He is critical of Arthur Scargill while acknowledging that his claim that the government planned to close a great many pits - derided and disbelieved at the time including by Paxman- turned out to be completely true. His regular appearances on the BBC2's Newsnight programme have been criticised as aggressive, intimidating, condescending and irreverent, and applauded as tough and incisive. Of course, the Tories wanted to break the NUM – it would be strange if a Conservative government did not want to weaken organised labour and amazing if Conservatives at the time had forgiven the miners for bringing down Edward Heath with their strike in 1974.

In summary, a very informative and worthwhile read, although the content is depressing and you may wish to read something light-hearted afterwards to try and clear the smog from your brain. In the 1960s, under the Labour politician Alf Robens, the number of pits fell from nearly 700 to 292, and the number of miners was slashed, from 583,000 to 283,000. He had no time for landowners who got lucky from underground deposits, but his sympathies seemed divided between the capitalists who took risks and the miners, who were working and living in terrible conditions with awful health outcomes, but well-paid for manual workers despite being paid by piecework for most of the industry's existence.What does such ostracism say about the ‘community’ that former miners now regard as having been so important? Some parts of the book were rather too political for my taste, but overall it was an interesting read. My world view is 180 degrees away from that I held in my 20s and I now deplore conservative ideology in general, and Thatcherism in particular which has led, pretty directly to the decline in public sector services and general social infrastructure currently afflicting the UK, exacerbated by BREXIT of course. Jeremy Paxman's book examines the important role coal played in Great Britain's history, making us a rich country whilst making the landowners on whose land the coal was located rich in turn.

One has to agree with her statement in the conclusion that “if capitalism fosters extractivism, it does not follow that getting rid of capitalism would, at this juncture, eliminate the need for extraction” (203).This half covers the emergence of trade unions, the industrial strife throughout the 20th century and the decline of British coal mining. By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Perhaps it is, as readers of Paxman’s book might conclude, because it was so closely tied to Britain’s status as a great power and because so many British people still feel a half-guilty regret about the loss of that status.