Tony Benn on the Durham Miners gala, 35 years ago, at the height of the 1984/5 miner’s strike
Photo credit: Sunderland Echo
Sunday 15th July 1984
Alan Meale rang to tell me about the Durham Miners’ Gala yesterday. Apparently 100,000 people were there. Dennis Skinner made a brilliant speech which got a standing ovation but, when Neil Kinnock got up to speak, three bands started playing and moving off the field, and about 85,000 people with twelve banners just began moving away. All Neil did was to attack the Tories- he didn’t give support to the miners.
While Tony Benn’s Diary entry has an anecdotal quality it reflects the mood of the times. Dennis Skinner was, and is, a former miner and on the left. Neil Kinnock who had become Labour leader in 1983 after Michael Foot’s defeat at the General Election of that year was widely criticised for not supporting the miner’s strike more robustly. It must be said however that until the current leadership, historically it has been unusual for Labour leaders to back strikes and historical hindsight might note that at least Kinnock did show up. Blair who was an MP for a north-east constituency never spoke at the Gala.
It is a reminder too that the Durham Miners Gala is not just some entertaining exercise in labour movement archaeology, celebrating the glorious victories (and more often defeats) of the past. There is a lot of living current politics being discussed.
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