or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
31 used & new from £6.38
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Enemy within: Thatcher's Secret War Against the Miners
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Enemy within: Thatcher's Secret War Against the Miners (Paperback)

by Seumas Milne (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £9.23 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.76 (29%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, November 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
21 new from £6.38 10 used from £6.38
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (Illustrated) 17 used & new from £1.06
Paperback (New edition) 9 used & new from £4.97

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Oxford World's Classics) by Robert Tressell

The Enemy within: Thatcher's Secret War Against the Miners + The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Oxford World's Classics)
Price For Both: £14.17

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Coal Not Dole: Memories of the 1984/85 Miners' Strike

Coal Not Dole: Memories of the 1984/85 Miners' Strike

by Guthrie Hutton
£6.14
The Miners Strike Day by Day: The Illustrated 1984-85 Diary of Yorkshire Miner Arthur Wakefield

The Miners Strike Day by Day: The Illustrated 1984-85 Diary of Yorkshire Miner Arthur Wakefield

by Arthur Wakefield
£8.07
Marching to the Fault Line

Marching to the Fault Line

by Francis Beckett & David Hencke
2.8 out of 5 stars (12)  £5.73
United We Stand: A History of Britain's Trade Unions

United We Stand: A History of Britain's Trade Unions

by Alastair J. Reid
GB84

GB84

by David Peace
3.7 out of 5 stars (14)  £4.77
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 439 pages
  • Publisher: Verso Books; New edition edition (13 April 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1844675084
  • ISBN-13: 978-1844675081
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 73,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #7 in  Books > Business, Finance & Law > Management > Human Resources > Industrial Relations
    #27 in  Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Post-war Period, 1946-Present
    #30 in  Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators > M > Milne, AA

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

"A real-life thriller." - Evening Standard "One of the most remarkable demolition jobs ever." - Spectator "A tribute to detailed journalistic investigation ... strips away the myths and lies." - New Statesman "An astonishing book." - The Nation "Riveting. It knocks spots off the usual 'whodunnit'" - Guardian


Product Description

Margaret Thatcher branded Arthur Scargill and the other leaders of the 1984-5 miners' strike ;'the enemy within'. With the publication of this bestselling book a decade later, the full irony of that accusation became clear. There was an enemy within. But it was not the National Union of Mineworkers that was out to subvert liberty. It was the secret services of the British state - operating inside the NUM itself. Seumas Milne revealed for the first time the astonishing lengths to which the government and its intelligence machine were prepared to go to destry the power of Britain's miners' union. Using phoney bank deposits, staged cash drops, forged documents, agents provocateurs and unrelenting surveillance, MI5 and police Special Branch set out to discredit Scargill and other miners' leaders. Planted tales of corruption were seized on by the media and both Tory and Labour politicians in what became an unprecedentedly savage smear campaign. In this new edition, published for the twentieth anniversary of Britain's most important postwar social confrontation, new material brings the story up to date - and, in the wake of the Iraq war intelligence scandals, highlights the continuing threat posed by the security services to democracy today.
See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(2)
(1)
(1)
See all 6 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Enemy within: Thatcher's Secret War Against the Miners
78% buy the item featured on this page:
The Enemy within: Thatcher's Secret War Against the Miners 4.3 out of 5 stars (9)
£9.23
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Oxford World's Classics)
11% buy
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Oxford World's Classics) 4.7 out of 5 stars (59)
£4.94
Marching to the Fault Line
4% buy
Marching to the Fault Line 2.8 out of 5 stars (12)
£5.73
GB84
4% buy
GB84 3.7 out of 5 stars (14)
£4.77
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Blistering reading, 26 Jan 2008
I bought this revealing book primarily to improve my facts of an event which happened when I was about 10 years old. My only real memories of the stike were images on the TV of police and miners clashing at picket lines.

What this book reveals is that even the reports I watched on the TV were 'spliced' to show the miners attacking the police first.

This must read covers dodgy legal professionals, machiavellian MPs, even shadier journalists, moles, and the unaccountability of MI5 which makes worrying reading.

Whilst explaining the important events of the 'conflict' Milne's remarkable work leads us through a modern history lesson of the current pathetic state of British politics, the fact there is no real difference between New Labour and the Tories. Unfortunatley the miners strike helped many different organisations to exorcise the Right's nemesis, powerful trade unions and has taken away the mouthpiece of the working man and woman.

The style of writing is top class and facts are presented in an easily digestible fashion.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The truth at last!, 12 Oct 2008
Having grown up in a town in the heart of the Derbyshire coalfield, this book provided a fascinating insight into what really went on behind the Government orchestrated media campaign of the strike.

This book leaves us in no doubt that the powers that be are constantly at work in order to "protect us" from what they will tell us are threats, but really they are just removing what they perceive as a threat to their power. Shouldn't be such a surprise!

This book brings into sharp focus the main players in the campaign against the miners leaders and continues to engage the reader even when the events take complex turns. A fascinating read - well worth a look.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
56 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The "real" enemy within., 30 Aug 2004
By A Customer
When newspapers pronounce the guilt of a high profile figure, they splash the story across the front-page. When it later transpires that the story is false, they may occasionally print a retraction or correction - but they usually "stick it inside somewhere" at the bottom of a page.

This excellent book provides a thorough account of the real truth behind the smear campaign of the early 1990's directed against the National Union of Miners and Arthur Scargill in particular. A campaign with one goal, but many players - the media, the Tory government and the security services - the objective of which was to follow through Margaret Thatcher's aim of ensuring the coal miners (and unions in general) would never again be in a position where they might hold the country to ransom, or bring down a government.

Seumas Milne's updated and exhaustive work exposes the truth, once and for all, about a campaign that ultimately failed because it was based on a foundation of lies and misinformation.

Milne only touches on the strike itself, and twenty years on there is a real need for a similarly exhaustive study of the 84-85 miners strike to accompany this book (hopefully written by an correspondingly impartial observer), so that students and historians can in the future, fully understand the lasting significance of these events.

The book itself in extremely well written and makes easy reading. If I have one criticism, it would be regarding Milne's explanation of the truth about the "Libyan money". The point is clearly made quite early on, but reiterated and re-explained too often afterwards.

Forget Michael Moore's rants about the corruption and lies in the US: read this book and discover some home truths about those that we entrust with our money, our lives and our security in this country.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars An opportunity missed
I was very disappointed that Mr Milne's very obvious political bias stopped an objective analysis of a very interesting series of events. Read more
Published 1 day ago by J. D. Dunkley

5.0 out of 5 stars Ian King
A well written and interesting book. Needs to be read along with other accounts of the strike to get a full picture of events.
Published 1 month ago by I. King

5.0 out of 5 stars THE ENEMY WITHIN
This book tells the truth about the great strike and how the establishment plotted against the working class and the miners who wanted nothing more than to keep there jobs pits... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. M. J. Goodman

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary
Its hard to believe that this is fact. But the more you read the scarier it becomes. Trust no one!
Published 6 months ago by A. Scott

5.0 out of 5 stars And I was there in 1984/5
This is just what the ruling elite don't want you to know.
There really was an enemy within during the 84/5 miners strike, but it was not us. Read more
Published 7 months ago by will moore

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as described.
This book should be called 'Robert Maxwell's secret war against the Miners'. The book shows convincingly that Maxwell actively tried to bring down the NUM, and also that the NUM... Read more
Published on 9 Jul 2007 by Mr. M. Slater

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject























i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.