No apology from Boris Johnson over Thatcher coal mine closures remark

The PM has faced demands to say sorry after claiming the shutdowns in the 1980s gave the UK a “big early start” in fighting climate change.

Opposition MPs have called the comments offensive to former mining communities.

The PM’s spokesman said he recognises the “huge impact and pain” of closures, but did not offer an apology.

Visiting a Scottish wind farm on Thursday, Mr Johnson told reporters: “Thanks to Margaret Thatcher, who closed so many coal mines across the country, we had a big early start and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.”

He is reported to have laughed and added: “I thought that would get you going.”

An unbelievably crass comment, even for BJ … :icon_rolleyes:

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Well, I’m not surprised really. He wouldn’t even meet our First Minister, so that’s another reason to dislike him. :frowning:

Well, hello there … :wave:

I’m having trouble with tags, i.e. creating on for a thread … Azz is helping me … :+1:

Aww, @Omah hello! :wave: well you are in the hands of the expert. Just make one up really (so long as its in context I suppose) We are all doing super well with this new format! :smiley:

Hi @PixieKnuckles

I was making ones up but they weren’t being recognised … :disappointed:

In the end, I used a standard tag first (beauty) and then created my own - that worked so I then deleted the standard tag leaving only my tag - then Azz added boris-johnson from the standard set, which is logical, so that’s the route I’ll take … :laughing:

Ahhh…thats interesting @Omah Maybe as new threads get posted, more tags will be generated so we can have a choice of relevant ones! Good job though, well done! :+1:

Boris does suffer from “foot in mouth” syndrome, a complete buffoon in many ways. They really need to dump him now that Brexit is over, and this is from a lifetime conservative!

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IMHO he, like May, was only made PM to get Brexit out of the way.
I really do think that once the dust settles, he will go.

I’m sure Boris didn’t jump on the Brexit bandwagon last minute just to help push that through. He wants to go down as the biggest thing since Thatcher.

And does he not make a fair point about coal mines? They didn’t use the “climate change” hype back in the 80s, (greenhouse gases?) But didn’t Thatcher do what she did because she/we could see the future?

Boris was right.

Labour shut down more coal mines than the conservatives anyway.

Hi

I would not expect Boris to apologise for anything, he does not think the normal rules apply to him.

He was correct in what he said. It was just the way he said it that upset some people.

Quite so … Boris does what Boris wants and the devil take the hindmost … :roll_eyes:

Yes, I’ve just been watching a report on GBNews about Boris’s comment about coal mines. They mentioned that his ‘red wall’, which largely exists in ex-coal-mining areas may turn against him and his party, though they did say that it is unlikely that those voters would go back to Labour. So it is interesting to think about what will happen with their votes.

Boris certainly seems to be quite adept at shooting himself in the foot: BRINO, Climate Change, Illegal Immigration. These are the current topics he seems to be ‘wrong footing’ at the moment!