P171 BEEBFAX 122 Thu 31 Dec --:--/--                                       The UK miners' strike of 1984 was a  major industrial action affecting the  British coal industry.  The strike was led by the National  Union of Mineworkers, at the time led  by Arthur Scargill.    Coal mining, though nationalized in  Britain by Clement Attlee's Labour  government in 1947,  was encouraged to gear itself toward  reduced subsidies in the 1980s  following the 1979 election of Prime  Minister Margaret Thatcher.    Tensions between the Thatcher  government and the public unions  mounted as the administration  considered the   Next       Prev       Home        End