Scargill really is a dinosaur, quite a nice dinosaur, but a dinosaur nonetheless. Slow thinking, inflexible and utterly unable to adapt to changing conditions.

I do feel quite sorry for the man because I believe his heart was in the right place, and with the full force of the state ranged against him; govt. police, mi5 etc as well as the press, he managed to stand his ground incredibly well. However, his Stalinist arrogance harmed a lot of people and this can't be easily forgiven.

I don't think he will continue to contrbute anything meaningful to the left, apart maybe from lessons in how not to do things.

Good principles, dreadful strategy.

Arthur Scargill is a victim of a heavily weighted retrospective view concerned entirely with the failure of the 1984/5 strike. Before he is labelled a Dinosaur etc even by sympathisers, people should take care to research his entire career. He was a young and fast thinking man, ever see him outwit the press? He often made them look as foolish as they were, anyone seen his Newsnight interview from the early 80's with Peter Snow? His achievments pre 1984 were also considerable e.g. Saltley, beating the right locally and then nationally and the more mundane tasks such as compensation agent and 'Miners QC'. As for his strike tactics they were good but at the end of the day the state machine backed up by the media won, simple as that. Most who criticise from the left should ask themeselves if they will ever achieve anything resembling his record.