end of an era

[llywela]

Kind of a big day in South Wales today, as the very last deep mine, Tower Colliery, closed forever some 13 years after being bought out by a worker's cooperative. They've shut down not because the mine wasn't making money, but because it is all mined out, and now there is more coal to bring up from that seam. Not bad for a pit the Tories closed saying it was 'unprofitable', and an amazing victory, really, for the workers who pooled their redundancy to keep it alive and successful all these years since.

It really is the end of an era. This country was so massively shaped by the coal industry over the last 200 years - I can't even begin to describe how much in a little post like this. But it's all over now.

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's just that one mine that's mined out - a lot of the others that closed down 15/20 years ago still had plenty of coal left in 'em. 'Twas just politics that closed them down. So it isn't all doom and gloom. *G* But yeah, dwindling natural resources = not good.

You caved to the spoilers, huh? Tsk tsk. I'm being strong. Only a few more days now. I can do it! I'm looking forward to post-ep conversations SO MUCH! Of course, I don't get to see new eps until Fridays, but then Fridays nights galathea_snb and I spend hours on msn talking about what happened and what it means and how much we are squeeing or awwwwing or eeeeeking etc. Although, since we share a brain and have the exact same opinion 98% of the time, I'm not sure what we find to talk about for so long! And then there will be LJ conversations, and it will be SO GOOD after so long without anything new to get our teeth into.

*is excited*