This was written at the time of the coal miners' strike, which culminated in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's deliberate decimation of the British coal industry. Sting was an opponent of nuclear energy (and of Mrs Thatcher's Conservative government) and would have largely sympathised with the miners, but recognised that times had changed. The song is about his anger at the way the change came, and his concern at a nuclear-powered future.
This was written at the time of the coal miners' strike, which culminated in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's deliberate decimation of the British coal industry. Sting was an opponent of nuclear energy (and of Mrs Thatcher's Conservative government) and would have largely sympathised with the miners, but recognised that times had changed. The song is about his anger at the way the change came, and his concern at a nuclear-powered future.