Thatcher had secret plan to use army at height of miners' strike

[oldironside]

Margaret Thatcher was secretly preparing to use troops and declare a state of emergency at the height of the miners' strike – out of fear Britain was going to run out of food and grind to a halt, government papers released today reveal.

The 1984 cabinet papers, released to the National Archives, show that Thatcher asked for contingency plans to be drawn up to use troops to move coal stocks, despite official government policy ruling out the use of service personnel. A plan involving the use of 4,500 service drivers and 1,650 tipper lorries was considered capable of moving 100 kilotonnes a day of coal to the power stations.

A separate contingency plan, codenamed Operation Halberd, to use troops in the event of a dock strike, had also been drawn up.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/03/margaret-thatcher-secret-plan-army-miners-strike

Well, well, well, what a surprise #2. You could knock me over with a truncheon!

[Sherman A1]

1. Keeping up the long tradition of

using the police or military to break a strike and/or control your own population.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Doesn't surprise me in the least

She really did treat the miners as an Enemy; and seemed to put Scargill and Galtieri into the same category.

[truebrit71]

5. To be fair Scargill was a Grade-A wanker but...

...I think he merely represented the people she really hated, the great unwashed common folk...you know...the people that actually did work for a living...

[LeftishBrit]

6. Scargill was a stupid and incompetent leader, fighting a war that needed to be fought and won

Sadly, he lost, partly because he WAS incompetent and stupid. And partly, of course, because the media were almost all in Maggie's corner.

[intaglio]

3. H'mm tell the miners at Orgreave that she only "planned" to use soldiers

Funny the number of uniformed "police" in the lines carried no IDs and showed no rank and followed military procedure.

[non sociopath skin]

4. Many ex-miners whose word I trust ...

... were at Orgreave and observed exactly the same thing.

There is little doubt in my mind that soldiers were used.

The Skin

[Jeneral2885]

7. It would have worked

well because back then there Army was large. Larger than it is today and in the future, given the cuts.

[MisterP]

8. ah, Herr von Wilcox!