In reply to wbo:
I heard something interesting about the cost benefit equation only taking into account the financial cost, where somebody who'd looked into it in a academic capacity in his local comunity in Wales, said that drug and alcohol dependency/abuse, marital break up, and suicide, all went up dramatically after the closure of the local pit(s).
I also find it interesting that a handfull of pits were reopened and run at a profit by the miners who'd been put out of work. In that they grouped together and possibly had financial backing untill they were up and running again.
With pits which later proved to be profitable being shut down for a time, this makes me wonder if there were more pits which could have been kept open and made a profit, and about how much a sense of principle or idealogy was behiend the closing of the pits, as opposed to just financial reasons, as it's no secret that Tatcher had a dislike for the trade unions, sometimes for quite valid reasons.
That profitable mines were closed suggests to me that not enough detailed thought was put into the widespread closure of the coal mines.
Just so it's clear, i'm a Greenie rather than a Labour voter, and not so sure about the continuing use of coal as an energy source. I don't think enough effort is being put into looking for alternatives, but that's another thread topic.