By Paul Routledge Forty years ago, a Tory government lit the blue touch paper for the most explosivestrike in modern times. Under political pressure to cut back on coal output, state industry bosses announced the immediate closure of Cortonwood colliery, near Barnsley. This was seen, rightly, as a gauntlet thrown down to Arthur Scargill and his militant National Union of Mineworkers, whose 1974 strike had scuppered Conservative rule. Within days, Yorkshire was alight with protests and pit walkouts, and by the end of the week the biggest coalfield was at a standstill. In the county, 56,000 men …