Pardon for miners
36 years after strike, 500 pitmen ‘to have convictions quashed’
HUNDREDS of miners could be pardoned more than three decades after a violent dispute which threatened to plunge the UK into darkness.
A report to Ministers has found they were treated in a ‘grossly excessive manner’, and the Scottish Government plans to pardon around 500.
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf is set to make an announcement on the matter to the Scottish parliament next month.
The decision will reopen the wounds of one of the most controversial chapters in UK history. Margaret Thatcher famously considered militant miners to be ‘the enemy within’.
The National Coal Board had plans for pit closures which put an estimated 100,000 jobs at risk. In response, Arthur Scargill’s National Union of Mineworkers imposed an overtime ban in October 1983, which would have cut production and reduced coal stocks just as winter approached.
In March 1984, the closure of
Cortonwood pit, in South Yorkshire, triggered a nationwide strike, with Scottish miners also downing tools.
It lasted for an entire year and was frequently bad-tempered with allegations of violence on both sides.
In Scotland, Polmaise Colliery, near Stirling, which was among 20 threatened with closure north of the Border, saw some of the most militant action. There was also trouble at Bilston Glen, Midlothian; Monktonhall, in East Lothian; and Ravenscraig steelworks, in Lanarkshire.
Striking miners on the picket line attempted to barricade entrances and stop other miners who wanted to work from entering the sites.
An estimated 1,400 miners were arrested and 500 convicted, many on public order offences.
However, miners always insisted that their treatment was unjust.
In 2018, the Scottish Government commissioned a report, led by John Scott, QC, which has now been handed back to Ministers.
According to the Daily Record, it said that the miners believed they had been treated in a ‘grossly excessive manner’, adding that it was ‘hard to disagree’.
The report states: ‘The impact of convictions went beyond the men affected, touching their families and communities, both in terms of the financial consequences of dismissal and unemployment, as well as confidence in the police, judiciary and the state. Dismissals followed in many cases, with pensions reduced or lost and re-employment thereafter difficult or impossible to secure for many. This compounded a sense or arbitrariness, even injustice.’
The review group, which also included former MSP Dennis Canavan, former Police Scotland assistant chief constable Kate Thomson and Jim Murdoch, a professor of public law at Glasgow University, believes a pardon should be granted to all miners without other convictions, including those who have since died.
Labour MSP Neil Findlay, who has long campaigned on the miners’ behalf, said: ‘This has been a long and emotional campaign, but it shows that with determination and right on your side then historic wrongs can be righted.
‘I urge Humza Yousaf to take on these recommendations. I am looking forward to this being announced in parliament and legislation coming forward to deliver these pardons.’
Mr Yousaf said: ‘I understand the strength of feeling which still exists among communities affected and I am thankful to the many people, including miners and retired police officers, who have met me to discuss its continuing impact.
‘I have been considering my response and, subject to parliamentary time being available, plan to update parliament in October.’
‘This has been a long and emotional campaign’