A ballot would not have made a difference during the Miners’ Strike - Yorkshire Post Letters

I write in response to Jarvis Browning ‘No NUM Ballot’, TYP, March 15, and his query about ‘things being better with a ballot’?

At least two National NUM conferences had voted in favour of strike action should collieries be closed other than on the grounds of exhaustion or safety, prior to the strike.

As someone involved and on strike, throughout, I would point out that the ‘ballot question’ is somewhat of a ‘red herring’, the original ‘hit list of pit closures (Polmaise, Herrington, Cortonwood, Bullcliffe Wood - where I worked - and Snowdown) employed a total of 3,611 men and women at the time no others were mentioned, we even had a letter from the NCB Chairman refuting the Pit Closure Programme?

Taking it from another viewpoint, between August 1985 and December 1988 a number of collieries were closed in areas that demanded a ‘ballot’, a total of 15 from such areas as Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, South Derbyshire and Staffordshire, a total of 14,990 men/women lost their jobs - the vast majority backing their employer, an almost equal amount to pits lost in areas that did not ask for a ballot during the same period of time?

The NCB strategy was devised by the Government Minister Lord Ridley (following his report into the Miners’ Strike that took place in 1974) which was in essence a blueprint into how the government would win a future public sector strike, in 1977.

A ballot would not have made one iota of difference? I would humbly ask Mr Browning to research Lord Ridley’s Plan, for authenticity and clarity?

The die as the old saying goes was cast as soon as the government adopted it. For myself the only option open to me was to go on strike because my pit, Bullcliffe Wood, was, publicly, threatened with closure, unlike the workforce at Hucknall, Babbington, Rawdon, Newstead and Ellistown etc.