Vocal Voices

.... was more right than wrong.

The Thatcher government did intend to destroy the NUM and the miners with a rolling programme of pit closures far in excess of what had been negotiated and published. Papers newly released show that there were secret meetings in Downing Street and that no stone was left unturned to prevent the NUM making strike payments. They also show that West and South Yorks police forces used officers from outside their areas because their own could be identified.

I wonder how many miners who were jailed for fighting for their right to survive - far longer sentences than fiddling MPs got - will get a pardon or even an apology?

I had no time for Scargill. I thought that he was an idiot, that he did not handle things well, and that his claims were outrageous. It now turns out that his claims were not as outrageous as I once thought.

Nothing changes Frank, we are told what is considered good for us. I remember those strikes only too well, my son then in his late teens was delivering goods during the strike, he was attacked by the strikers,his windows smashed and I believe the mob would have killed him had he not driven for them who were in a rage. One miner was hit by his lorry he was taken to court
And he got off.

We, the plebs, are deemed not to need to know much of what is going on.

As you say, no one is very surprised and nothing changes.

A lot of what Scargill said at the time was believed round here. It's all done with now, even though "Look North" from Leeds never passes up a chance to relive the old, lost socialist battles of the past.

Scargill was never elected to the position of President of the NUM. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I worked with someone who was in the mining industry at the time and a member of the NUM in South Yorkshire. Ballot papers were never sent out as they should have been for the election after Joe Gormley retired. This was one of many reasons Joe Gormley would not have Scargill on the TV show" This is your life"