The tragic death of Britain’s industrial working class

Last week in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, the fires in Britain’s last coal power station went out for good. This marks the end of the UK’s 142 years of using coal to generate electricity, in favour of moving towards ‘greener’ forms of energy.

The Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, which at one point employed 3,000 engineers in well-paid and skilled work, is an imposing sight on the Nottinghamshire landscape. Its eight cooling towers are iconic and can be seen from many vantage points throughout the county. Like the many other coal mines, docks or imposing mills across the UK, the plant is a huge, physical symbol of working-class people’s importance – a sign that they were once literally keeping the lights on, and feeding and clothing the nation.

Despite its significance, our politicians’ response to the closure of the Ratcliffe power station has been patronising and underwhelming. Many have lamented the loss of jobs, but assured the working people of the North that their sacrifice is for the greater good of achieving Net Zero. The Green Party welcomed ‘plans to clear the site and replace the power station with a zero-carbon energy and technology park’, which will supposedly offer ‘well-paid, secure jobs’. Net Zero secretary Ed Miliband said the new Labour government ‘is determined that the same communities who were at the heart of our coal-fired growth will be at the centre of our mission for clean power, and benefit from the many opportunities renewable power and emerging technologies will bring’. This is a disingenuous fantasy. The people of Nottinghamshire know that any long-term plans for this site will be another generation in the making, and mean another generation lost.

A similar fate awaits the people of Port Talbot in south Wales. At the end of last month, Port Talbot steelworks – once a mighty jewel in our industrial crown – was shut down. Its final blast furnace was put out as part of a deal between the government and the steelworks’ owners, India-based Tata Steel. As with Ratcliffe, the plan is to ‘transition’ to a greener steel-making process.

As a result, more than 2,000 highly skilled and well-paid jobs will be lost. Thousands more jobs down the supply chain will also disappear. The town of Port Talbot will be undoubtedly devastated.

It is important to remember that these communities are losing much more than just employment. Where I grew up in Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, there was plenty of employment in the coal mines and textile factories until the early 1990s. The work was hard, but the camaraderie these jobs bred created a strong culture of after-work activities, which formed the fabric of communities. There was always involvement in local politics, trade unions, sports and social clubs. There was a strong connection to the arts, too – coal miners and factory workers really did become stand-up comedians, singers and football players after their shifts were done. The deindustrialisation of Britain has killed not only jobs, but also the sense of community and culture they created.

Those affected by industrial decline know all too well that their jobs will not be miraculously replaced by green alternatives. They know their local economies. They understand perfectly well what happens when families have their incomes halved and their children and grandchildren face a future of low pay, no pay, insecurity and hopelessness. They know that politicians’ vague words of ‘future industries’ and plentiful jobs are lies.

Instead, these areas will become ripe for exploitative logistics companies to move in. On top of the old Shirebrook Colliery in Derbyshire now sits a huge Sports Direct warehouse complex. These mega-warehouses flank either side of the M1 in the old industrial heartlands, with their lorries charging up and down the roads. The jobs on offer by Sports Direct – a company infamous for its poor employment practices – are neither highly skilled nor well paid. They are not remotely environmentally friendly, either. Even this low level of work will likely disappear soon as technology replaces the warehouse worker.

What will become of the now defunct Ratcliffe plant remains to be decided. The people of Nottinghamshire want to keep its cooling towers intact as a reminder of who we once were. James Graham, writer of drama Sherwood, which featured the towers in its closing scenes, has called for them to be protected. Sadly, it is far more likely that the site will be demolished, pending further development that never comes.

It’s tragically unlikely that any government in the present or future will have the political will or knowledge to spend what is actually needed to ‘level up’ the country – that is, a project the size and commitment of the reunification of East and West Germany, with a similarly sized budget of over two trillion pounds. Instead, our industrial heartlands will resemble the Rust Belt in the US – depopulated, barren landscapes, with no public transport, no public services and a crisis of alcohol and drug addiction.

The London-based media classes glibly refer to places like Port Talbot and Ratcliffe-on-Soar as ‘left behind’. But their decline is no accident. To say so is an insult to the harsh reality and cruelty these communities have endured for two generations. Britain’s working classes have been all too willingly sacrificed.

Lisa McKenzie is a working-class academic.