Who shut the pits anyway?

to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the end of the miners strike I thought I would pose an easy question to which everyone knows the answer:

Which government has shut down the most pits in the last 40 years?

Easy one that - we all know it was Mrs Thatcher and the Tories who shut down the all pits don't we? The BBC were showing a drama about it only the other day.

Actually no!

Here are figures I obtained from the Assembly in the number of mines closed between 1963 and 1990:

1963-1970 - 303 pits closed (Labour were in power from 1964-1970)
1970-1974 - 35 pits closed (Conservatives in power during these years)
1974-1979 - 37 pits closed (Labour in power during these years)
1979 - 1990 - 127 pits closed (Conservatives in power with Mrs Thatcher as leader)

So in actual fact in just 6 years Harold Wilson closed down around twice as many mines as during the 11 years Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister who closed the fewest mines was Edward Heath whose Government was, ironically, brought down by the politically inspired miners strike.