O/T Orgreave.

[Leekbrookgull]

Most of us recall the bitter dispute of 84/5 along with the pitch battles between Miners and Police and there was politics from both sides. However its a picture like this (and they maybe others like it ) where a beating was dished-out for no apparent reason that one has to question the logic for such an action.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Agreed. Violence on both sides.

But for those like andy Burnham who are saying there should be a public inquiry, why was there not one in one of Blair's three terms?

 

[mikeyjh]

View attachment 79081

Most of us recall the bitter dispute of 84/5 along with the pitch battles between Miners and Police and there was politics from both sides. However its a picture like this (and they maybe others like it ) where a beating was dished-out for no apparent reason that one has to question the logic for such an action.

Photo that encapsulates the 80s for me, the bitch's war against the unions and a decade that is reflected fondly in the middle class south and not so much up north.

Family friends had that photo on the wall, never forgot it and probably changed the way I thought about the police and government.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Agreed. Violence on both sides.

But for those like andy Burnham who are saying there should be a public inquiry, why was there not one in one of Blair's three terms?

Because Blair was a ****?

 

[knocky1]

Agreed. Violence on both sides.

But for those like andy Burnham who are saying there should be a public inquiry, why was there not one in one of Blair's three terms?

Latest calls for an enquiry had more clout after South Yorkshire Police Force criminality was exposed in the recent Hillsborough Trial.

 

[ThePompousPaladin]

One of the reasons given for not having an enquiry was that policing standards had changed in the interim, so there would be little to learn.

Doesn't this imply there was wrongdoing?

 

[soistes]

Refusal to hold a public enquiry does smack of a classic establishment stitch-up as far as I can see. The suspicion must be that any enquiry would reveal a lot about the role of Thatcher and the current government is not keen to have her sainted memory trashed. A lot has been learned from Hillsborough etc about police cover-ups, so there's plenty of grounds to suspect something similar here and when you add in the additional factor of top-level political pressure to crush the miners the case for an enquiry seems really strong. Even if the government really believes there isn't a case, given the history of bitterness and distrust, why not have the enquiry, get it all in the open and put it to rest for once and all?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[knocky1]

Amber Rudd makes Joey Barton seem a nice guy.

 

[Ernest]

Amber Rudd makes Joey Barton seem a nice guy.

And a very chequered past too

 

[Beach Hut]

Didn't the government demand that the press and TV showed the start of the battle in reverse as the police attacked the miners first ?

 

[Bry Nylon]

View attachment 79081

Photos can be deceptive. Who's to say that the mounted officer hasn't just galloped in and gallantly caught an iron bar that has been hurled at the hapless woman by an unseen mob of baying miners?

People can be so quick to judge.

 

[studio150]

GB84 by David Peace is worth a read. While fiction it does cover real events at the time of the miners strike including Orgreave.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Disgraceful decision not to hold an inquiry. Only yesterday a policeman, who was there on the day, told BBC News they ( the police) were told by senior officers what to write up in their reports. This is exactly the same behaviour employed by the police at Hillsborough. It looks very much like a another stitch up by the West Yorkshire Police. It needs looking at.

 

[The Albion Roar]

Agreed. Violence on both sides.

But for those like andy Burnham who are saying there should be a public inquiry, why was there not one in one of Blair's three terms?

The fact that there should be a public inquiry has nothing to do with whether Margaret Thatcher or John Major or Tony Blair or Gordon Brown or David Cameron was the Prime Minister.

There should be a public inquiry, and that's the end of it, and Amber Rudd's reasons don't stand up to the first piece of scrutiny.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

The fact that there should be a public inquiry has nothing to do with whether Margaret Thatcher or John Major or Tony Blair or Gordon Brown or David Cameron was the Prime Minister.

There should be a public inquiry, and that's the end of it, and Amber Rudd's reasons don't stand up to the first piece of scrutiny.

So you agree there should have been an inquiry in the decade that Blair was in power?

 

[The Albion Roar]

So you agree there should have been an inquiry in the decade that Blair was in power?

There should have been an inquiry the moment the trials collapsed.

Why you wish to round on one Prime Minister who had no intention of tarnishing Thatcher's legacy, I've no idea.

 

[GT49er]

Photos can be deceptive. Who's to say that the mounted officer hasn't just galloped in and gallantly caught an iron bar that has been hurled at the hapless woman by an unseen mob of baying miners?

People can be so quick to judge.

......and so quick (or possibly biased) to get it totally wrong?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

The miners were utterly mislead by Scargill & co. Coal was already dying and Scargill used it for his own political agenda. That said, the police acted is a disgusting, violent, illegal way and should be held to account - Rudd and May appear to be too lillylivered to do so though.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

There should have been an inquiry the moment the trials collapsed.

Why you wish to round on one Prime Minister who had no intention of tarnishing Thatcher's legacy, I've no idea.

The point I'm making is that if there was to be an inquiry it should have been a long time ago.

Whether that was under Major, Blair, Brown or Cameron is irrelevant

Burnham is bleating that there should be an inquiry, but his party had more than a decade to set such an inquiry up.

 

[GT49er]

The miners were utterly mislead by Scargill & co. Coal was already dying and Scargill used it for his own political agenda.

And he finished up a whole lot richer than the people who paid their union subscriptions to pay his wages too! Surprised he didn't get a medal from a grateful Thatcher government for his help in smashing the unions. Still, I suppose gratitude wasn't in Thatcher's make up.............................

That said, the police acted in a disgusting, violent, illegal way and should be held to account.

Disgusting and violent certainly, but suspect they were acting under orders from a higher authority (government), so if anything it would be that higher authority that would be culpable, rather than the police themselves. Still high time that that whole police force was disbanded, like the B Specials were in Northern Ireland, and replaced with a completely new police force, IMHO.