1984 miners’ strike started by ‘mistake’

● Deal ‘torpedoed by Thatcher’

THE spark that exploded into the year-long miners’ strike was a mistake, according to a book published today to mark the 25th anniversary of the start of the dispute.

The conflict began in March 1984 and became one of the greatest trade union struggles since the 1926 General Strike, pitting the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), led by Arthur Scargill, against Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government.

On March 5, 1984, miners at Cortonwood colliery in Yorkshire, and others in the county, walked out.

The next day the unions were told that Cortonwood was only the first of a wideranging programme of closures that would shut 20 pits – throwing 20,000 miners on the dole.

But according to the book, Marching to the Fault Line, the National Coal Board (NCB) never intended to include Cortonwood on the list of pits to be closed at that time.

An internal report quoted in the book said: “In procedural terms, the Area Director was wrong to announce closure (of Cortonwood) at a General Review Meeting. Closure has not yet been confirmed by the Board.”

No proper closure procedure had begun at the very pit that started the strike – it had all been “wrongly handled” from the beginning, the book revealed.

A retail park now covers the Cortonwood site near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, which at its height employed 1,000 men.

The book also reveals that Peter Walker, who was Energy Secretary during the strike, was due to attend the Conservative’s annual conference and stay in a room at Brighton’s Grand Hotel – which was bombed by the IRA in October 1984 – but decided at the last minute to stay in London to be on hand for the dispute.

Junior minister Sir Anthony Berry stayed in the room instead, and was killed in the explosion.

Walker told the authors of the book: “Arthur Scargill saved my life.”

The authors, journalists David Hencke and Francis Beckett, also reveal that secret talks between TUC general secretary Norman Willis and NCB chairman Ian MacGregor almost led to a deal a month before the strike ended.

The Government was “alarmed” when it heard of the talks, and there were rumours that the coal board boss was “bamboozled” by the TUC leader into accepting a deal that gave Mr Scargill a “get out of jail” card, which would have led to him seizing victory from “certain defeat”.

There was a “dramatic intervention” by ministers, including a brusque phone call from Mrs Thatcher to Mr Macgregor, and the Government was saved at the 59th minute of the 11th hour from a “grossly embarrassing” situation.

The episode led to Mr Walker deciding that the coal board boss had to go within a year of the dispute ending, which is what happened, according to the book.

Mr Scargill refused to cooperate with the authors.

The book also details the “chilling” statistics of the dispute, including 9,808 arrests, more than 10,000 charges, 551 complaints by miners against the police, 1,392 police officers injured, three murder charges, 682 miners sacked for “violence and sabotage”, while the cost of the police operation alone was put at £200m.

Marching to the Fault Line, published by Constable, £18.99.