Coal Privatisation

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Energy – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 11 November 1991.

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Photo of Gavin Strang Gavin Strang , Edinburgh East 12:00, 11 November 1991

Is not it clear from the Rothschilds studies that the re-election of a Conservative Government would sound the death knell of this country's coal industry? Does not the Secretary of State recognise that to close more than two thirds of the pits to facilitate privatization—as envisaged by Rothschilds—would mean subjecting electricity supplies and prices in the long run to the vagaries of international markets, do enormous and permanent damage to our balance of payments, wipe out billions of pounds of productive investment and mean the loss of thousands of jobs? Is not that a policy of economic sabotage and one more reason why the country needs a Labour Government?