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DU Podcast Thread

lepperochan
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Josh said:

I was in the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) working for the Coal Board in North Manchester in 1974 when there was the 6-week strike that brought the (Conservative) Heath government down. Thatcher wanted revenge in 1984/5 with the next miner's strike. When I started there were 220+ pits and 250,000 members of the NUM; by the time Thatcher had finished there were 25 pits max. I worked at one of them (Littleton Colliery near Cannock) which was on the list to 'never shut' because the coal seams were so good. It shut in the 1990s.



Love this song by Dire Staits

https://youtu.be/tWJSYAkzL6I

Josh
Joshua Bond
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lepperochan said:


Love this song by Dire Staits

https://youtu.be/tWJSYAkzL6I


Have just listened to it; new to me - excellent, thank you.

poet Anonymous

lepperochan said:

I'm particularly looking forward to this one. wouldn't believe the amount of time it took (mostly Missy) to put it all together


*curtsy* it’s gonna be a good one!

Trouble_Loves_Me said:Manchester has such a unique cultural heritage. Must be something in the canal waters. Have fair few Manc mates - always telling me to "give me 'ead a wobble" & "stop talking bobbins." Relatively speaking, UK is such small country, yet there is rich tapestry of dialect and expressions.

I live near Manchester (for the last 12 years) and it’s a great city. As a Southerner who’s moved North, I’d never move back. People are so much warmer here. The North is home now

They reckon in the UK the accent and dialect changes every 30 miles! Craziness.

poet Anonymous

Thatcher simply had a spiteful agenda - to destroy the working classes (whatever that entails). Hence, encouragement for tenants to buy their council house. What a stain on humanity she left. Grown & proud men weeping in front of their families. Witnessed this first hand.

Respect Josh. I from line of miners on English side (surprisingly, not Welsh side). My Dad was a shop steward. Maybe if the ballot & violence issues had been resolved, the miners would have won. Who knows eh? I can still recall the taxi driver being killed by concrete posts through his windscreen & battle of Orgreave - dozens could have been killed that day.

Another music dagger to Thatcher. Interesting aside, Morrissey was interviewed by Special Branch after song released.

https://youtu.be/smzsIONNh0w




Josh
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Trouble_Loves_Me said:Thatcher simply had a spiteful agenda - to destroy the working classes (whatever that entails). Hence, encouragement for tenants to buy their council house. What a stain on humanity she left. Grown & proud men weeping in front of their families. Witnessed this first hand.

Respect Josh. I from line of miners on English side (surprisingly, not Welsh side). My Dad was a shop steward. Maybe if the ballot & violence issues had been resolved, the miners would have won. Who knows eh? I can still recall the taxi driver being killed by concrete posts through his windscreen & battle of Orgreave - dozens could have been killed that day.

Another music dagger to Thatcher. Interesting aside, Morrissey was interviewed by Special Branch after song released.

https://youtu.be/smzsIONNh0w



My entry into the miners' world was a deliberate choice. Having had a privileged up-bringing with private education I chose to experience first-hand how 'the other half' had to live. Went down the pits aged 17 and later trained as a coal-mining engineer - but left when I saw the writing on the wall with Thatcher, then worked as a mill engineer in North Manchester until the mills closed (3 million unemployed in 1983-4). The experience remains as vital with me now as back then. I still find the pictures of policemen on horseback with batons chasing miners absolutely shocking.

Great song  by Morrissey.

Josh.

lepperochan
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Josh said:

I was in the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) working for the Coal Board in North Manchester in 1974 when there was the 6-week strike that brought the (Conservative) Heath government down. Thatcher wanted revenge in 1984/5 with the next miner's strike. When I started in the 1970s, there were 220+ pits and 250,000 members of the NUM; by the time Thatcher had finished there were 25 pits max. I worked at one of them (Littleton Colliery near Cannock) which was on the list to 'never shut' because the coal seams were so good. It shut in 1993. But by then I had left to reinvent myself with another career.




also, I think there was a bit of bad feelings since minors went on strike to protest ww1 which they wanted no part of. cant remember much about it because 1919 but read a bit about it some time ago. I'd say relations with the government were fairly tentative to say the least

interesting subject, and fair play to the lad who went into the other side and worked the mines, must be a helluva shift every day

David_Macleod
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I was heavily involved with the miner's strike, providing soup kitchens, EEC food banks, They were deliberately targeted and treated worse than anyone I saw during my 19-year career as a rights officer.

I was so shocked by their treatment and the suicide of three men over it. I have never written about it - maybe I should

poet Anonymous

It’s interesting that I never really paid much attention to the miners when living down south, because no one really talks about it.

Moving here, I’m shocked that such a critical area of industry wasn’t taught to us at school or made a fuss of in some way. Everywhere you go here, the remnants of that industry are evident. In the next borough actually there’s a huge monument to a mining disaster in which men (including in their teenage years) died underground. The old machinery still scars the skyline. I had to have a mining report done on my house when we bought it because of the extreme industry activity of the area and the possibility of sinkage. The poverty of this area is still evident due to Thatcher’s legacy even now, and it’s something I write about frequently.

I’ve enjoyed reading over these posts. It feels like something relevant to where I am living and it’s interesting to hear it from people who dealt with it directly.

Respect.

Carpe_Noctem
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Dad would tell stories of riding the train at night from Leeds to Doncaster. All the steel Mills lit Sheffield up as if the ground was burning. He would say in school how terrified his class mates would get when the siren would wail.
Was it my father, brother, uncle potentially killed at work.

lepperochan
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Whoohoo, only one day left


what kind of eargasm are we in store for this month.

poet Anonymous

🇬🇧
🇦🇺
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

With readings from 🇺🇸 and 🇵🇹

[This message was bought to you today by funwithflags.com]

😄

#1moresleep

David_Macleod
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I like a good eargasm

poet Anonymous


We’ve treated ya and released the podcast two hours early... we gotta work 😎

🎧 Episode 7 is live! 🎧

Featuring interviews with Indie and _boybrains and a truly touching Spotlight on Trouble_loves_me

Plus round 2 of Risky Quizzness, and poetry readings from Alcedoathis, DeborahLee & Josh

It’s one you don’t want to miss!

Listen to episode 7 here: https://bit.ly/2CHOdjy

#ExcitedAF

poet Anonymous

Will listen over Saturday brunch shortly. I am absolutely confident Daniel will have delivered kind, insightful and emotional tribute to the subjects of my poem. I will forward to family members. Diolch.

poet Anonymous

Trouble_Loves_Me said:Will listen over Saturday brunch shortly. I am absolutely confident Daniel will have delivered kind, insightful and emotional tribute to the subjects of my poem. I will forward to family members. Diolch.

I know he spent some time making sure it was perfect. Hopefully it did you proud. Thank you so much for taking part 🙏🏻

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