Toxic legacy of miners’ strike

THIRTY years on from the start of the miners’ strike in Yorkshire and the passage of time has still failed to heal those communities torn apart by a dispute that defined the ideological struggle waged in the 1980s between Margaret Thatcher and a trade union movement headed by Arthur Scargill.

The enduring enmity is such that the next 30 years are unlikely to end the bitterness of 1984-85 – and it is laid bare by Yorkshire Post reader Barrie Frost’s evocative account on this page in which he describes his experiences as a milkman in Knottingley and how some of his customers had to pay for their deliveries on credit.

“No one could have expected the strike to last for a year and the calibre of the ‘normal’ coal miner was very evident as I didn’t have a single bad debt, with them paying the built up bill in instalments in the year following the strike,” observes Mr Frost, before condemning the obstinacy of the NUM.

Yet, while this anniversary has, inevitably, led to calls for inquiries into the conduct of the police to be extended to the agenda pursued by the Thatcher government, the more pressing issue today is the future of Britain’s coal industry at a time when global energy supplies are threatened by the escalating crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

Now the greatest threat to the long-term stability of Europe since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, it offers another powerful reminder – if one was needed – that Britain needs to maximise the use of its own resources if it is to avoid a return to the nightly blackouts that characterised a previous miners’ dispute in the 1970s.

This should include coal – the development of carbon capture technology needs to be harnessed – as well as other energy sources.

In this regard, the safeguarding of future supplies is just as important today as Mrs Thatcher’s principled stance 30 years ago to ensure the country was not held to ransom by a strike that should have been avoided – a decision which continues to polarise opinion.

Gesture politics

Tories do need to embrace women

IT is ironic that Anne McIntosh’s latest intervention on flooding and the need for the Environment Agency to spend more money on the dredging of rivers comes when the Tory high command has ratified the de-selection decision taken by members in her Thirsk and Malton constituency.

For, despite an acrimonious relationship with her local party, Miss McIntosh has been assiduous in holding the Government to account in her role as chairman of Parliament’s environment committee. If there is to be better decision-making in the future, it requires Parliament’s select committees to be effective and the North Yorkshire MP has never shied away from her duties, even if some of her committee’s conclusions have not always reflected well on David Cameron.

Given this role’s importance, there remains bemusement that such an individual should fall foul of her local party when the main political parties are all trying to engage with more women.

It is why there is still considerable unease in North Yorkshire as Thirsk and Malton Conservatives decide the means by which their 2015 candidate will be selected. Some contend, forcefully, that Miss McIntosh was not diligent enough locally while others say she has been the victim of a witch-hunt orchestrated by a male clique.

Yet the Tories, nationally and locally, cannot escape the fact that Miss McIntosh is the party’s only female MP in Yorkshire and the North East – and that it would be extremely unfortunate if she was to be replaced by a middle-aged male lawyer, for example.

Perhaps this is the one occasion when one of Labour’s all-women shortlist could help the Conservatives draw a line under this sorry affair. And, while this might infuriate those who say the party must be a meritocracy, it would, at least, signal a desire for the Conservatives to become more representative of society.

The apprentice

Sir Ken embodies hard graft

HOW apt that Sir Ken Morrison’s visit to Bootham School, York, to test a smoothie bar business set up by enterprising students should coincide with events to mark National Apprenticeship Week, including a visit by Prince Andrew to Leeds and Nick Clegg’s contribution in today’s Yorkshire Post.

For Sir Ken remains Yorkshire’s ultimate apprentice – he began his working life on his family’s market stall in Bradford before having the foresight to launch Morrisons and then the vision to transform the supermarket into one of Britain’s most successful companies.

It is the type of ambition which schools should be encouraging – today’s students are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and Sir Ken is an inspiring example of how young people can overcome humble beginnings if they are prepared to graft for a living.

The 82-year-old is a living example of how success can be earned – a notion which education policy-makers need to reinforce at every opportunity to neutralise the damaging complacency of the “something-for-nothing” culture that had taken root within the welfare system before Iain Duncan Smith’s reforms.