Campaign for a Miners’ Memorial Day
THIRTY years ago Britain’s pit towns and villages were thriving communities. There was near full employment for a workforce that had the essential skills to get the nation’s energy resources out of the ground.
The miners and their families took great pride in what they did, feeling they were directly contributing to the welfare of the British people. It was a very dangerous industry but this helped to build tremendous comradeship and support for one another. Support not only at work, but also within the community.
But this fine spirit, and great worth to our country was destroyed as a result of the pit closure programme. This way of life is no longer, even though our mining towns and villages are still sitting on considerable reserves of coal.
Now there is just unemployment. There’s been very little regeneration, so for today’s school leavers there are few job prospects and an uncertain future, whereas once there would always have been a job and a livelihood to be earned.
The Tories are to blame for the destruction of Britain’s mining industry and that is something the people of this country must never forget and never forgive them for.
Margaret Thatcher knew that strong trade unions, looking after the welfare of their members, were a block on the move towards free trade and globalisation, so she took on the strongest one, the National Union of Mineworkers, determined to break it and leave the British coal industry vulnerable and ready to dismantle.
Now Britain imports coal from Eastern Europe while our miners sit idle at home on top of quantities of coal that could help to meet this country’s energy needs.
A Tory Government destroyed the pits, the communities and the values those communities stood for, and for the last 12 years a Labour Government has done nothing to breathe life back into the industry.
This a shocking betrayal. In 1997 when it came to power, Labour promised to halt the decline of the British coal industry but then did nothing of the sort – the pit closures have continued, more miners have lost their jobs and most of our coal is still being imported.
The British National Party believes that British coal has a major role to play in meeting our future energy needs and that is why we are the only political party pledged to revitalise Britain’s coal mining industry. But as well as looking to the future, we must remember the past.
Back in 2005, the British National Party launched a campaign to call for a Miners’ Memorial Day. The Labour Government had just given the Police their own Memorial Day for officers killed in the line of duty, and the BNP lobbied for a similar day of remembrance for our miners. Needless to say our efforts were ignored by the Government but the campaign continues and has gained renewed impetus in this 25th anniversary year of the Miners’ Strike.
No one knows how many men and boys have died doing their duty for their country in our coal mines. 90,000 died in mine disasters alone in the sixty years before WW1 and including coal dust related diseases such as chronic bronchitis and pneumoconiosis the total casualty figure is well over one million.
The British National Party believes there should be a special occasion when the country remembers all those miners who lost their lives miles under ground, hewing out the coal that was the vital energy source in the Britain of the nineteenth and twentieth century.
On the BNP’s Campaign for a Miners Memorial Day leaflet, the following poem by Ian Winstanley was included. Its title Britain’s Forgotten Army sums up so well our miners’ plight, both past and present.
There is a large forgotten army,
Who for their country have bled and died,
Leaving behind them wives and children,
Brothers and sisters who cried.
No bugle marks the passing of these men,
No beating drum or fusillade,
No flying colours, measured tread,
Or monuments of stone are made.
No day when flowers are strewn,
At the foot of an inscribed stone,
When men march proudly
With their comrades and memories, alone.
This forgotten army of the dead
Have served their country well.
It’s fitting that we remember them,
And their proud story tell.
Martin Wingfield also has a daily blog which can be found here.
