A History Question for the Brits (English?)

[CGM]

Sounds like the Miners Strike, Thatcher at Her worst to me.

Yeah, that sure sounds like it. There's lots of info available on the net. In summary...

1984 Margaret Thatcher announces closure of many unprofitable UK coal pits, which will cost upwards of 100,000 jobs in the coal industry. Communities will be decimated.

Tens of thousands of miners go out on strike in protest. The strike is very long and bitter. Thatcher brands the strikers as "enemies within" and responds with force. Tensions are increased by "scab labour", miners who cross the lines supported by police.

There are several violent and bloody clashes between police and strikers. One in particular seems to relate to the song, it occurs at a place called Orgreave. A copy/paste from wiki...

A widely reported clash during the Miners' Strike took place at the Orgreave Coking Plant near Rotherham on 18 June 1984. This confrontation between striking miners and police, dubbed by some 'The Battle of Orgreave', was the subject of a TV re-enactment in 2001, conceived and organised by artist Jeremy Deller and recorded by Mike Figgis for Channel 4. Violence flared after police on horse-back charged the miners with truncheons drawn and inflicted serious injuries upon several individuals. In 1991, the South Yorkshire Police were forced to pay out £425,000 to thirty-nine miners who were arrested in the events at the incident.[15]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_mine...ike_(1984-1985)