MY LETTER TO FRANCIS MAUDE

I have just written to Francis Maude MP regarding the Justice for Coalfields campaign. The text of my letter is set out below.

Francis Maude MP
Minister for the Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS

30 January2014

Dear Francis

JUSTICE FOR THE COALFIELDS

As you know the 1984 cabinet papers made available earlier this month has reopened old wounds relating to the yearlong miners’ strike.

I have to say I was shocked by the way in which Margaret Thatcher used the instruments of the state against ordinary working class men and women. Their only ‘crime’ was in seeking to protect their communities and to secure a future for their children. Most of those pit villages never recovered, which is why many see Margaret Thatcher as an abomination and were incredulous about the quasi-state funeral she was given last year. I hope you will understand how these revelations have only intensified the bitterness and sense of injustice.

Coal mining was a way of life for communities throughout our land. It beggars belief that it was ended, not for any right or justifiable reasons, but because of a determination to crush the National Union of Mineworkers. In my home county, Derbyshire, we lost the Arkwright and Cadley Hill pits in 1988. Within three years the Creswell pit had gone too, followed in successive years by those in Shirebrook, Bolsover and Markham. Even after Margaret Thatcher had been replaced, more and more pits found it impossible to continue and yet we’re importing around 45 million tonnes of coal each year.

I would therefore like to join my colleagues in calling on your Government to:

• Formally apologise for the actions of the previous Conservative Government
• Detail all interactions between the Government and police during that period
• Release all information about government-police communications specifically around Orgreave, with a proper investigation which might go a little way to rebuild public confidence.

A gross injustice was done to Britain’s coalfields communities by Margaret Thatcher’s and John Major’s Governments. If your Government’s commitment to transparency means anything, you will accede to these three reasonable requests.

Yours sincerely






Chris Williamson MP