Hain Slams ‘Thatcher Conspiracy To Hammer Miners’
Margaret Thatcher’s Government was guilty of a conspiracy to ‘hammer’ striking miners in the yearlong 1984-85 strike claimed Neath MP Peter Hain.
‘Cabinet papers recently made public under the 30 year rule prove that Thatcher used the full might of the state to attack the miners and their families,’ Mr Hain said after a debate in the House of Commons today.
‘Her strategy was to criminalise the miners using every trick in the book. Miners driving to support fellow strikers had their car keys taken from them.
‘A coach hired by miners in Neath did not turn up after police told the coach company miners could not hire it.
‘Road blocks in Nottinghamshire alone led to 160,000 miners’ pickets stopped in first seven months of strike in clear breach of the law.’
He continued: ‘The miners and their families – especially the women support groups – worked heroically but they could not win against such a brutal government. It’s legacy haunts us today: proud and strong coalfield communities destroyed, robbed of jobs with no investment to create new ones.’
-ENDS –
Read Peter’s interventions in the debate here