Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made Britain

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The narrative covers all this, as well as the push for nationalisation, then de-nationalisation when it was clear the industry was on its knees and the rise of mining Unions, in particular the NUM. It was beyond the scope of this book but I am interested in, to what extent, the NUM contributed to the demise of mining in the UK by their strike in 1984. I am looking into this time in industrial history a lot more closely now, as it mentioned in this book, Scargill was pretty much correct in everything he said. Indeed, there was a government plan to shut pits. There was a smear campaign against him personally and the Union in general, the government set about destroying not only the NUM, but subsequently the UDM too, they marshaled the police to fight the miners and on and on. Thatcher was truly, truly, a pernicious politician who is still revered on the right, despite basically destroying much of society of which she infamously claimed that there was "no such thing". But was the decline of coal mining inevitable anyway? As we all know, oil has been a benefit to this world, while at the same time being the cause of some of the worst nightmares, wars, and agony that we’ve ever seen. In many ways, most people on this planet wish that oil had never been found; if so, perhaps we would not be in the situation economically or socially that we are in right now. Could that privatisation have saved the industry? Only if the demand had been there, and the mines had been able to supply it at a competitive price. But the simple fact – mentioned by Paxman rather occasionally, and never properly investigated – is that most British coal mining had not been competitive for a long time. Jeremy Paxman is particularly good at explaining why coal mattered so much. Starting with the coal ships that brought thousands of tons of the stuff from Newcastle to 17th-century London, he describes how it drove the industrial revolution, how it fuelled locomotives and battleships, how lighting from coal-gas transformed streets and homes, and how collieries sprang up all over the country, employing at their peak more than a million men.

In the book, readers learn that nuclear reactors can generate lots of electricity, but they occasionally barf large amounts of radiation all over the place. Therefore, it’s very important to properly dispose of spent fuel because it’s extremely toxic. Great idea! How? William and Rosemary Alley discussed this issue in Too Hot to Touch. They note that today “there are some 440 nuclear power plants in 31 countries. More are on the way. Yet, no country on Earth has an operating high-level waste disposal facility.”

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I also recall, whilst in college, the miners strike of 1984/5. In my youth I didn't understand politics or sociology and was an immensely privileged, obnoxious right winger who was firmly on the side of the government in that struggle. Suffice it to say I owe to miners in general, and Scargill in particular, an apology. My world view is 180 degrees away from that I held in my 20s and I now deplore conservative ideology in general, and Thatcherism in particular which has led, pretty directly to the decline in public sector services and general social infrastructure currently afflicting the UK, exacerbated by BREXIT of course. But I digress.

The rear end of Marrin’s book was annoying. The book is intended for use in schools. He recommends that the U.S. should become energy independent as soon as possible. The best solution, he says, is a combination of fossil fuels and alternative energy — solar, wind, biomass, hydro, geothermal, nuclear (no mention of sharply reducing consumption). The assumption is that independence is possible, and that the consumer way of life will be free to continue down the path of mindless self-destruction. Out of sight, out of mind. And in the minds of those who did think about it, the suffering was more or less a necessary evil – because, as Orwell himself put it, “the machines that keep us alive, and the machines that make the machines, are all directly or indirectly dependent upon coal”. Or, in the blustery rhetoric of Lloyd George, appealing to striking miners during the First World War: “In peace and in war King Coal is the paramount Lord of industry.” Middle Eastern oil-producing countries disliking us. Escalating fuel costs and steadily decreasing supplies. Global warming and massive pollution. Are we all doomed, or what?

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The subject is petroleum, from history to the search for alternative energy sources. Many little-known facts are included. For example, during WWII only the US had developed 100 octane fuel, which gave a decisive advantage to Allied fighter planes.

The town buzzed with excitement, and smelled to high heaven, thanks to all that oil. 'The whole place,' a visitor said, 'smelled like a corps of soldiers when they have diarrhea.'" Albert Marrin's timely book starts out explaining what oil is and where is comes from, then moves into its impact on the world, particularly how it relates to warfare, both in the sense that more oil reserves make for a better army and in the sense that countries are willing to go to war to get more. The book also discusses the problems with oil--such as natural disasters and the dwindling supply and concludes by discussing some possible alternatives to relying on oil and the pros and cons of each. As Marrin points out, no solution will come easily or cheaply. He concludes the story of oil in our lives with a look at some of the options...and tough choices...we have.

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In one sense, Scargill was right. The government and the National Coal Board (NCB) were going to close pits. But they would have been closed more slowly if it had not been for the strike, which also had an odd effect on the way in which the history of mining is seen. It came to loom large in the collective imagination of the Left, and I suspect that the number of historians working on this single event is now greater than the number working on all other aspects of the history of British mining. The NUM often seemed – like the French army after the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 – to be building its identity around the celebration of what had, in fact, been a crushing defeat. Read Jeff Rubin’s book, The Big Flatline. You’ll learn that the production of top quality anthracite coal peaked in 1950, and grade B bituminous coal peaked in 1990. There is abundant grade C coal, lignite, which is especially filthy to burn. Since lignite is so low in energy, it cannot be shipped long distances profitably. It is absurd to use 100 calories of diesel to haul 100 calories of low quality coal. Elegantly written and often very funny, this book is studded with acidic character sketches. The footnotes alone are worth reading and tell us, for example, that London’s remaining 1,300 gas lamps are tended by four lighters who travel on motorbikes. At times, Paxman’s capacity to combine confident generalisation with vivid detail reminded me of A J P Taylor, though I suspect that this might be partly because some of his historical knowledge does, in fact, derive from Taylor’s work. Paxman also has a Taylor-esque propensity to skate over awkward complexities that might slow the pace of the narrative. In vivid detail it describes how Aboriginal people often figured significantly in the search for gold and documents the devastating social impact of gold mining on Victorian Aboriginal communities. It reveals the complexity of their involvement from passive presence, to active discovery, to shunning the goldfields.

I'm not sure but I think so. As is quoted here, Heseltine opined that all he had done was shut down a dirty, dangerous industry and there is some truth to that I think. However, the cavalier attitude to mining and the mining communities that fueled the Industrial Revolution was despicable and its reverberations continue to this day. Those that dug coal out of deep mines gave their health and often their lives to make a few people incredibly rich, and to propel the UK to make an Empire that was magnificent if you where a beneficiary of Imperialism, but vile for everyone else. I got that from the book but somehow felt it was, if anything, understated here.from all the ‘players’ in a ‘Special’ story that started in the early 1970s and went through to the end of 1986 with Ayrton this story takes readers into the harsh world of professional horse racing, with its stark risks and grim realities. Readers also learn that the U.S. has huge coal reserves, enough for 250 years at the current rate of consumption. To understand why this is a meaningless statement, watch one of the many versions of Albert Bartlett’s famous lecture, Arithmetic, Population, and Energy on YouTube. Every student and teacher should watch it.