Sport - NZ performance ‘one of the best’

Posted on September 30, 2007
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New Zealand coach Graham Henry savoured his side’s 47-3 demolition of France in Lyon on Saturday by saying the display was “up there with the best”.


The All Blacks made a mockery of the game’s billing as a contest between the two top Test countries by romping to a seven-try victory.


“We played very well,” he said. “We’re enormously proud of the players.


“This win has given the guys confidence and it’s a springboard for the World Cup. Hopefully we’ll get stronger.”


New Zealand’s comprehensive win over the World Cup hosts in Lyon underlined their status as tournament favourites for next year.


Henry made 10 changes to the side that defeated England last weekend and the former Wales coach said the form of his players had created a nice selection headache.

We were completely impotent

France coach Bernard Laporte


“There’s a lot of competition for places and that’s a very positive thing,” Henry said.


“It’s a good problem to have and selection’s not going to be easy.


“It’s now up to the selectors to do their job. It’s a very encouraging sign going forward.


“We could play any number of players in the squad of 22. We’ve got a group of 32 players and any of them could play. Everybody’s put their hand up.”

606 DEBATE: Can New Zealand win the World Cup?


And Henry said it was fitting that the performance came on Armistice Day as he referred to the sacrifices made by New Zealand’s war dead.


“Our players showed a lot of courage and backbone,” added Henry.


“They weren’t only playing for the All Blacks but a lot of people who sacrificed so much.


“There was a huge amount of motivation to play well.”

Dejected France players leave the pitch on Saturday night

The Lyon crown roundly jeered and whistled the France team


New Zealand now travel to Paris for the second Test against France next weekend and skipper Richie McCaw says Les Bleus should not be taken lightly.


“The French will be hurting,” said the open-side flanker. “They will have new motivation to come back and perform next week.


“For us we have to get back to preparing to play like we did in Lyon.”


France coach Bernard Laporte was scathing of his side’s display, which led to the players being jeered from the pitch.


“We were completely impotent,” he said. “We weren’t able to react in any way and we feel very inferior.


“There is a huge gap between us and them. We have to work hard and be more disciplined come Saturday.


“We will try to become true rivals. It’s true we thought we’d be more competitive than that.


“The French players have worked well but the All Blacks are stronger. They run 100m in 10 seconds, us in 12 seconds. They are superior athletically and are quick with the ball.


“But we also made life very easy for them and didn’t get into the game enough ourselves.”


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News - Zoo breeds tiny rare seahorses

Posted on September 29, 2007
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Curator Karen Tuson said they could be told apart from one another because they had slightly different markings.


The seahorses had proved difficult to rear in the past, but the team now belive they have eliminated problems which had caused earlier hatchlings to die.


The zoo has had success with other species of seahorse, but short-snouts are particularly small.


“They are usually born overnight.,” Ms Tuson said. “We come in the morning and they are there in the tank.


“In the tank we were keeping them in before, we were finding dead space where the water and food wasn’t moving. The seahorses were getting trapped.”


‘Dance together’


The new, smaller, tanks have an air tube down the side, which keeps the water moving and breaks up the surface tension.


This means the fry are not stuck at the surface, unable to descend.


The zoo brought in five adults - four males and one female - from Ireland earlier this year. The female has mated with the same male on each occasion and staff at the site have watched the mating ritual.


Ms Tuson said: “They do a wonderful dance together. They are very active. It is usually in the mornings.


Chinese medicine


“What they will do is entwine their tails and rise up and down in the tank. Sometimes the male will go over to the female and he’ll basically almost drag her around the tank.


“He has to persevere, and she has to be ready and have eggs that are viable which she will give him.”


The zoo hopes to exchange some of its growing population with fellow institutions involved in protecting seahorse populations.


At least 20 million seahorses are taken from the sea each year to meet the demands of Chinese medicine, where they are highly prized as treatment for asthma, lethargy and impotence.


Next month the zoo is hosting a national aquarium workshop, with more than 100 delegates from public aquaria nationwide.


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News - Spy chiefs face uncertain times

Posted on September 28, 2007
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One of the central findings of the 9/11 Commission was the lack of co-operation and communication within the country’s vast intelligence community.

It is a community which contains 15 agencies, 200,000 employees and costs an estimated $40bn a year.

But it has found it hard to communicate, share information and set common priorities.

It has also struggled to integrate foreign and domestic information - something which is vital in fighting terrorists who cross borders.

“I think one reason that we missed some of the issues, be it Iraq or 9/11 was that we didn’t have a truly focused, truly centralised and truly efficient intelligence-collection approach to the problems we face,” John MacGaffin, a former senior CIA and FBI official told the BBC.

At the heart of the reforms is the creation of a new position of National Intelligence Director.


The Iraq inquiries made clear that the failure was not one of structure but of not having enough spies on the ground

Until now a single individual, the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), has had a series of overlapping responsibilities in leading America’s intelligence community.

The DCI has been the Director of the CIA, has managed the overall intelligence community and acted as the president’s chief intelligence adviser.

The 9/11 Commission - along with many previous studies - stated that “no recent DCI has been able to do all three effectively”.

Battlefield necessities

Porter Goss, the recently installed head of the CIA, will see parts of his job hived off so that he only runs the human spy agency and the CIA will lose its position as first among equals in the US intelligence community.

The new National Intelligence Director will become the co-ordinator of the whole community, advising the president and bringing information together.

US INTELLIGENCE BILL
Establishes director of national intelligence
Creates a national counter-terrorism centre
Sets up a civil liberties board
Increases border patrols
Tightens visa requirements
Strengthens rights to investigate terror suspects

It is the co-ordinating role which is the most unclear and the reason that reform very nearly didn’t happen.

At the moment, the Pentagon actually controls more than 80% of the intelligence budget.

The most expensive part of the spying game is not the CIA - which runs human spies - but bodies like the National Security Agency, which runs America’s eavesdropping capability, or the National Reconnaissance Office and National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency, which collect mapping, imagery and satellite reconnaissance.

The Pentagon has long argued that these agencies are vital to supporting troops in combat.

Getting quick access to satellite images of a war zone or listening in to your enemy’s communications is increasingly important in the modern battlefield.

The military argued that if they lost control over these agencies then they might lose some of their ability to protect troops in combat.

Someone, somewhere, has to decide priorities and whether a satellite passing over the Middle East looks at possible nuclear sites in Iran or at the movements of insurgents in Iraq.

The battle was over who would do that.

Impotent figure?

The Pentagon’s allies in Congress fought long and hard against losing control and in the end gained assurances that the chain of command would not be broken and the military would not find itself losing out.

So exactly how much control will the new director really have?

Porter Goss

New CIA director Porter Goss will see his powers trimmed

The devil will be in the detail: exactly how will authority will be divided in practice between the new director and the Pentagon?

Can the new official really set tasking across all the different agencies, or will he instead become an impotent figure, setting priorities but without the budgetary clout to force people to carry them out?

Others also ask whether it is dangerous to create a director figure who does not have his own institution like the CIA behind him.

Could he end up a floating manager without real institutional clout who is too distant from the people in the field doing their job?

21st century intelligence

The next question is how much energy the process of re-organising consumes. One parallel may be with the Department of Homeland Security, where multiple agencies were pulled together but have taken a long time to adapt and learn to work together.

Some fear that a similar upheaval might distract the intelligence community from its day-to-day work.

The CIA's HQ at Langley, Virginia

The CIA will lose its position as ‘first among equals’

And the last major question is how much difference, broad institutional re-organisation will really mean to people on the ground.

The inquiries into problems over Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction made clear that the failure was not one of the wrong structure but one of not having enough spies on the ground and not analysing the intelligence in a sufficiently balanced way.

These are problems that Porter Goss, the new chief of the CIA, is trying to address, but which are quite independent of the reforms that Congress has been passing.

Before this week America’s intelligence structure had barely changed since the start of the Cold War.

Reformers hope that the new structure will be one capable of dealing with the very different trans-national threats of the 21st century.

But it may take some time before it is clear just how much difference reform has really made.


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News - Graphic images to deter smokers

Posted on September 27, 2007
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The public are being asked to choose a series of picture warnings to appear on cigarette packets from next year.


People can give their opinion on a range of images designed to highlight the dangers of smoking on a website set up by the Department of Health.


Evidence shows that images have a greater impact than written health warnings alone, and they have already been introduced in some countries.


Images include diseased lungs, a dying smoker and a foetus in the womb.


People visiting the website will be able to choose images to support 14 health messages such as ‘Smoking causes fatal lung cancer’ or Smoking may reduce blood flow and causes impotence’.


The final images will cover 40% of the back of packets sold from autumn 2007.


“This measure will help deglamorise cigarette packs and let people know what they really get from smoking”
Jean King, Cancer Research UK
Send us your comments


Launching the consultation, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, said: “We have already made a lot of progress with the stark written warnings on cigarette packs.


“However, these messages become less effective over time so we now need to refresh our approach by introducing new hard-hitting images.


“We know that these type of warnings have already been successful in other countries such as Canada, Singapore and Brazil.

Cigarette packet warning on smoking

Experts hope the images will have a big impact


The government promised it would introduce picture warnings on cigarette packs in its Choosing Health White Paper in 2004.


Graphic pictures


Jean King, Cancer Research UK’s director of tobacco control, said: “The evidence from Canada, Brazil and elsewhere is clear - graphic picture warnings inform people of the risks of smoking and help encourage people to reduce their smoking or quit altogether.


“They also help minimise uptake by young people. This measure will help deglamorise cigarette packs and let people know what they really get from smoking.”


Amanda Sandford, spokesperson for anti-smoking charity ASH welcomed the move but said the images should be displayed on the front, not the back, of the pack.


“The point of this is to deter people from buying them, especially young people, and they need to be visible at the point of sale.

Cigarette packet warning on smoking

The warnings could encourage smokers to quit


“Evidence from countries where the pictures are already in place shows it has a strong impact on smokers - for every purchase smokers are reminded of the health consequences of smoking.”


Dr Charmaine Griffiths spokesperson for the British Heart Foundation said: “We welcome this consultation as we know that graphic images can and do prompt people to take steps to quit smoking, as BHF’s successful ‘fatty cigarette’ campaign clearly demonstrated.”


Professor John Britton, Chair of the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group, also welcomed the announcement.


He said: “It is well recognised that strong images conveying the health impacts of smoking have a powerful effect on motivating smokers to quit. This simple initiative will save thousands of lives.”


Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, said he was strongly opposed to graphic warnings as smokers were well aware of the dangers of smoking.


“The proposed images are gratuitously offensive and yet another example of smokers being singled out for special attention.


“What about fatty foods, dairy products or alcohol? If they’re going to target tobacco, there should be graphic warnings on other products too.”


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News - Press outrage over Yassin murder

Posted on September 26, 2007
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Newspapers throughout the Middle East are up in arms over Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

In the Arab world, commentators strongly condemn it, with some calling for revenge and others gloomily predicting it will spark an ever-deepening spiral of violence in the region.

The Israeli press is split between those who believe the killing was justified and those who share their Arab counterparts’ belief that Israel will pay a high price.



In assassinating Sheikh Yassin, Israel has crossed the red line previous governments avoided crossing for fear of setting off reprisals commensurate with the crime. Israeli oppression will not force the Palestinians to kneel.

Al-Quds - Palestinian territories



History will remember him as a leader who placed the Palestinian cause at the centre of Islam. History will record too that the martyrdom operations forced the low-life Fascist killers to stop believing that the Arabs are stupid cowards who are easy to subdue.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah - Palestinian territories



Despite the public pain, Hamas will recover from this crisis, which should give it greater internal unity. The death of the symbol will turn into a tremendous moral wind that will push thousands of sympathisers to Hamas’s ranks.

Al-Ayyam - Palestinian territories



The Yassin assassination was justified. But ‘justified’ does not mean necessary and wise. Yassin’s assassination was not a necessity in terms of thwarting terror attacks and a very high price is likely to be paid.

Haaretz - Israel



The killing of Yassin has spawned the usual flurry of claims that it was a futile and foolish act. This is insanity. Does anyone really think that Hamas needed further excuses to kill as many Israeli men, women, and children as possible?

Jerusalem Post - Israel



He deserves death? Certainly. The question is do we deserve it? How many Jews will be killed because of his death?

Commentary in Yediot Aharonot - Israel



Yesterday Israel crossed a Rubicon of blood. Sharon wants to erase the disgrace of leaving Lebanon. Now he is leaving the Gaza Strip, he intends to leave it with a big bang. Meanwhile, the region is awash with blood. Madness celebrates.

Commentary in Maariv - Israel



Yassin should have been killed a long time ago and we rightly liquidated him. According to the same rule, Arafat and Nasrallah have to be killed if Sharon really intends to defeat terrorism.

Commentary in Yediot Aharonot



Had Sharon been a real leader, had Mofaz been a real man, they would have announced in a clear, loud voice that in the next few weeks they would be travelling only in buses, eating in restaurants and travelling without body shields. There is no reason in the world why they should not share with the rest of Israel’s citizens the great risk and blood they imposed on us. There is a limit to arrogance and cowardice.

Commentary in Yediot Aharonot - Israel



Israel wakes up this morning to a new morning. The next terrorist wakes up as usual and thinks to himself: where will I strike and how many Jews will I kill? If there is a terrorist organization it must be liquidated. If there is an infected area it must be disinfected. Sharon still wants to withdraw from Gaza and wide swathes of Judea and Samaria. This also must be stopped by all means.

Commentary in Hatzofe



By killing the leader of the Islamic resistance, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Israeli government has committed an act of terrorism which has added to its black record. It is the strongest evidence that Sharon’s government has decided to bury the peace process for ever. It will bring about endless avenues of violence that no-one can end. It is a crime against Arabs, Muslims and the entire world.

Al-Ahram - Egypt



It is not the first terrorist crime, and it will not be the last. Ariel Sharon and his generals are terrorists par excellence. The blood of the martyrs will not be shed in vain.

Commentary in Tishrin - Syria



The crime of assassinating Sheikh Ahmed Yassin should not pass without punishment. It should provide the impulse for a national move and action which does not exclude any Arab.

Commentary in Al-Thawrah - Syria



By all criteria - human, moral, political, strategic or even from a security point of view - Sharon’s criminal assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is extreme madness.

Commentary in Al-Hayat - London-based



Does Sharon expect Hamas to disappear after this operation? Does he expect that suicide operations inside Israel will end? The fact is that the operations will continue and so will the killings…the key to ending them is peace. Nothing else.

Commentary in Al-Sharq al-Awsat - London-based



Even a crime as outrageous as the killing of Sheikh Yassin came as no surprise.

Al-Jumhuriyah - Egypt



Israel’s action confirms to the Muslim world that enmity with it will remain forever.

Al-Riyadh - Saudi Arabia



Suicide and other operations carried out by Hamas will not end. They are likely to multiply instead.

Commentary in Al-Ayyam - Bahrain



The butcher Sharon has ignited the fire. Sooner or later he will burn with it. The resistance will never die. All its men are ‘Yassins’.

Al-Bayan - United Arab Emirates



The assassination of Sheikh Yassin has revealed the main shortcoming of the Arabs - their impotence - which has given Sharon the chance to realise and implement his policy.

Al-Siyasah - Kuwait



This crime confirms once again that Israel, despite its talk, is frightened of its own future, while the Palestinian people are confident of theirs, despite the challenges they are facing daily.

Commentary in Al-Watan - Qatar



There is no doubt that the assassination of Sheikh Yassin was no run-of-the mill operation, and neither will be the Palestinian retaliation.

Al-Sahafah - Sudan



This hideous crime will only foment the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation.

El Khabar - Algeria

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. Read more

News - Coffee cleared in chemical court

Posted on September 25, 2007
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Italians are famous for their love of coffee - collectively they are estimated to down about 70 million espressos a day.

Starting the day with a coffee at home or in the nearby bar is part of an unbreakable routine.

However, confusion surrounds the question of whether it is actually good for us or not.

An array of studies on the effects of coffee have all produced varying results. Some say it protects against certain diseases, others say it produces anxiety, insomnia and impotence.



For Italians, as well as being a pleasure… it provides a way of getting together, having a few minutes break
from work to chat a bit


Germana Militerni, Italian Cooking Academy

At the weekend, the Pharmacy Department of a university in Naples, the Italian city most famous for its coffee, put the country’s national beverage on trial.

Twelve witnesses were called to give evidence during the case, which was presided over by law professors from various Italian universities.

Cult status

“We choose coffee because it is representative of this area, the Neapolitan area, in which coffee has cult status,” said Ettore Novellino, the head of the department.

“Everyone drinks it at every hour of the day.”

The charges:

The prosecution’s case:

The defence:

One witness, Maria Daglia, a pharmaceutical expert from Pavia University, was quick to defend the drink, but only in moderation.

“A high coffee consumption is five or seven cups a day, but instead, a regular coffee consumption
of no more than three cups a day can be a protective factor for colon cancer and liver cirrhosis for example,” she said.

Social benefits

A Brazilian worker tosses coffee beans in a sorting process

The court ruled that it’s fine to start the day with coffee

It was frequently pointed out during the trial that coffee can have the damaging effects outlined by the prosecution when drunk in excessive amounts - but the court was also told that only three people are known to have died from drinking too much coffee.

Other expert witnesses talked about the history, traditions and production of coffee.

An expert from the Italian Cooking Academy, was called upon to explain the social benefits of a cappuccino or caffe macchiato.

“For Italians, as well as being a pleasure in that it physically recharges the batteries, it provides a way of getting together, having a few minutes break
from work to chat a bit and create a bit of free time,” said Germana Militerni.

The verdict:

In his summing up, the judge presiding over the court, Dini Cristiani, explained that it had been redeemed by the stimulating effect it has on the
brain, limiting tiredness, and making people more productive, thus counteracting the disruptive effect of the number of breaks it encourages during the working day.

So coffee-lovers around the world can continue to start the day with an espresso or caffe latte, with the full blessing of this special court in the coffee capital of Italy.


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News - Muslim states warned of new dangers

Posted on September 24, 2007
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The Islamic world faces “unprecedented” dangers, the biggest gathering of Muslim nations in three years has heard.

“Muslims are filled with feelings of impotence and frustration as some of their countries are occupied, others are under sanctions, a third group threatened and a fourth group accused of sponsoring terrorism,” said Abdelouahed Belkeziz, secretary-general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

“Muslims abroad are considered with suspicion, besieged, deprived of their rights,” he told the meeting in Malaysia.

Mr Belkeziz said the 11 September attacks on the United States two years ago had caused the world to forget Islam’s message of peace and tolerance and to focus instead on the violence perpetrated by extremists.

He said that as a result, Islam itself was facing false accusations, while joint Islamic action was unable to secure the Muslim world’s protection and pride.

Troops plan

The OIC meeting in Malaysia’s new administrative capital of Putrajaya, south of Kuala Lumpur, is overshadowed by the continued presence of US-led forces in Iraq, six months after the ousting of Saddam Hussein.

On Saturday, Mr Belkeziz opened the conference with a call to evict foreign forces from Iraq and allow the United Nations to administer Iraqi affairs.

The conference is considering a proposal to send troops to Iraq under the auspices of the OIC.

However, the BBC’s Jonathan Kent in Putrajaya says delegates from Iraq’s US-appointed Governing Council who are attending the meeting see little hope of receiving help from the Islamic world.

The Iraqi Governing Council’s Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, sounded despondent when asked if he had received offers of aid and replied that the signs did not look very good. our correspondent says.

So far, Turkey is the only nation with a large Muslim majority that has responded favourably to US requests for military assistance in Iraq, but that offer has met with resistance from the Governing Council.


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News - Drug firms attacked on marketing

Posted on September 23, 2007
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Top European pharmaceutical firms are using unscrupulous marketing practices to promote their products, a consumer report says.


The Consumers International lobby group accused drugmakers of using the methods to get doctors to prescribe products and persuade consumers they need them.


It said there was a “shocking” lack of publicity about where the $60bn (33bn) annual marketing spend went.


Drug firms say that they act within strict guidelines.


The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) told the BBC News website that for UK-based firms there was “a stringent and transparent code of practice that goes beyond the requirements of UK law and the industry regulator”.


Sponsorships


Consumers International said it had analysed the selling techniques of many leading companies, including Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson.


The current regulatory framework is clearly insufficient to prevent systemic violations of marketing regulations
Consumers International


Richard Lloyd, the group’s director general, said: “The pharmaceutical industry spends nearly twice as much on marketing as it does on research and development, yet consumers know next to nothing about where this money is going.”


He called for a revision of marketing regulations to achieve “more transparency from drug companies”.


In most Western markets direct advertising to consumers is banned.


But Mr Lloyd said there were other methods drug companies were using to influence opinion.


These include the sponsoring of patient lobby groups, funding disease awareness campaigns and use of hospitality packages for medical experts.


As producers of life-saving medicines it is important that we ensure doctors know full details
ABPI


The report cites sponsorships by such firms as Eli Lilly and Pfizer. The latter, the maker of Viagra, sponsored a campaign by the Impotence Association which sported the Pfizer logo.


The report said only one of the firms studied, Orion Pharma, provided specific marketing budget information.


It also pointed to the “large numbers of serious, recent and repeated breaches of marketing codes”.


This showed the “current regulatory framework is clearly insufficient to prevent systemic violations of marketing regulations”.


However, the ABPI said the number of complaints raised showed the system, which had been strengthened this year, was working.


It said complaints from drug companies about fellow firms’ activities showed the self-regulation was effective.


But it also said it was vital for doctors to know about products.


“There is no point having innovative new medicines if they remain unused,” an association spokesman said.


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News - Family anger over prison suicide

Posted on September 22, 2007
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The family of an inmate who killed himself in jail have condemned a ruling which cleared prison authorities of blame over his death.


Scott Currie, who caused the death of three pensioners in a car crash, hanged himself in a staff-only toilet at Porterfield prison, Inverness, in 2004.


Sheriff Principal Steven Young said Currie, 31, was solely responsible.


But his mother, Carloyn Currie, said they had contacted the prison with concerns over his state of mind.


A Fatal Accident Inquiry in June heard that Currie had previously talked about hanging himself with a belt.


The father-of-four was jailed for four years after crashing head-on into a car on the A96 and killing Kenneth Thomson, 66, from Bucksburn, Aberdeen, and his sisters Mabel, 76, and Dorothy, 81.


They had been travelling from Inverness to Aberdeen on their way home from a family funeral.


The responsibility for Mr Currie’s death lay, not with them (prison staff), but with Mr Currie himself
Steven Young
Sheriff Principal


At the FAI, Currie’s wife Sarah gave evidence that her husband had been contemplating suicide which she had reported to prison authorities and raised with local MP David Stewart.


Currie was on the prison’s suicide management programme at the time.


On the night before his death on 20 September, he also had a telephone conversation with his wife in which she told her husband how she was struggling to cope on her own.


Sheriff Young’s findings were:


In a written statement, Sheriff Young said: “I can appreciate the sense of impotence and frustration which was evidently felt by Mrs Currie, and indeed also other adult members of Mr Currie’s family, as they observed his distress in prison.”


The sheriff said he understood that Mrs Currie might have felt let down by the prison authorities, over a lack of action by the prison authorities and her search for “persons at whom the finger of blame for Mr Currie’s death might be pointed”.


Sheriff Young accepted that suicide watch procedures were not always rigidly adhered to by staff at the prison.


The psychiatrist wasn’t even told that Scott had a history of mental health problems and was on medication
Carloyn Currie
Scott Currie’s mother


However, he added: “I would reiterate that, notwithstanding any shortcomings that there were on their part, the responsibility for Mr Currie’s death lay, not with them, but with Mr Currie himself.”


But Mrs Currie, 55, said she felt helpless and was disappointed with the findings.


“They have posters all over that prison advising relatives to contact staff if they are worried about any of the inmates,” she said.


Mrs Currie said that the family had contacted the prison with their concerns but felt not enough had been done.


The family has contacted local Labour MSP Maureen McMillan, who has raised the matter with Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson.


Mrs Currie said she was waiting to hear back before deciding on her next move.


A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said: “The SPS welcomes the report, but we do recognise that such events are very, very difficult for the family and close relatives of the individuals involved.”


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News - Striking tales: 1984-5 remembered

Posted on September 21, 2007
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The miners’ strike of 1984-5 turned whole communities lives’ upside down, setting miners against the government, the police and sometimes each other.

Here, News Online prints some memories of the period from people who were affected by it in Wales.

The boy in the picture is me. I just used to go over the tip with my mates to get coal for my mum and dad. The times were hard, but it was a better time. People rallied together.

Craig Williams, now 28, still living in the Penrhiwceiber area

This [boy in the picture] is Craig Williams from Penrhiwceiber. I think he is in Cwmcynon pit as it’s just down the hill from his house. I was in school with him. His parents still live in Penrhiwceiber. [He’s] sieving coal in a shopping basket - he was about eight in this picture.
Jeff Juliff, Penrhiwceiber

I was still living at home in Penrhiwceiber with all my family involved in the mining industry. It was a sad time as we were having to survive on hand outs of food parcels. The behaviour of the government of the day was disgraceful, undignified and scandalous. No modern, civil society should ever have to endure that again. My house used to look over the old Cwm Cynon pit (pictured above) that had been closed for many years, and this is where the photograph was taken. Everyday you would see people both young and old sifting through the coal on the tips and then walking back across the bridge to the village.
Ian, Wales

During the strike I was living in London and so had a slightly different perspective on the day - to - day developments of events. For the most part the strike was just another news story that didn’t really affect the routine of Londoners who were largely ignorant of and disinterested in the plight of mining communities. However, as I came from the south Wales coalfield, I remember the shock of seeing striking miners walking through the City of London carrying buckets and asking passers - by for money in order to boost the strike fund. I thought I had stepped back into the 1920s.
Ian Price, Treorchy

The sight of soup kitchens in Wrexham to support the striking miners brought home how little progress had been made to help working people in the twentieth century. My other main memory (I was only twelve) was of Thatcher visiting a factory next to my house a couple of years later. The whole area had to be closed down as the miners and other unions made a last protest to her at how she had destroyed their livelihoods.
Richard Bettley, Wrexham, Wales

I was at school in Llandovery, hitch-hiking back to Cardiff for the weekend after missing the last train out, along with my brother and two friends. We had a short distance left and were thumbing for a lift when we got bored, as boys do, and starting throwing stones at a small sign! Within minutes, four police cars came roaring up the slip road. Jokingly we ran up the embankment not thinking they were after us. Once we realised they were we ‘gave ourselves up’ and were each taken away in separate cars. We had a slap on the hand and 20 fines, which of course we deserved. They then gave us a lift home. They thought we had been strikers, throwing bricks from the over-pass at the coal trucks breaking the pickets.
It was a very sensitive time.

Mark, Dubai, UAE

I remember the strike quite well since I worked for the Japanese Sony electronics company in south Wales at the time and knowing what the government of the day was like, the evil Thatcher I called her and such, wanted to help them as much as I could. At first the company allowed them to do collections so we all contributed, after all we believe it the right of everybody to protect his own livelihood. Then they forced the organisers to stop this. I remember the atrocious behaviour of the media and you lot, feeding the public with misinformation, lies and inaccuracies. I will never forget you lot for this. I also believe things have still not changed much and I know you know this also. You and your police should be ashamed of yourselves.
Dave, Bridgend

Response from Sony to Dave’s comments about the collections: This was a long time ago, but we cannot believe that the company’s policy then was any different to what it is today. We adopt a very politically neutral position, and would not allow any collection to be made in work time which would not reflect the company’s (neutral) position.
Sony, Pencoed

Memories: miners’ wives collecting for the strike in cold and sleet outside the (centrally heated) Port Talbot shopping centre because the Labour council refused them access.

A letter from Emlyn Williams, then president of the south Wales area of the NUM, thanking me for a modest contribution to the strike, and asking me to “convey to friends in Nicaragua the feelings of the miners in this terrible struggle against a neo-fascist government”.

The feeling of sadness and defeat, walking down to the pit at Blaengarw at the strike’s end, the feeling of bitterness and impotence at the triumph of the plutocracy that rules us and the compliant middle class that serves it
Gwyn Williams, Nicaragua (Pontypool, Wales)

I grew in a village where a lot of people worked at the Point of Ayr mine. Life was tough for a lot of people and it tore the village I lived in apart. My biggest memory is going to the beach in Talacre. We had to walk through property owned by Point of Ayr. I recall at the age of 14 walking past the picket line with a group of similar aged friends, where the striking miners joked that the “scabs” were looking younger. Then walking through the police lines where they would joke that they needed to keep an eye on this lot.
Kevin B, Phoenix AZ, Ex-north Wales

Our school bus route passed a heavily-policed picket line at the Cwm colliery. I can recall one of the boys on the bus singing “spot the miner, win 20 thousand” as we passed by.
Stuart Jones, Houston, Texas, USA

I remember when all the men from the Maerdy coalmine were going back to work after the strike. The look of defeat on their faces was really too much for all our community to bare. I was only 10 at the time but vividly remember my uncle telling us that our communities would be dead within two years and so he was right. The pit closed in 1989 and the whole community was ruined when the shops and other services closed down soon after. Myself and seven other members of my family had to emigrate to Australia to carve out new lives for ourselves. Out of all the miners who lost their jobs when Maerdy closed eight went to Australia and 20 to America. I haven’t been back to Wales for 10 years but I’m sure the place is bad as when we left there in 1989. I feel sorry for the people of Wales. They have been destroyed by the legacy of Thatcher. I am so lucky that we managed to escape to a better life in Sydney.
Dave, Sydney (Aus), ex-Wales

I remember having coal delivered at night in a Volvo. We lived in a village near the opencast site. Jones the Rat delivered it, I don’t know how we would have managed without that coal. It was very cold that winter.
Sara Price, Rhigos during the strike

I was a child when the miners’ strike happened. My dad was a local vicar in one of the south Wales’ mining towns. There were regularly riots outside our house and the poverty that people experienced hit the town hard. My parents were often approached in the middle of the night by people asking for help with clothing and shoes for their children. Such pleas always took place in the night because they were afraid of the repercussions from others on strike. It was all about sticking through the difficulties together - through thick and thin.
Anon, Athens, Greece (ex UK)

One memory is the police waving their payslips saying “come on boys just another couple of weeks and the villa in Spain will be paid for”.
Gary Evans, Ynysybwl, Mid Glamorgan

My family and I were in Wales during the strike. Since the ancestor I’m named after was a coal miner before he came to America in the mid 1850s, we were (and always will be) behind the strikers. If we had had more time, we would have walked the picket line with them.

Today, in California, our supermarket workers are striking for health care. We stand behind them as well and have not crossed the picket lines. We can no longer have two groups of people, those who work for a living and those who enjoy the fruit of others who work on their behalf. Our family will never cross a picket line.

Rhysa Davis, Santa Monica, CA USA

I lived in Machynlleth at the time of the miner’s strike and I can remember thinking to myself in October when the strike was already seven months and was getting worried about how my grandparents (who I lived with at the time) were going to heat our house with three downstairs rooms and eight upstairs rooms.
Harry Hayfield, Ffos-y-ffin, Wales

I was in primary school in the valleys at the time. Although my late father wasn’t a miner at that time, I can remember the schools being open one day a week because of the coal shortage, real suffering among those families which had fathers on strike, yet a real community spirit and people pulling together. I also remember the images of the violent struggles on the picket lines which seemed so far away from the rivers which had ceased to run black.
Jason Tynan, Cardiff

As a lad I can still remember the miners’ wives asking people for food when they left the Asda. I hope that the modern society has changed ???
Philip Smith , Cwmbran South Wales

I was only 10 yrs old at the time. My father and three of my uncles were involved in the miners’ strike. They were based in the Betws colliery in Ammanford. One distinct memory I have of the miners’ strike is on every Sunday my father used to go down to the local pub to collect a food parcel. This was funded by local women collecting money and then all the families which were involved with the strike would get a bag of food. This would include tins of beans, soup breakfast cereal and so on. I also remember that the local people organised a day out on a double-decker bus to Pembrey country park for all the families.
Andrew Griffiths, Brynamman, south Wales

Time goes by and names change. I attended the Polytechnic of Wales, now called the University of Glamorgan during the miner’ strike. I come from the valleys and knew the passions that went with coal mining but I thought little about the strike. The students union had its share of left-wing activists who wanted us to strike in support of the miners but many of us could not see what it had to do with us. Once the strike was under way, the old name of the Polytechnic of Wales came back to haunt us. We were the College of the Mines and there were still a number of miners attending the polytechnic. Soon we had to face picket lines at the polytechnic. To be fair, they were peaceful and directed mainly at mining students but it was very intimidating to see fellow students, many of whom we had begun to form friendships with, on the picket line. The feelings of guilt and resentment that were generated as we crossed the line to continue our studies tarnished relationships that were in their infancy. We were only playing a student game but for the miners this was akin to civil war, brothers and friends on opposite sides of a battle to save a way of life. I have often wondered how I would have felt if it had been more than a name that caused me to become involved. Would I have been able to cross a picket line where lifelong friends and relatives stood or would I have been on those lines alienating and despising my friends and family who dared to defy the union?
K Brown, Fleet, UK

I was teaching in Burry Port at the time of the strike and I remember the terrible feeling of doom amongst the children. The staff used to buy breakfast for the miners’ children because they looked so pale and cold. We used to give money to the miners holding plastic buckets in Llanelli. I can still cry bitterly about what happened to the miners and their families - decent people who were treated abominably by the Thatcher government.
Helen Grady, Alforja, Spain

What a time!
When I think back I don’t think we realised what a historical event we were involved with. There are so many events and stories to tell it is difficult to select just a few. I remember as the strike started and I was 10 and my dad had come home and was outside cutting coal for the fire. He cut bucket loads of coal and once finished came into the house and said - if all that coal goes before the strike ends - we will be in trouble. Needless to say the coal was long gone before the end!

Both my parents were really active and we would be at Onllwyn Welfare sorting out clothes, awaiting deliveries and then sorting out food parcels for the entire Dulais Valley.

Then there were the diverse people we met throughout the time of the strike - as supporters who came to spend the weekend and find out about the struggle. The strike and its effects on the family came home to roost watching the news. We could see my dad being arrested, in his grey jumper with two red hoops on each arm followed by a couple of truncheon hits to the head. That was so scary and it seemed endless till he came back home.

Despite not having much money, the solidarity and support from so many others being in a similar situation, the friendships developed were strong and it is this that gives me my strongest memories of the strike.

It had a huge impact on the way our lives went from here, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!
Nicola James, Swansea

I was at the Pavilion in Porthcawl on the day the south Wales NUM voted to go out on strike. I was 24 at the time and newly married. A year later and 7000.loss of earnings I returned back to work. A year later my marriage was over maybe not directly resulting from the strike but it sure did not help. Was it worth it,? well it seemed like a good idea at the time.
Adrian Griffin, Penarth, Country

I was living on the Colliery site, my parents had a house behind Coedely Cokeovens, my father worked as an electrician on the site. We had to cross the picket lines every day. Watching the men shouting and turning the coal trucks away.
Amanda Williams, Coedely, Mid Glamorgan

Now that things have calmed down I’m sure that the future will bring new details and controversies. Especially the source of all those ‘extra’ policemen with no numbers on their shoulders. Did Thatcher use the British Army and Royal Marines on the streets of mainland UK? Not beyond the bitter and mad personality that still haunts the Welsh communities. History I hope will record her like Edward Longshanks, with the call centres and McDonalds as her castles by proxy.
Michael Rees, Llanelli, Wales

I vividly remember the coal convoys heading along the M4 in south Wales, escorted by the police. They were usually more than 20 lorries long and moved as a black snake through the country side. They were quite forbidding and looked as though nothing would stop them.
Mark Etchells, Abu Dhabi UAE

I’m originally from Knebworth, Hertfordshire and I was a 21-year old University of Portsmouth student when the strike started. Another student and I volunteered to hire a car and drive to South Wales to deliver food and money. The Portsmouth Trades council had been collecting and filled the boot and back seat of the car. We were immediately welcomed into the South Wales community, taken to the Union Hall, given a tour of Brecon Beacon and taken to the bottom of a mine as the lift operators were not on strike. I was shocked to see such poverty and observed men(no women) sitting in a cafe with one pot of tea to last all day. I continued supporting the miners, picketing in Yorkshire, letters to the paper, and donating money. As I passed through King’s Cross on my way home each term, I would stop and chat with the miners collecting money to ask how the strike was going.
Charlotte Edwards, Lakeside, California, USA

Despite unions being the foundation of socialism, the miners’ strike was a fine example of abuse of position (by the Union and its officials) where some were intimidated by others against their own determination (forced to strike). The tail wagged the dog!!
William Hawkins, Caerphilly Wales

The boy in the photograph is Craig Williams, formerly of Penrhiwceiber Road, Penrhiwceiber, Mountain Ash
Jason Penney, Penrhiwceiber, Mountain Ash

I remember getting married and moving into our new house in October 1983 and then being on strike in March 1984, however the little things are what stick in my mind now. Firstly, there’s an ITV news reporter still on TV today who makes my skin crawl. His name’s Mark Webster and he seemed to be on TV every week saying negotiations for a return to work looked promising only to leave me despondent when they fell through. Also tins of Goblin hamburgers handed out in our food parcel!! It seems almost absurd to think this happened during my lifetime let alone fairly recently. It’s just so surreal now.
Kevin Roberts, Nelson Mid Glamorgan


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