Orgreave

[mushroom25]

this weekend marked the 34th anniversary of the "battle of orgreave" -
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-44500039

given that after all this time, most of those (whether police, governmental or strikers) responsible for the decision making at orgreave will be long gone from office, or dead, what exactly would an inquiry achieve now, or any time in the future, save for the spending of an awful lot of cash?

[dannyk13]

Not often his happens, but I agree with TTT.

[ToraToraTora]

PS, wish we had the Orgreave plods now to deal with these scum "travellers" running riot.

[gulliver1]

He will fight Dodge City, Scum Travellers, all alone, unaided , with one hand tied behind his back, Superman has returned , he will fight for truth and justice .
Bless!.

[diddlydo]

TTT - have you ever stopped to consider the damage done to whole mining communities by Thatcher's actions? Do you not recognise the right of Trades Unions to strike without being met by police brutality such as was witnessed at Orgreave? And no, I'm not part of the snowflake generation - I witnessed these events via the news media and have seen the results in my travels to these persecuted communities. It makes me very sad.

[scooping]

diddlydoo: The miners, flying pickets from elsewhere, were breaking the law.

[diddlydo]

Scooping - only because Thatcher provoked them.

[Baldric]

Let's be honest, we could do with the Officers that 'fought' at Orgreave on the streets today.

[Baldric]

Thatcher,
Right person,
Right job,
Right time.

[naomi24]

//TTT - have you ever stopped to consider the damage done to whole mining communities by Thatcher's actions? //

Labour closed twice as many mines as the Conservatives.

http://peoplescharter.org/pit-closures-were-a-labour-policy-wilson-shut-twice-as-many-as-thatcher/

[Baldric]

Read it and weep ^^^^ Diddlydo.

[douglas9401]

"Labour closed twice as many mines as the Conservatives."

But not with quite the panache or sense of purpose (to say nothing of the overtime)

[ToraToraTora]

Diddlydoo: “TTT - have you ever stopped to consider the damage done to whole mining communities by Thatcher's actions?” – yes the medicine was harsh but the patient was dying needed it very badly. The mining industry was a leviathan of inefficiency and a bastion of union dogma, a fact even recognised by Labour, who, as pointed out, closed far more mines than the Tories.
“Do you not recognise the right of Trades Unions to strike without being met by police brutality such as was witnessed at Orgreave?”
Yes, I do when the strike is not politically motivated, questionable by the unions own democracy (show of hands, seriously?) and without the usage of illegal flying pickets, intimidation and violence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_David_Wilkie
“ And no, I'm not part of the snowflake generation - I witnessed these events via the news media and have seen the results in my travels to these persecuted communities. It makes me very sad.” – thank Scargill and co for that, they were the disease TGL was the cure. If the unions had been sensible then she would never have risen. They are the architects of TGL, I thank them very much, as does the western world.

[gulliver1]

The greatest problem the Witch had , was she just hated the working class.

[gulliver1]

She hated the working class, so much ,she introduced the poll tax, but that was her BIG mistake , and was the Beginning of the end for the Witch , that is when she was nicknamed TGL ," The Greatest Loser"

[ludwig]

I can't see any point to an enquiry.

[-Talbot-]

I can't see the point of going over this yet again with armchair pundits who never experienced it... Which is why I am just reading and head shaking.

[Deskdiary]

Er, except the community Charge was a fairer system than Council Tax, but it got up the noses of certain people in society because they were required to personally contribute.

As it stands you can have any number of earning adults in a house paying the same amount of money as their next door neighbour who may have only one earning adult in the house. This is fundamentally unfair, whereas the Community Charge was much fairer.

[Kromovaracun]

Thatcher did of course make many decisions that were difficult and necessary, and the broad strategy of her policies were probably correct on balance. Many of the old state-owned enterprises weren't sustainable or competitive if the UK wanted to be a global-oriented economy.

Of course, looking into the details, it's a bit harder to justify why so many of the old SOEs were sold at rates that seriously undervalued them. Or why still-productive coal pits were flooded during the strike. Some of the less-enduring policies in her third term (in which she appears to have developed megalomania) are probably also best-forgotten.

[mushroom25]

// Or why still-productive coal pits were flooded during the strike. //

do you have a link to that Krom? not that I don't believe; of the 115 mines closed by the Thatcher administration, only 25 were closed during the actual year of the strike - none of which I can find any information on deliberate flooding.

[Kromovaracun]

I didn't read it online, no. I think Ian Gilmour mentions it in 'Dancing With Dogma' but I might be mistaken. It's certainly discussed in Seamus Milne's book on the strike, but that one requires a bit of caution for obvious reasons.