Deep Down

Finally Tower Colliery has closed for good. For 14years it has been a symbol of welsh defiance. It has been credited with changing the political landscape and to allow the first steps to devolvement. It is put forward as an icon against Maggie.

In fact, Tower colliery is a demonstration that Maggie was right. The collieries couldn't survive as they were. They were losing money. And for a big national company it would cost too much to get the juggernaut structure to turn around. The National Coal Board was dying. There was nowhere to go. But instead, after closure, the miners each donated £8000 of their reduncy pay and bought the mine. A small, streamlined structure, a privatised structure no less, was able to trim the operation so that it could make money for another 13 years. The fact that it has run for 13 years is important for those working there as it has given them a life, but it is too short a time compared to what a government would have had to invest and it would never had made a profit for a national company.

Tower colliery stands for many things. It stands for the pride of the welsh. It stands for the individual against the corporation. But, surprisingly considering its history, it also stands for the success of the Conservative policies and for privatisation over nationalisation.