Agreed. Many of the men of my mom's side of the family worked in West Virginia's coal mines and it's a very dangerous job indeed. My maternal grandfather died after suffering for years from black lung. My uncles suffered a sad catalog of injuries and ailments.
this scene really does a great job SHOWING the differences between those at the top, and those who have to work to keep themselves from hitting rock bottom
@@just-tess It's a false dichotomy to pitch a hardworking, working class boy who through dint of his own efforts made to Oxford, with miners who no doubt were hardworking , but whose leadership chose to use them as a political tool.
"If the government is defeated, then the country is defeated." People like that is why, at least in America, military personnel take an oath for the country, not the government.
same as the uk as an ex servicemen over here we sign and swear our allegiance to crown and country not to government. the government must seek approval from the crown before using any part of the armed forces containing the word royal in it
@@danb1360You don't remember the oath mate. Or maybe it had already been changed when you joined. The oath I swore mentioned generals and ministers. I've just looked up the oath, it's different from when I joined (1980). And those differences make a lot of difference if you look at it subtexturally. Some of the emphasis has changed and that's significant.
There is no such thing as "undemocratic strikes". If people can now work 8 hours per day instead of 12-16, if they can have at least one day of the week free, if they can have annual leave and paid time off is also thanks to the worker's strikes of the past two centuries that a person like Heath would define "undemocratic".
If a union decides that the workers are going on strike without allowing the workers to vote on strike action or not, then that is undemocratic. That is what happened in this case, workers who wanted to keep working were not allowed to by their union, who did not ask them.
It was actually true, the strikes were organised by a corrupt union boss named Arthur Scargill despite not having a mandate to order strikes. He believed that defeating the government would give him a great platform on which to sidestep into politics and eventually become Labour leader. To give you an idea of how shady he was, he approached the Kremlin for financial support for his union (on the basis it would hurt the UK) and it was only discovered in the 2000s that the rent on his penthouse was still being paid for by the union lol.
I remember the three-day week well. I spent the extra couple of days off shooting rabbits to make a bit of beer money, and never went without. Three days wages meant I paid little or no income tax, so I was no worse off.
@@khankrum1 Indeed they were, but it wasn't my fault and there was nothing I could do about it. All anyone could do was take care of themselves and hope for the best.
@@icemachine79 which was entirely unnecessary, since all the original comment was trying to convey was that they personally didn't mind it so much. He never claimed that was the norm did he? Pointless whiny comment from that other person.
The Miner’s were right, they were risking their lives to do a job that was essential to the future of the country. If the Conservative Party didn’t want the Miner’s to have that much power they shouldn’t have allowed the electrical grid to rely on coal. It was the Conservative Party that fought living wage increases and yet also protected the coal and train industries, preventing modernization. Had the miners received the wages they deserved coal would have rapidly become much more expensive and other energy sources, like nuclear, more appealing.
Foolish comment. Coal became cheaper from overseas and miners failed to recognise that. They lived in the past. Demanding more money for inefficient pits.
The miners and other energy sectors held this country to ransom. They got what they deserved in the end. Not to forget we were moving away from coal . Scargill got battered and made the union members suffer. He had an ego that was too big.
It actually makes sense. If strikes are used to make a government unpopular and get the opposition into power, it’s strikers attempting to subvert the democratic process
@@Edawgpilot The strikers are a part of the electorate you dunce. It shouldn't matter if the strike is at the inconvenience of the government's popularity. That's not an example of subverting the democratic process. They are not raiding polling places or arresting officials. They are a third party organization that are not a part of the government.
Nice metaphor but can you elaborate…. It’s seems that some people who see self made politicians like Ted health or Margaret thatcher as traitors if they don’t adopt socialism upon getting power. These politicians didn’t climb a ladder built and placed by someone else. They built their own ladder.
The son of a Northumberland coal miner great grand son nephew cousin of a coal miner on both sides. a horrible place I remember the power cuts thank fuck I got out of town
Didn’t go very well though. The miners were striking for a 35% pay rise. They didn’t get it directly, but the Labour government elected a few months later gave it them. And then had to give ANOTHER 35% pay rise a year later because the miners would otherwise destroy their government in turn. This supercharged inflation leading to the Stirring Crisis and eventually the Winter of Discontent. That put the Conservatives in power for 18 years. Simultaneously it made the government completely distrust miners and undertake steps to bypass them. Coal reserves were created, and power stations were converted to run on other fuels (you can burn oil in a coal power plant with some extra equipment) and new gas power stations built. Next time the miners tried to strike the miners lost, badly, and that spat all but destroyed the British coal mining industry.
@HALLish-jl5mo The Conservatives didn't handle the miner's strike very well in 1984 and used the police to put them down with violence, and that turned the public against the Tories. W Also, Conservatives ha d a bad habit of union busting and suppressing workers' rights. They weren't and have never supported working class people or the rights of workers.
You have no idea how much time and money has been spent by people you despise to try and retain working class jobs. Parts of my family spent a fortune. /
Union leaders telling a prime minister how awful miners work conditions are and yet a few years later they are telling another prime minister to keep coal pits open to maintain those awful jobs.
Not everywhere during the 70s. It became the norm after forced breathing machines and especially heart-machines were introduced large scale late 70s and early 80s.
People always crave what they can't have, understandably. But the hatred of Monarchy just because "oh, they think they're better than us" is stupid. Whether royals or politicians, people always have complaints. Monarchy is just another form of government. I don't see what the hate is about honestly... people love to complain
Real BS. He may or not be of the calibre of Wilson but he was miles ahead of all the current flock. He was a broadchurch Tory and had to navigate very delicate between all kind of factions in the party.
That is the advice I gave, and on an individual level it is fair. However, it is not viable for everyone who lives in such towns to move. We are in the middle of a housing crisis, there are simply not enough homes. Diversifying the economy is a far better solution.
That union leader was also democratically elected by the members of that union. And he didn't have to lie to them to get them to vote for him. _But we come from a background not so far removed from you._ said the traitor to his background. His father is turning in his grave.
The strikes were not democratic, as miners were not balloted before the strikes. Workers who wanted to keep working were not allowed, and unions attacked miners who continued to work. The Prime Minister is not saying that the union leader's election was not democratic, but rather that the method by which the strikes were conducted were not democratic on the part of the workers.
All the union reps I've ever met were upper-middleclass midwits who got hot and bothered by reading Karl Marx in college and are determined to be loved parasocially by strangers for being secular saints because they lack the character to be loved intimately by the families they reject and companionately by the "partners" they use and are used by for short-term eros-centric gains. In contrast, the people they pretend to represent are generally hard-working, God-fearing family folk who endure hell to sustain their loved ones. How labor disputes are to be resolved or who should win out is not for me to say but, all my experience has taught me that union bureaucrats tend to be narcissistic, bourgeois brats with savior complexes that need someone to envy and someone else to thrash against them.
@@Elitist20 Ask Fyodor Dostoevsky. Union reps tend to be midwit intellectuals (like this guy, who resorts to class struggle, the historically ignorant brainchild of Marx) and said intellectuals have changed little in hubris since the inception of the intelligentsia as a social class.
@@Elitist20 Perhaps not to the extent now but, they've always been co-opted by intellectuals, as demonstrated by that rep's deference to class struggle to denigrate the government official. Only such myopic midwits read Marx's ahistorical perspective and think, _"This is how it is."_
@@Mr.Ambrose_Dyer_Armitage_Esq. Mick McGahey, Joe Gormley, Lawrence Daly and Arthur Scargill, NUM leaders of the 70s and 80s, all went down the mines aged 14-15.
The actor playing Heath got his voice right in how he said words like "our" "down" "about"
3:30. I recognized the TV broadcast, and had to look very good to see it wasn't Heath himself!
Played by Michael Maloney
@@JJVernig Michael Maloney
This actor knocked it out of the park as Ted.
May I guess your nationality?
@@drottercat request pending lmfao
It is as pending as the guess is obvious.
@@drottercat Why does it even matter
Yes he did, and another guy talking to the Queen could play a young Keir Starmer.
Both my grandfathers were coal miners here in Tennessee and both died of cancer. A very dangerous job
Agreed. Many of the men of my mom's side of the family worked in West Virginia's coal mines and it's a very dangerous job indeed. My maternal grandfather died after suffering for years from black lung. My uncles suffered a sad catalog of injuries and ailments.
So glad this is finally on YT! IMO it is one of the most memorable scenes from The Crown involving the PM.
I dont remember if heath got much screentime either, such a good scene and actors
this scene really does a great job SHOWING the differences between those at the top, and those who have to work to keep themselves from hitting rock bottom
What do you imagine Tory MPs are doing? It's a shame the miners decided to hold the country to ransom, isn't it..
lol Torys have to work, isn't that an oxymoron
@@just-tess It's a false dichotomy to pitch a hardworking, working class boy who through dint of his own efforts made to Oxford, with miners who no doubt were hardworking , but whose leadership chose to use them as a political tool.
"If the government is defeated, then the country is defeated." People like that is why, at least in America, military personnel take an oath for the country, not the government.
same as the uk as an ex servicemen over here we sign and swear our allegiance to crown and country not to government. the government must seek approval from the crown before using any part of the armed forces containing the word royal in it
Soon, that will end for Murica.
I read a theory that Red Scare is actually a curse from Native Americans.
Tell that to the magas in the US. The GOP and the wannabe dictator come first.
@@danb1360You don't remember the oath mate. Or maybe it had already been changed when you joined. The oath I swore mentioned generals and ministers. I've just looked up the oath, it's different from when I joined (1980). And those differences make a lot of difference if you look at it subtexturally. Some of the emphasis has changed and that's significant.
It’s the sovereign’s military, and government. Government’s fall all the time, but it’s the sovereign that is the nation, presumably.
There is no such thing as "undemocratic strikes". If people can now work 8 hours per day instead of 12-16, if they can have at least one day of the week free, if they can have annual leave and paid time off is also thanks to the worker's strikes of the past two centuries that a person like Heath would define "undemocratic".
If a union decides that the workers are going on strike without allowing the workers to vote on strike action or not, then that is undemocratic. That is what happened in this case, workers who wanted to keep working were not allowed to by their union, who did not ask them.
Strikes are always undemocratic
There is such a thing as undemocratic strike and it is when you FORCE people to strike with you especially in a union.
It was actually true, the strikes were organised by a corrupt union boss named Arthur Scargill despite not having a mandate to order strikes. He believed that defeating the government would give him a great platform on which to sidestep into politics and eventually become Labour leader. To give you an idea of how shady he was, he approached the Kremlin for financial support for his union (on the basis it would hurt the UK) and it was only discovered in the 2000s that the rent on his penthouse was still being paid for by the union lol.
@@tannenberg5972The right to strike has become a democratic right, a class act meant to reestablish the balance of power.
We did our homework by candlelight
He talked democracy to the people who keep him in power, the public
I remember the three-day week well. I spent the extra couple of days off shooting rabbits to make a bit of beer money, and never went without. Three days wages meant I paid little or no income tax, so I was no worse off.
A lot of people were worse off!
@@khankrum1 Indeed they were, but it wasn't my fault and there was nothing I could do about it. All anyone could do was take care of themselves and hope for the best.
@@khankrum1 what do you want him to do about it? cant change the past, why dont you go cry some more after watching this crappy show
@@EPICFAILKING1 He's not blaming him. Just pointing out that Kevin's experience was hardly the norm.
@@icemachine79 which was entirely unnecessary, since all the original comment was trying to convey was that they personally didn't mind it so much. He never claimed that was the norm did he? Pointless whiny comment from that other person.
The Miner’s were right, they were risking their lives to do a job that was essential to the future of the country. If the Conservative Party didn’t want the Miner’s to have that much power they shouldn’t have allowed the electrical grid to rely on coal.
It was the Conservative Party that fought living wage increases and yet also protected the coal and train industries, preventing modernization.
Had the miners received the wages they deserved coal would have rapidly become much more expensive and other energy sources, like nuclear, more appealing.
So the Conservative Party's policy toward the Miners prevented the rapid modernization of the British energy sector?
The Conservative Party can normally be found standing in the way of modernisation @@Banff454park
Foolish comment. Coal became cheaper from overseas and miners failed to recognise that. They lived in the past. Demanding more money for inefficient pits.
The miners and other energy sectors held this country to ransom. They got what they deserved in the end. Not to forget we were moving away from coal . Scargill got battered and made the union members suffer. He had an ego that was too big.
So, what was the British electrical grid supposed to rely on in 1972?
“Undemocratic Strike”
Never has such an paradoxical phrase been uttered! 🤡
It actually makes sense. If strikes are used to make a government unpopular and get the opposition into power, it’s strikers attempting to subvert the democratic process
@@Edawgpilot The strikers are a part of the electorate you dunce. It shouldn't matter if the strike is at the inconvenience of the government's popularity. That's not an example of subverting the democratic process. They are not raiding polling places or arresting officials. They are a third party organization that are not a part of the government.
Strikes are always undemocratic
@@tannenberg5972 Typical Conquer World 3 player response
@@CyrustheWolfOWO collectivism is inherently antidemocratic because it creates an in group and an out group.
Yeah Heath is the kind of guy who climbs the ladder beaten and bloody and then kicks it down so no one else can use it.
Nice metaphor but can you elaborate….
It’s seems that some people who see self made politicians like Ted health or Margaret thatcher as traitors if they don’t adopt socialism upon getting power.
These politicians didn’t climb a ladder built and placed by someone else. They built their own ladder.
PM: We have our policies and we will not deviate from them.
Narrator: They deviated from it.
Keep it coming with the crown videos.
The son of a Northumberland coal miner great grand son nephew cousin of a coal miner on both sides. a horrible place I remember the power cuts thank fuck I got out of town
Thanks to Sailor Ted, people of a certain age in the UK always keep a few candles and a matchbox somewhere in the house.
One rose scented candle between two families.
Great video! Miners have the right to strike and be heard.
Didn’t go very well though.
The miners were striking for a 35% pay rise. They didn’t get it directly, but the Labour government elected a few months later gave it them. And then had to give ANOTHER 35% pay rise a year later because the miners would otherwise destroy their government in turn. This supercharged inflation leading to the Stirring Crisis and eventually the Winter of Discontent.
That put the Conservatives in power for 18 years.
Simultaneously it made the government completely distrust miners and undertake steps to bypass them. Coal reserves were created, and power stations were converted to run on other fuels (you can burn oil in a coal power plant with some extra equipment) and new gas power stations built.
Next time the miners tried to strike the miners lost, badly, and that spat all but destroyed the British coal mining industry.
@HALLish-jl5mo The Conservatives didn't handle the miner's strike very well in 1984 and used the police to put them down with violence, and that turned the public against the Tories. W
Also, Conservatives ha d a bad habit of union busting and suppressing workers' rights. They weren't and have never supported working class people or the rights of workers.
@@HALLish-jl5mo No now the UK is reliant upon foreign energy!
@@HALLish-jl5mo Very interesting, thanks for the history lesson.
When a government says workers may not strike, the government is saying that it considers those workers to be rightfully slaves.
Not a single government I can remember has worked for the good of all.
British middle and upper middle class have always been a pest.
You have no idea
how much time and money has been spent
by people you despise
to try and retain working class jobs.
Parts of my family
spent a fortune.
/
How can you work the good for all when the public don’t agree on what ‘good’ is?
Union leaders telling a prime minister how awful miners work conditions are and yet a few years later they are telling another prime minister to keep coal pits open to maintain those awful jobs.
having an awful job you can be proud of is more dignified than you and your children starving...
Opperations by torchlight be damned. Hospitals and many other government buildings have their own generators in case of emergency.
Not everywhere during the 70s. It became the norm after forced breathing machines and especially heart-machines were introduced large scale late 70s and early 80s.
Powerful scene
I think had Elizabeth been allowed to have a voice she would have been supportive of Labour.
She wouldn’t have revealed her opinions but she’s play devils advocate
elections aren't to choose dictators...
Is the PM Edward Heath?
yes
Is the other actor playing Arthur Scargill?
@@minimaxi802 with the coal? well, the subtitle calls him that
@@minimaxi802 The President of the NUM in 1973 was Joe Gormley. Arthur Scargill didn't feature until the early 1980s.
And now they are doing it to the farmers
Que saudade da terceira temporada
Scargill a horrid man. Who turned it all about himself. Once he got a taste of the camera's he forgot about his miner's.
@obrien6320 .....cretin
Didn’t thousands in strike fund money disappear? Also didn’t his University educated daughter walk into a well paying job with a swanky car?
And next...PUNK ROCK! 😎
People always crave what they can't have, understandably. But the hatred of Monarchy just because "oh, they think they're better than us" is stupid.
Whether royals or politicians, people always have complaints. Monarchy is just another form of government. I don't see what the hate is about honestly... people love to complain
Prime minister didn't appreciate the defniition of a democracy... when a people are wronged, they ask then fight for change in laws.
Heath was clueless. Probably the dumbest PM until Liz Truss.
Real BS. He may or not be of the calibre of Wilson but he was miles ahead of all the current flock. He was a broadchurch Tory and had to navigate very delicate between all kind of factions in the party.
Did the miners really want their sons working that terrible job?
Yes. I have family in former mining villages. Many there haven't worked in generations.
@@peanutbutterbruv they should move them.
That is the advice I gave, and on an individual level it is fair. However, it is not viable for everyone who lives in such towns to move. We are in the middle of a housing crisis, there are simply not enough homes. Diversifying the economy is a far better solution.
@@peanutbutterbruv many shut 30 years ago. It ain’t coming back. Mining shouldn’t be romanticised.
@@kb4903 well no shit Sherlock.
Scargill was the worst thing to happen to the miners.
And the labour movement in general
@@eliazarcone which one! This was under the tories and then again in 1980s
Scargill does not appear in this episode. The NUM was better led in Heath's time than Thatcher's.
@@faithlesshound5621 Was is Joe Gormley?
That union leader was also democratically elected by the members of that union. And he didn't have to lie to them to get them to vote for him.
_But we come from a background not so far removed from you._ said the traitor to his background. His father is turning in his grave.
The strikes were not democratic, as miners were not balloted before the strikes. Workers who wanted to keep working were not allowed, and unions attacked miners who continued to work. The Prime Minister is not saying that the union leader's election was not democratic, but rather that the method by which the strikes were conducted were not democratic on the part of the workers.
============================
Miners destroyed their own industry
============================
These strikes led to the victory of Thatcher a couple of years latee
All the union reps I've ever met were upper-middleclass midwits who got hot and bothered by reading Karl Marx in college and are determined to be loved parasocially by strangers for being secular saints because they lack the character to be loved intimately by the families they reject and companionately by the "partners" they use and are used by for short-term eros-centric gains. In contrast, the people they pretend to represent are generally hard-working, God-fearing family folk who endure hell to sustain their loved ones.
How labor disputes are to be resolved or who should win out is not for me to say but, all my experience has taught me that union bureaucrats tend to be narcissistic, bourgeois brats with savior complexes that need someone to envy and someone else to thrash against them.
But was that the case in 1973?
@@Elitist20
Ask Fyodor Dostoevsky. Union reps tend to be midwit intellectuals (like this guy, who resorts to class struggle, the historically ignorant brainchild of Marx) and said intellectuals have changed little in hubris since the inception of the intelligentsia as a social class.
@@Elitist20
Perhaps not to the extent now but, they've always been co-opted by intellectuals, as demonstrated by that rep's deference to class struggle to denigrate the government official. Only such myopic midwits read Marx's ahistorical perspective and think, _"This is how it is."_
@@Mr.Ambrose_Dyer_Armitage_Esq. Mick McGahey, Joe Gormley, Lawrence Daly and Arthur Scargill, NUM leaders of the 70s and 80s, all went down the mines aged 14-15.
@@Elitist20
If you say so; you're the elitist.
Scene
tories are the worst
This is Phil Heath who was a Labour prime minister