Mine Kampf: Lee Andersons big lie

TetleysTLDR: The summary

Reform UK Ltd are lying to working-class communities by pretending they’ll reopen the coal mines: a physical and economic impossibility. The pits are flooded, capped, and geologically unstable. They know this, but they’re selling nostalgic lies to win votes from towns abandoned by Labour and the Tories alike.  Lee Anderson, Reform’s token ‘working-class lad’ was a Miner and he knows full well the issues around reopening pits.  The rest of the Reform UK Ltd directorship including Farage, and Tice are millionaire elites pretending to care while pushing policies that will destroy workers’ rights, privatise the NHS, and strip public services.Reform cheered when the pits shut. They’re Thatcherites on steroids. Choosing them out of desperation is like inviting arsonists who burnt your house down to rebuild it. It’s not just dishonest, it’s cruel.

TetleysTLDR: The article 

Let’s cut the crap, Reform UK Ltd are lying through their teeth to the very communities they claim to represent.  Their pitch about reopening coal mines is a cynical, calculated con.  They know full well that the pits can’t be reopened but they peddle this bullshit anyway, preying on the hopes of ex-mining towns left in economic ruin by successive governments.  It’s nothing but political snake oil, sold by grifters like Lee Anderson who know better.  They don’t want to fix your town they want your vote, and they’ll sell you nostalgia and false promises to get it. 

Reform UK Ltd, particularly through figures like Lee Anderson, himself an ex-Miner, present reopening coal pits as a working-class economic saviour. They speak of coal jobs restoring pride, of local coking-coal supplies for steel, and of halting deindustrialisation.  Anderson’s rhetoric positions himself as defender of former pit communities. (x.com)  Of course, like everything else that comes from Reform UK Ltd, it is a crock of shit. 

The Reality: Coal in the UK Today

 UK coal production has declined from 228 million tonnes in 1957 to just 107 thousand tonnes in 2024. Consumption has fallen from 216 million to 2 million tonnes in the same period. Deep mining employment peaked at over 1 million in 1920; by 2022 only around 360 remained. Open-pit coal mining shut down in November 2023, with no active production afterward. Coal-fired power stations fully closed by September 2024. 

No matter what Reform UK Ltd say, the pits aren’t coming back.  Even if they were elected.  Even if they meant it.   It simply isn’t possible. 

1. Flooding and Water Inundation

• Examples like Ellington Colliery show serious flooding quickly rendering mines unsafe; £8 million in equipment was abandoned, shafts capped, and operations ended. 

2. Geological Hazards and Subsidence

• Asfordby Colliery, sunk in the late 1980s, closed within six years due to geological faults and massive flooding. Production ceased in 1997 despite vast remaining coal. Bradford Colliery, located under built-up Manchester, was closed in 1968 before reserves were exhausted because subsidence caused unacceptable damage to homes. 

3. Shaft Capping and Restoration

• After closure, mine shafts are capped with reinforced concrete, and sites are reclaimed or redeveloped. Once the infrastructure is removed or filled, reopening becomes physically impossible. 

The big lie: raising false hope

The world today is almost unrecognisable from the 1980s, especially when it comes to energy, industry, and the role of coal.  Back then, coal was still the beating heart of British industry: powering homes, factories, and entire communities built around the pits.  But in the decades since, coal has been phased out, replaced by gas, nuclear, and increasingly by renewables like wind and solar.  Climate change, automation, and globalisation have redrawn the map of work and energy, leaving once-proud mining towns grappling with the fallout of deindustrialisation.  Where coal once symbolised national strength, it’s now a byword for environmental destruction and a relic of a dirtier, more divided past.  A past Reform UK Ltd are desperately trying to capitalise on.

^{The annual Durham Miners Gala.  Reform UK Ltd might not like it but socialism is alive and well in the areas they want to take over.}  

Reform UK Ltd will say anything to get votes. Their strategy is built on tapping into the nostalgia and pain of the communities Thatcher helped crush, but instead of offering practical support, they deal in hollow sentiment and provable lies. They sell the idea of coal not because it’s possible, but because it polls well.  It’s a calculated scam: stir up anger, promise the impossible, and walk away when reality kicks in. 

And let’s say it again loud and clear: apart from their token attack dog Lee Anderson, Reform UK Ltd is a party of millionaire grifters.  Just look at the lineup: Richard Tice, a property tycoon; Nigel Farage, a privately educated former commodities broker and long-time lobbyist for the wealthy; and Ben Habib, a millionaire investment fund manager. These aren’t working-class champions, they’re the elite in populist drag. They swan around in tailored suits while preaching to ex-mining towns about ‘common sense’, pretending to care about lives they’ve never lived and struggles they’ll never face.  City boys, hedge fund spivs, and political opportunists pretending to care about working people while pushing policies that serve only the rich.  They don’t know your life, they don’t live your struggle, and they sure as hell aren’t on your side. 

Promising coal reopening gives false hope to communities still struggling since pit closures: Many former coalfield towns remain economically depressed decades after closure, with little sign of full recovery.  Suggesting re-opening pits ignores the practical realities and capital costs of rebuilding flood-prone, geologically compromised shafts, a near-impossible task. 

^{Grimethorpe in South Yorkshire:  A pit village that never recovered from the economic catastrophe of the pit closure.}

And then there's Lee Anderson.  Lee Anderson often invokes his coal-mining roots and critiques government decision-making.  And whilse he invokes reopening them he knows full well there is no technical or regulatory path to safely open deep pits today.  He may advocate for domestic coking coal supply to British Steel, but he was part of a Government that closed down Teesside and Port Talbot coking plants and again he knows very well the infrastructure doesn't exist anymore.  His commentary glamorises the past while ignoring the reality and skirting over the scientific and safety barriers to resuming extraction.  

Reform UK Ltd's coal mine con is more than just political theatre, it’s a clear display of their utter contempt for the working class. They see these communities not as people deserving of dignity, investment, or truth, but as gullible voters who can be strung along with fairy tales and false promises. The fact that they push a knowingly impossible policy shows how little they respect the intelligence and lived reality of the very people they claim to represent. 

And we get it.  People are voting Reform UK Ltd because our established parties are a bunch of self serving cunts.  Choosing Reform UK Ltd because the established parties have failed is understandable, but it’s not the answer.  Reform UK Ltd are ardent Thatcherites, idolising the very woman who decimated mining communities, and yet she still stands significantly to the left of them economically. They supported the closure of the pits. They cheered it on. So to now claim they want to reopen them is not just dishonest, it’s laughable.  Reform will make things worse.  They want to rip up workers’ rights, scrap environmental protections, and dismantle what’s left of the welfare state.  Anyone unfortunate to be living in under a Reform UK Ltd Council is starting to see how the whole party is a mess. They’ve talked about abolishing inheritance tax for the super-rich, while pushing to privatise more of the NHS. They cheer for anti-union laws and would leave struggling communities even more vulnerable by slashing public services.  They talk about stopping the boats in council elections, showing how they simply don't understand local democracy.  Voting for Reform out of desperation is like handing a wrecking ball to the very people who cheered when the pits shut. 

As for Reform UK Ltd - they're the pits

The call to reopen coal-mines is not a genuine policy solution, it is a political sleight of hand, offering false hope to communities that deserve real economic investment, renewable-jobs programmes, and safe regeneration.  Figures like Lee Anderson use their working-class credibility but proposals ignore decades of engineering, environmental, ecological and regulatory reality.  The past has left physical, hydrological, and geological legacies that prevent coal extraction from resuming.  Reopening the pits is not a practical proposition, it’s a symbolic gesture, a deflection from pressing issues in former coalfield towns.  If Reform UK Ltd were serious about supporting these communities, they would offer retraining, clean energy investment, and local infrastructure. 

Instead, they cling to a cruel fantasy designed to rob the desperate, the politically illiterate and the abandoned of their votes - and they know it.

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