The end of deep mines marks the end of a long era when trade unions played an important role not just in industry but politics too
It can sound glib to talk about the end of an era. It is tempting to sentimentalise the idea of the coalmining industry and the men – almost exclusively – who worked in it. All the same, the closure on Friday of the last deep mine, at Kellingley in Yorkshire, really is the final act in a long drama in which miners played a leading role – shaping how the country thought about workers, employers, and the relationships between industry and the state, the trade unions and the Labour party.
Related: The end of deep coal mining in Britain: ‘They’ve knocked us down’