I HAVE no problems with a general amnesty for miners convicted during the strike ("'Make miners part of 80s strike probe", The Herald, January 4), as I was in the mining industry for 25 years, working underground at both Killoch and Barony collieries and was “out” for the year. However there are aspects to this story that require comment. Labour had many years in government in both the UK (which issued the orders for policing) and Scotland, to enquire into policing or hold an inquiry into the whole strike. It did not do so then, so why now? Many of the miners who were involved or victimised are now dead: miners don’t tend to have a long retirement.
If an apology were required, I would prefer one for all the mining communities – whose people basically lost the right to work. No new industry was lucratively enticed into the old mining areas: no new car plants for us. It wasn’t just the Tories, but when Labour came to power it did nothing to re-industrialise these communities either. I would also point out that both Labour and Tory governments have syphoned many billions of pounds out of the Mineworkers Pension Fund; money which should rightly have been re-invested for the benefit of the people it came from. The word “profiteering” springs to mind.
The strike may have been political in nature (Mick McGahey had a reasonable solution in the summer, but was vetoed), as was the response of the government, but this agitation now by a Labour Party (which gave us no support then) so long after the event, also carries the stench of political opportunism with it.
GR Weir,
17 Mill Street, Ochiltree.
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