UK’s Johnson under fire over ‘crass’ coal closure quip
LONDON: Opposition leaders and former mining communities on Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Boris Johnson for joking that former leader Margaret Thatcher’s coal mine closures had given Britain a head start in fighting climate change.
Thatcher, in power from 1979 to 1990, fought a bitter battle with coal miners in the 1980s, delivering the unionized industry’s death knell by closing over 100 mines, devastating communities in northern England, South Wales and Scotland.
A year-long walkout against closure plans by miners in 1984-85 was one of the defining moments of her premiership, eroding union power and accelerating her free-market reforms.
