Aberfan is remembered 40 years on
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Link: BBC NEWS | Wales | Aberfan is remembered 40 years on.
A tribunal found the National Coal Board was responsible for the disaster, but nobody was sacked or prosecuted.
Villagers campaigned vigorously for the tip to be removed, spurred on by findings from the tribunal of inquiry which said an underground stream beneath the tip had probably contributed to the tip moving.
The government eventually agreed, but the National Coal Board and the Treasury forced the villagers to contribute £150,000 from the disaster fund towards the removal costs.
The money was eventually repaid 30 years later at the instigation of the then Welsh Secretary Ron Davies, but without any interest payments.
Odd how there were no fiery attacks on the wicked employer who created this danger in the interests of "profit." No demands for corporate homicide charges. No heads to roll. No compensation to pay. Not when a Socialist State Enterprise was responsible.
Socialists. "Caring, but only in theory."
No, James. That's a traditional "wicked capitalist" folk song about a mining accident pre-dating the National Coal Board. Music by Pete Seeger, words by Idris Davies (1905-1953). The accident in the village of Aberfan 40 years ago involved a slag-heap avalanche which engulfed a primary school killing 116 children and some adults.
Posted by: Tom | Friday, October 20, 2006 at 05:53 PM
Tom, I'm a little hazy on this but wasn't that the one that the Byrds wrote their song Bells of Rhymney about? Shows I don't know a lot about Wales.
Posted by: james higham | Friday, October 20, 2006 at 08:16 AM
Had they known then that the Coal Board was to be privatised, they would have blamed it on the upcoming privatisation.
Posted by: Serf | Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 03:05 PM
Some are more equal than others, just as the Inland Revenue now has a ruling that in is not liable for the ruination of a company and its directors, caused by its incompetance in issuing a CIS certificate. It's a mindset in the 'permanent' Civil Service. For years the Health & Safety at Work Act did not apply to Crown Properties. These people work for themselves not us, and they know that Ministers are around for an average of only two years, so these unelected Madarins, can rule us in a manner they think fit.
Posted by: GUTHRUM | Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 09:28 AM