Thanks for sharing your biog with us James, I`ll read it thouroughly asap.
Just a quick point, in the 1984 strike I was an electrician working at one of the pits in the Selby coalfield. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I`d just qualified, was not married, and was still living with my parents at the time; hence I didn`t get a penny of financial help from anyone (no strike pay, no dole etc.) - apart from my immeadiate family who kept a roof over my head, and food in my mouth, for which I will be eternally grateful.
The Witnesses still expected me to somehow carry on being a publisher, keep ferrying various members to and from meetings etc., even though I had to borrow money from my parents to put petrol in the car, and buy the damn mags every month.
After ~10 months of this, I handed in my notice to the NCB and went to work in the private sector, not long after, I also handed in my notice to the WTS by DA`ing myself, and to cap it off, I joined the territorial army, to, amongst other things, stop me from getting depressed about these massive changes that were happening in my personal life. (It worked, and I think it helped me enormously in many ways)
I view the miners strike, and the "loving care" and support I got from the "brothers and sisters" as the straw/s that broke this camels back.
Hence, I can thank Arthur Scargill, Maggie Thatcher and Yuri Andropov for partly helping me break free from the jehovah`s witnesses in some strange convoluted way.!
Life can be weird sometimes.
All the best
Paul UK
PS. 2 months after I handed in my notice, I recieved a £2 Co-op food voucher from the NUM, which I gave to a friend who was still on strike.