Aberfan

[CadiFfan]

Please, just for one minute this morning, close your eyes and think of those who lost their lives and their families

❤️

The NCB were told repeatedly about those coal waste heaps and the danger they posed, but still did nothing. They didn’t listen and then I think if I remember correctly, there was a severe downpour of rain which resulted in the waste heaps being washed down and engulfing the school. I can’t remember if anyone was brought to justice over this, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they hadn’t.

I know. Talk about kick them whilst they’re down 😡

Oh god I didn’t know they were asking the parents how close/how much did they love their children. Unbelievable. I can’t begin to imagine what the parents were going through and then to be asked that! Sounds to me they were trying to shirk their responsibility of paying the compensation 😡😡😡

There was an incredibly moving documentary made a few years ago - The Aberfan Young Wives’ Club. It was obviously heartrending but had moments of hope. I remember one of the mothers talking about being in the car and telling her husband to drive faster and faster and then suddenly realising she still wanted to live.

https://x.com/danieljhannan/status/2113011981863031261?s=46

I am not an Allison Pearson fan by any stretch but the article she wrote linked to this tweet is incredible

I'm sitting reading this with tears in my eyes. Such an awful, awful thing.
I do think that a part of the callousness and indifference of the response was because it was in Wales.
There always seems to be a level of scorn/prejudice towards the Welsh from the English, especially the English governing class. Barely concealed contempt.

I don’t think this at all.

It’s because it was a working class community. There are many in England too. Look at Grenfell. The lives of the working class have always been cheaper, English or Welsh.

Please don’t turn this into another English bashing thread.

So sorry for your family’s loss. I hope the bastards at the NCB are rotting in hell frankly. To not even pay for the clean up… utter scum.

I was 8 when this happened.
I am sure I saw the news on the BBC, but I do not remember any feelings about or appreciation of the event, because it was so divorced from my life.
We may have done something at school, but in those days there were not the mass outpourings of grief and indignation, which are now fanned by the press and social media.

I'm English myself, and I still think it's true.

Exactly, look at Hillsborough. The families still haven’t got full criminal justice for the deaths of the 96.

Not forgetting the 21 killed in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Definitely a cover up there.

The worrying part is there’s still over 300 class D and C tips in Wales, the majority of them in the South Wales valleys. My family that live in the Rhondda said how lucky it was that there were no houses when the tip slid in 2020. You’d think after Aberfan things would be different and lessons would be learned.