THE 1984-85 miners’ strike devastated individual lives and coal mining communities.
Scottish miners bore the disproportionate brunt of arrests, criminal convictions and sackings. A total of 76.5 per cent of respondents to a Scottish Government public consultation on pardons for miners favoured addressing historic injustices and Holyrood legislation was passed in 2022.
In 2023, SNP Midlothian MP Owen Thompson introduced a Miners’ Strike (Pardons) Bill at Westminster. History cannot be re-written, but miners’ pardons obligate the state to show long-overdue respect.
Margaret Thatcher’s hard line on miners as “the enemy within” further damaged the Tories’ reputation in Scotland, which last week’s Budget does little to repair. The First Minister described the budget’s “absence of investment in public services and infrastructure” as “nothing, frankly, short of a betrayal by the UK Government”. Tories and Labour, focussing on holding power rather than your cost-of-living challenges, aren’t being straight with you. The Institute for Fiscal Studies warns that “Government and opposition are joining in a conspiracy of silence” about “the choices and trade-offs ...” [and] the “rude awakening” after the next election.
Gordon Brown’s warnings about the “risks” of independence in 2014 included rising prices in shops; higher interest and mortgage rates; losing a million jobs linked to being in the UK; and a risk to the NHS not from Westminster but from SNP policies. The grim result of voting no? More austerity; wage stagnation; a cost-of-living crisis; crumbling public services; and a Labour/Tory Brexit taking Scotland down with the ship. Westminster didn’t support the SNP’s immediate ceasefire vote to end the immoral collective punishment of Gaza civilians and the outrage of children dying of hunger. The UK Government shamefully abstained on the UN humanitarian ceasefire vote. Where are Scotland’s values in this?
The Tory plan to deport desperate migrants to Rwanda was condemned by the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly Moderator: “Faith compels us to advocate for all of God’s children, regardless of... their immigration status.” The House of Lords proposed amending the Rwanda Bill but, opposing change, Lord Stewart of Dirleton argued that amendments would “undermine completely” the bill’s aims. That’s precisely the point – this toxic bill must be undermined. Humza Yousaf decried it as “repugnant”, declaring it should not be in Scotland’s name; I’d add, still less in Lord Dirleton’s.
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