Michael Dugher: Without truth, there is no justice for the miners

Justice for the Coalfields is an attempt to gain transparency and reconciliation. We have been clear that we want the current Government to address the very specific issues raised in the 1984 cabinet papers that were released last month under the “30-year rule”.

That is why we are asking for three things from Ministers. Firstly, given that the Cabinet papers show that the public were lied to about the then government’s plans for pit closures, we feel there should be a formal apology for the actions of the Conservative government during the strike.

Secondly, all details of the interactions and communications between the then government and the police at the time of the strike should now be published.

Thirdly, there needs to be a proper investigation into what happened at the so-called Battle of Orgreave, where the prosecution of 95 miners collapsed in the face of lawsuits brought against the police for unlawful arrest, assault and malicious prosecution, and where South Yorkshire Police had to pay out nearly half a million pounds in compensation.

Instead of addressing these specific issues at Prime Minister’s Questions last week, a belligerent David Cameron chose instead to embark on a boorish political rant about Arthur Scargill. This followed Norman Tebbit, who last week likened the Miners’ Strike to the Falklands War – a strong indication of the disturbing mentality of government Ministers at the time of the dispute.

Writing in the Yorkshire Post last Friday, Bill Carmichael similarly ignored the details contained within those recently released Cabinet papers and defined the debate today simply as a choice as to whether you were with Arthur Scargill or with Margaret Thatcher. But the debate today is more complex. I’m critical of both Scargill and Thatcher. And you don’t have to support either to feel it’s important that we get to the truth.

Those of us that lived through the dispute – I was a boy at the time living by the Yorkshire Main Colliery with family and friends on strike – still feel a strong sense of lasting injustice, both because of the damage those events inflicted and because of the failure to hold to account those in power at the time. Labour’s campaign cannot undo the damage that was done, but we can shine a light on what happened. The scars still remain on the memories, communities and landscapes of all coalfield communities.

Nationally, nearly 200,000 mining jobs were lost due to pit closures in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Following the strike, many mining areas in Yorkshire were knocked to their knees and have been struggling to get back up ever since.

Take the example of Grimethorpe in my constituency. Within a year of the pit closing in Grimethorpe – the setting of the village “Grimley” in the film Brassed Off – the village was listed as the poorest in England and amongst the most deprived in the whole of Europe. Crime increased from 30 per cent below the national average to 20 per cent above it. The 1981 Census recorded 44 per cent of Grimethorpe’s workers as miners. By the time of its closure in 1993 it employed 6,000 people. After the pit closed unemployment was above 50 per cent for much of the 1990s,

Many miners never worked again. Some become self-employed and others eventually got jobs – usually less skilled and less well-paid – in sectors like retail or distribution.

But even today, we are still dealing with first, second and third-generation unemployment. A recent report concluded that for Barnsley to reach the average job density for the country, more than 30,000 new jobs are needed and average weekly earnings need to increase by £59.50 to reach the national average.

This economic legacy must of course be confronted with a new approach which prioritises the investment we need to bring the jobs of the future to the coalfields.

But the seriousness of the revelations in the Cabinet papers means that ministers cannot sweep these issues under the carpet. Neither should politicians or commentators see this as ancient history. It is not about the past but about the truth. Until we have the truth, we cannot have justice for the coalfields.

Michael Dugher is Labour MP for Barnsley East and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office.