The Class War

Thatcher was secretly preparing to use troops and declare a state of emergency at the height of the miners' strike.

Thatcher asked for contingency plans to be drawn up to use troops to move coal stocks, despite official government policy ruling out the use of service personnel. A plan involving the use of 4,500 service drivers and 1,650 tipper lorries was considered capable of moving 100 kilotonnes a day of coal to the power stations.

A separate contingency plan, codenamed Operation Halberd, to use troops in the event of a dock strike, had also been drawn up.

Thatcher's own handwritten notes on "possible strategies for the coal and docks dispute" paper for the 18 July meeting of Misc 101, the special cabinet committee on coal that she chaired, outlines the details of the plans to use the army. It involved using 2,800 troops in 13 specialist teams that could be used to unload 1,000 tonnes a day at the docks, but would require a declaration of a state of emergency to ensure they had access to the port equipment, such as cranes, that they needed.

David Hart, an old-Etonian, charged with organising and funding the working miners' anti-strike movement, and nicknamed the "Blue Pimpernel" in Tory circles. Thatcher's personal diary lists at least three face-to-face meetings with him at Downing Street. The widely publicised "return to work campaign" was in reality "no more than a trickle" during the first six months of the strike, with no more than 500 going back to the pits in July.