This valley is a political frontier. This side: England’s green and pleasant land. That side, what some see as a red and peasant land, the independent republic of Clay Cross … 10 men and 1 woman built a defiant socialist Jerusalem. Take those kids in that school there: Those kids between 7 and 11 get free milk just as if Mrs Thatcher never existed; take that old age pensioner on the pavement there: he gets free television licence; you’ve got a free set, he still gets a free licence; all the corporation workmen who have just had an increase of 33.3% … and the council houses over there – the rent for those is £1.69, which is about half what it would be anywhere else in the country … Confrontation at Clay Cross, Derbyshire, Yorkshire TV 1974
Where 14 pits have shut down in the last 10 years; unemployment has sometimes hit 20% … Miners have no pits to go down. ibid.
The council has said not a penny will go on those rents. ibid.
‘We had a mandate from the electorate.’ ibid. counsellor Skinner