

UK miners' strike 1984-1985 - After the strike

The effect of the strike has been long and bitter for many areas that depended on coal. Enduring a year on strike pay forced many miners into debt. The closure of pits also affected engineering, railways, electricity and steel production, which were all interlinked with the coal industry. Unemployment reached as high as 50% in some villages over the next decade. Suicides rose significantly. Migration out of old mining areas left many villages full of derelict houses and earning the reputation as ghost towns. The tensions between those who had supported the strike and those who had not, lasted for years afterwards, eroding the strong sense of unity that had previously existed in such communities.

The 1994 E.U. enquiry into poverty classified Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire as the poorest settlement in the country and one of the poorest in the E.U. The county of South Yorkshire was made into an Objective 1 development zone and every single ward in the City of Wakefield district in West Yorkshire was classified as in need of special assistance. The negative effects of closures were not as severe in areas where the economy was more diverse, such as in Kent or the West Midlands.

The effect has still not worn off in some areas with heroin becoming a large problem in the late 1990s. Between 2000 and 2004, heroin abuse in the Wakefield district rose by 3361% [3]. Other areas have recovered and now boast a good standard of living. Bulcliffe Wood colliery was amongst the leaders of the strike, but its old catchment area - Ossett, Horbury, Netherton, West Bretton - is now fairly affluent. Brodsworth boasted the largest mine in the country and is also enjoying relative affluence.

When the strike was on, the public was generally unsympathetic to the miners. As time has gone on, more people have felt sympathy with the poverty that mining areas were reduced to and it has now gained a somewhat occult status as a symbol of the perception that the Tory Party is indifferent to problems of unemployment and poverty.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "After the strike", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki