The miners’ strike has struck again. It’s the fortieth anniversary of the protracted dispute of 1984-85, which means that you have to be about my age (55) to have had anything approaching an adult understanding of it at the time.
The same old footage, the same old talking points, the same old grievances, excuses and myths regurgitated yet again
As you get older, and time speeds up to a quite ridiculous and frankly unacceptable degree, anniversaries start to whip by like stations on a non-stopping train. It only feels like ten minutes since the thirtieth anniversary of the strikes, and now we have to go through the whole thing all over again. That means more documentaries – we’ve already had The Miners’ Strike: A Frontline Story on the BBC and a three parter on Channel 4, Miners’ Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain. And more articles – with a long read in the Observer by Tim Adams this weekend about cultural depictions of the events.
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