Comments on: TODAY TOWER COLLIERY CLOSES ? 13 years after the Coal Board pronounced its death

By: Bazman

Bazman — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:28:42 +0000

The coal industry was destroyed by The Thatcher government for their own political gains, not for the good of the country or energy issues.
If the coal industry is ever rebuilt any government of company will find it has to pay real wages for this work to a large number of people. This clearly cannot be allowed as these people will then have political power. Ways will be found around this though. Special visas and the like.
The dash for gas is a short term and foolish idea. It’s questionable that a resource as precious as gas should be even burned in power stations. Instead should be used in the manufacture of plastics and other things. Never happen though.

reply: The Thatcher govt did not destroy the industry for political reasons. On the contrary, it kept the nationalised insutry together because it thought that was what the miners wanted - it was the Coal Board that closed so much down through its view that so many pits were not economic.

By: APL

APL — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:10:24 +0000

Andrew Waltonon: “I completely disagree. The Tories wrecked Britain

By: John Redwood on the Tower Colliery Story

John Redwood on the Tower Colliery Story — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:17:19 +0000

[...] Redwood blogs thus : [...]

By: DennisA

DennisA — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 11:56:58 +0000

Coal is the name that mustn’t be spoken in the current misplaced hysteria about CO2 and yet in 2006, according to the Association of UK Coal Importers, 40% of UK electricity was produced from coal

By: Diablo

Diablo — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:38:25 +0000

I worked in the coal industry for over 20 years and remember the Labour Government’s attempt in the 1970s (I think it was 1974, to be precise, when Tony Benn was in charge of Industry) to develop a UK energy strategy. With the complete agreement of the then chairman of the National Coal Board - Sir Derek Ezra, as he was then - this was summarised as COCONUKE - coal, conservation and nuclear power. (Probably not the exact acronym but near enough!)

At the time, it was said that we had over 400 years of coal supplies - based on known reserves - and it gave great impetus to finding ways of burning coal more cleanly. I seem to recall there was a “fluidised-bed combustion” plant at Grimethorpe that carried out much of the early research into how sulphur (that causes acid rain) could be removed from the emissions. Other countries were also involved in this area of research and, of course, South Africa - forced by the international trade embargoes at the time - had already developed SASOL which was a coal-based process that supplied them with the fuel they needed to replace oil and its petroleum-like products.

As as result of the 1983/4 miners’ strike in the UK the importance of coal in our energy mix was relegated to the bottom of our priorities and all the funding for developing its (cleaner) use was cut. No politician, or at any rate, no Conservative politician was inclined to give Arthur Scargill and his ilk the chance to hold the country to blackmail ever again.

Whatever you think about that it was undoubtedly a mistake not to look to the future. Now we are are relying more and more on foreign (Russian?) supplies of gas to heat our homes, generate our electricity and which dictates the prices we have to pay (because of the link to dollar-priced oil) to drive our cars, run our railways and fly our planes.

Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat its mistakes, as I am sure you have said many times before, John.

I was interested to learn that you supported the employee buy-out of Tower Colliery. I didn’t know that but they did have a niche market (anthracite!) that meant they could compete against Vietnamese and Russian until the supplies ran out. Good for you.

As long as it only costs a few dollars a tonne to transport coal 12,000 miles from Australian strip mines (or many other countries now rapidly developing their coal industries), it might be difficult to ressurect the UK coal industry. But times they are a’changing. Time to dig for Britain?

Reply: Yes, time to dig for warm homes. I have long wanted a new mining industry in the UK where the miners share in success. At current energy prices that is possible.

By: Aberdare Blog

Aberdare Blog — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:31:01 +0000

This is a refreshingly perceptive analysis, as usual Mr Redwood.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 07:53:41 +0000

The fairest reaction to this is, actually: Well done John!
It is really good to know that sometimes, just sometimes, ministers are able and wiling to take sensible risks and - yes! - achieve success!

By: Steven_L

Steven_L — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:47:12 +0000

A very interesting personal insight. I’ve read other blogger recently advocating a return to coal power in a greener way, super critical or something it’s called.

It does seem to make sense in terms of energy security and cost, just not carbon. I haven’t made my mind up on energy yet, but I was pro-nuclear all the way before reading the coal argument, now I’m not so sure.

By: Andrew Walton

Andrew Walton — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:10:30 +0000

I completely disagree. The Tories wrecked Britain’s once proud mining industry. The sad attempt at miming the Welsh National Anthem displayed by John Redwood shows how in touch he is with the solidarity shown by the miners.

It is no thanks to Thatcher or Redwood that Tower was saved - talk about being wise after the event.

By: MartinW

MartinW — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:14:47 +0000

That’s a very interesting account, and especially welcome since your support for the miners is not something we would hear about from the BBC.