Coal Bd’s new front man

Press, 22 October 1984, Page 6

Coal Bd’s new front man

NZPA-Reuter London Britain’s State-owned coal industry has appointed a new man to publicise its case in the seven-month-old miners’ strike after widespread criticism of the National Coal Board’s chief, lan MacGregor. The board yesterday named Michael Eaton, a former member of the National Union of Mineworkers, as its chief spokesman on the dispute over the issue of pit closures. Mr Eaton is the board’s director for Yorkshire, Britain’s biggest coalfield, and has long experience of working with the miners' leader, Arthur Scargill.

Political commentators said that Mr Eaton’s appointment could be seen as an admission that Mr MacGregor, an Scots-born American, had failed to put across the Coal Board’s case to the British public. His television style has often seemed detached and ill-at-ease and he has come under attack from Opposition leaders and the press. Political sources said that the Government wanted someone to counter the plain speaking of Mr Scargill in front of the television cameras.

© Thirty men attacked colliery offices in County Durham yesterday, causing thousands of pounds dam-

The police were later interviewing four men about the incident, in which a security guard suffered head wounds. Dozens of windows were shattered by stones and bricks in the attack at Dawson Colliery, near the mining town of Seaham. Coal board officials said that men had burst into the control-room and wrecked electronic equipment which ran underground conveyors.

Dawson is one of Durham’s coastal pits, with workings stretching out under the North Sea. Advanced technology has made it one of the most sophisticated in Europe.