Thirty years have elapsed since the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85. The Guardian recently reported that former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher requested plans to be prepared for the use of troops to move coal to power stations. The article states that Thatcher “was secretly preparing to use troops and declare a state of emergency at the height of the miners’ strike – out of fear Britain was going to run out of food and grind to a halt”.
The phrase “declare a state of emergency” was interesting. Did such a “declaration” actually give greater power to the authorities?
