It was the last day of April and the coal owners had closed every pit in the country, the miners being locked out once again. As soon as the New Year had started it had been obvious that the coal owners and the big employers in every industry had been set to crack down on the working man, and miners in particular. Her da had explained it to her by saying that countries like Japan, America, Germany and others were now producing cheaper and better goods than Britain, but instead of British manufacturers making something better or different, they were carrying on in the same old way and dealing with the competition by lowering their prices; and the only way they could do this without touching the profits that financed their great big houses and extravagant way of living was to reduce the wages of their workers and increase their hours whilst cutting expenditure on safety.

In the last weeks, the phrase, Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day, had been adopted by the miners, but her da, like many others, hadn’t held out any hope that a showdown could be averted. ‘Churchill is itching for a fight,’ he’d said the last time she’d called round with Alice a couple of days ago and told him Adam thought a strike was inevitable, ‘and Baldwin will leave it all to him to deal with, you mark my words. Baldwin’s more concerned with keeping his job as Prime Minister than anything else.’

‘Aye, we knew it was coming.’ Adam looked at her. There wasn’t a jack man who hadn’t known what the owners were about. ‘But it will get nasty, you know that, don’t you? There’s no negotiating with them up top, whatever they might say to the contrary. The only hope we’ve got is if the TUC follow through and back us and the trade union leaders bring every working man out in the country.’