I may get shot here, but it wasnt Margret Thatchers fault that the mines closed and the fact we haven't any uk owned vehicle manufacturers left anymore. It was down to the fact that these people were on very good money £30k for a miner (I think) in the late seventies early eighties and they still wanted more! They even made it so that they included time to get to the coal face, in the working shift and also the fact that they didnt want to graft for the money. They also thought nothing of sabotaging machinary so they had to down tools on the shift!
This isnt everyone that worked in mining, I know there were people that did want to graft and earn an honest living.
For some reason in the UK we have a class system in place, where there is a feeling of resentment almost a poison that flows through people! Where if you work hard and get somewhere in life people hate you for it, I work with younger people and the atitude most of them have is one of unwillingness to work hard, if they keep saying they cant do it someone will come along and do it for them!
So it became to expensive to dig coal out of british mines, sad really that its cheaper to import coal from somewhere else seeing as we have it in the ground here!!
The ironic thing was that after the miners striking, they returned to work for less than they were offered originally!!
Thatcher wasn't going to let them nearly cripple the country again, so I suppose took great pleasure in closing down our mining industry!
The story is very similar for our car manufacturers!