‘These men were badly wronged. It is up to Scotland to right those wrongs’
MSP on the need to compensate miners unfairly arrested in 1984
An apology to the miners wrongly arrested on the picket line during the 1984 strike must only be the start, according to Richard Leonard.
The MSP and former leader of Scottish Labour is calling for compensation to the strikers who, because of their criminal conviction, lost redundancy payments, pensions and the chances of securing new jobs.
Proposed legislation to be discussed by MSPS at Holyrood next week would pardon the men but Leonard says that is not enough. He is campaigning on behalf of the 1,400 miners arrested, the 500 men convicted and 200 sacked for pro testing against the pit closures and is calling on the Scottish Government to step up and compensate those who were unfairly endured the consequences of an unwarranted arrest.
The government has so far refused to consider paying compensation but Leonard asks: “If not the Scottish Parliament, who? There was a distinctive Scottish dimension to the way the miners’ strike was policed up here.
“Miners were arrested by Scottish police, prosecuted by Scottish procurator fiscals and sentenced by Scottish sheriff sin Scottish courts.
“This isn’ t about employment law, it’s about the criminal law. “Don’t let anyone tell you it is ‘ for Westminster’ to resolve this. Scotland can and must right these wrongs, including with compensation, so we can hold our heads high and know we finally gave these families the full justice they have deserved for so long.”
Coal had been mined in Scotland for hundreds of years, and at its height the industry had almost 200,000 miners working in the pits. Until 1843, children as young as eight were put down the mines, with one life lost for every 70,000 tons brought up from the dank darkness.
By the time of the year- long 1984 strike, Scotland still had more than 100,000 miners but the industry did not survive the dispute, leaving accusations of wrongdoing on all sides.
The mines were privatised within a couple of years and one by one they eventually closed as Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government scrapped the National Coal Board in 1987.
The last active deep mine in Scotland was at Longannet, Fife, which closed in 2002 when major underground flooding left its owners facing receivership.
In 2020, the Scottish Government said it would pardon the miners arrested in 1984 after an independent review. Humza Yousaf, then Scottish justice secretary, said the planned legislation would deliver a collective and posthumous pardon to help provide closure to mining communities and the officers involved.
“This was a bitter and divisive dispute,” he told MSPS. “Although three decades have passed, scars from the experiences still run deep. In some areas of the country, the sense of being hurt and being wronged remains corrosive.”