The Benn Diaries: 1940-1990 (105 page)

As we left, the commander said, ‘Goodnight.’ I couldn’t shake him by the hand, and I told him, ‘I shall never forget tonight.’ We went out and talked to the miners outside.

Having taken all the details and listened to everything that had happened, I went home. I was so upset and angry to think that this is happening in Britain. The police are accountable to nobody. As Tarn, Brian and I parted, we agreed to write a letter to the Home Secretary over the weekend, and we will probably release it to the press.

Saturday 7 July

To Chesterfield. Went over to the club and there was Peter Heathfield, so I
asked him about the talks being held between the Coal Board and the NUM, I must say Peter is marvellous; he’s got a tremendous sense of humour, and he looked tanned and cheerful. He said the talks had gone well from the point of view of the NUM. Ian MacGregor, the Chairman, was trying to be friendly, but after nine hours he had begun to get a bit knackered. He said Jim Cowan, the Deputy Chairman of the Coal Board, was taking a hard line, although that may have been their strategy. Ned Smith, the industrial relations director, was probably less rigid. The three of them – Peter Heathfield, Arthur and Mick McGahey – are working extremely well together. Arthur is totally unyielding and is a field commander; Peter is a negotiator, a diplomat; and Mick McGahey is a straightforward old statesman. They are a fantastic team and totally united. The Coal Board and the NUM have agreed that there’s no problem with closures of pits on the grounds of exhaustion or geological faults, but they are trying to find a new definition of ‘uneconomic pits’, a term which the NUM are not prepared to accept.

I said, ‘What about suggesting to them that the finance for “uneconomic pits” should come from nuclear power?’

Peter said, ‘MacGregor might agree, but that’s a different matter.’

‘Well, bring in the Government.’

‘We don’t want to involve the Government,’ said Peter.

‘Couldn’t you suggest that the “uneconomic” coal be given to pensioners?’ I asked.

‘MacGregor would say that had nothing to do with it.’

It became absolutely clear – and this is what I wanted to hear – that the NUM are not going to give MacGregor an agreement. They are not going to let him come out of it with any credit.

Peter said MacGregor was trying to be very friendly and saying, in his Canadian accent, ‘Come on, Arthur’ and ‘Peter, you must come fishing with me in Scotland’ and ‘What about a game of golf, Mick?’ McGahey, in his Scottish brogue, had replied, ‘I’ve never played golf in my life; it’s a total waste of time!’ It would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall. MacGregor had said to Arthur, ‘Now, Arthur, I’ve got my audience to consider and you’ve got your audience to consider, but the important one is the third audience, the people not directly involved.’ The fact is that the miners now think they are winning.

Peter was prepared to say a great deal in confidence. The morale of the miners is fantastic, the money is coming in and they can manage. He thought the strike wouldn’t finish until the end of August or the beginning of September, another eight weeks.

Sunday 15 July

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 for the miners.

Thursday 2 August

Lawson’s comment that the miners’ strike was a worthwhile investment was followed by the statement that if he had wanted a strike in 1981 he could have had one – which proves that he wasn’t ready then and is ready now. The Prime Minister was on radio and television today saying that she thought the strike had gone on too long; I think they are worried.

Thirty-six years ago today I met Caroline. She put on the very same dress she wore that day and it fitted her perfectly. She looked lovely in it, and it is fantastic that we should have had thirty-six years together. We went out for a meal.

Tuesday 14 August

I do get the feeling that the strike is building up to a real crisis, particularly when you get accounts of incidents like a policeman threatening to stick a man’s darts up his nose, stories of the police being drunk and breaking cars. They are completely out of control. Went on to Warsop, where I heard that at 3 am the police had got out of their vans with their riot shields and walked in front of cottages, banging their batons rhythmically, frightening people.

Friday 24 August

This evening Kathy Ludbrook looked in to discuss the possibility of becoming my secretary to replace Julie. She has exceptional political knowledge and experience. She said one thing to me: ‘I am afraid I am very sensitive to smoking. Do you smoke a lot?’ That really worried me, but we’ll try it out.

Thursday 13 September

The Acting Chief Constable of Derbyshire, Mr Leonard, had written to me saying he would like to see me, and he arrived at the Labour Club accompanied by another officer. I had with me Gordon Butler and Johnny Burrows.

Leonard said at the beginning, ‘I thought it would be a good idea to have a talk, because from some of the things you have been saying about police action you misunderstand that
I
have complete operational control. I have only got 1,800 policemen in the whole of Derbyshire.’

I listened carefully, and said, ‘Thank you very much, but remember I have a certain amount of Whitehall experience as a Minister. I was in the Cabinet during the Winter of Discontent, and I know perfectly well that the Home Secretary chairs a meeting with the police, the army and Ministers
and that all the instructions are given by the Home Secretary. So please don’t ask me to believe that you are in charge. I don’t honestly believe you are.’

Then he made a great point about how in Derbyshire they had not closed the motorways, that the Metropolitan police officers who had been brought in were under his control and they weren’t as bad as we thought. He said he briefed the police every Sunday night about the history and traditions of the Derbyshire miners. He then remarked, ‘You may think me cynical and think I am scapegoating, but it suits our books to see the Met criticised because, when the strike is over, the Derbyshire Constabulary will be able to resume normal relations with the local people and say it was the Mets who caused trouble.’

I thought he was taking a bit of a risk saying that. He’s an intelligent person and, personally, quite a nice guy. He certainly will be a Chief Constable; he is standing in for the Chief Constable.

Then I gave him some examples of people’s fear of the police breaking into their homes in the middle of the night. Generally speaking, I indicated that the situation was explosive and there was no point in pretending otherwise. ‘If I may say this to you, Chief Constable, I believe that you, as individuals, should make it clear to the Home Office that you resent the police being used for what are, in effect, political purposes, and that you are being used to cover up for a failure of government policy.’

He said, ‘Police dislike the idea of being described as “under the control of left-wing extremists in the local authorities”. Well, I am equally against right-wing extremists in the Cabinet controlling us’ (a hostage to fortune). ‘I am quite independent. I am here to keep the peace and enforce the law, and, if there is a conflict between the two, I have, probably, to keep the peace.’

He was looking forward to the time when it would all be over, and I said, ‘I think your problems will begin then.’

Tuesday 2 October – Labour Party Conference, Blackpool

Neil Kinnock made his Conference speech, which lasted forty-five minutes. I was sitting next but one to him, so I had to listen. He got a standing ovation of a most forced kind. People rose to their feet and clapped in order to prolong it. Glenys was brought on and they held up their hands. Then he himself stopped it because it was getting to the point where people were standing like a sullen crowd clapping to try to get the pub doors open! Arthur Scargill had got a spontaneous and passionate ovation, and Neil didn’t want comparisons drawn with Arthur.

Friday 12 October

At 3 o’clock this morning a bomb exploded in the Grand Hotel in Brighton, and four people were killed. Norman Tebbit and his wife were injured, and it just missed Mrs Thatcher, who emerged unscathed. The IRA have
claimed responsibility. It is a big event, like the Gunpowder Plot or the Cato Street Conspiracy. The IRA issued a statement, which the press never printed, saying that they had planted the bomb because prisoners in Northern Ireland were being tortured.

Saturday 13 October

Caught the 7.45 to Chesterfield. There were a couple of young striking miners from South Derbyshire on the train. They had no money at all and I bought them a cup of tea. We had two problems: first, how to get them to Derby without a ticket, then how to get them past the ticket collector in Derby. I spoke to the ticket collector on the train, who initially got very tough and said, ‘I’ll have to take their names and addresses.’ Then he whispered to me, ‘The man behind me is one of my gaffers from BR, a retired inspector.’ So he took their details but won’t act on it. I wrote a note to the ticket collector at Derby, explaining their situation and saying that, as the NUR was showing solidarity with the miners, I would be grateful if they could be allowed through and, if there was a problem, they should send the bill to me. I think everything was all right in the end. It gave me great pleasure that there was this sort of network of help.

Monday 19 November

In the House of Commons a statement was made about the Animal Liberation Front, who claimed to have poisoned Mars Bars with rat poison, as a result of which the Mars Corporation had taken their chocolate out of the shops. The ALF said Mars were funding experiments on animals. Well, there was shock-horror-disgust from all sides of the House. The only person who spoke up and said the Government had been slow to deal with animal welfare was Dale Campbell-Savours of all people. Everyone else just poured contempt on the ALF and said how the RSPCA was being undermined by this sort of irresponsible behaviour.

Wednesday 21 November

I went into the House at 10 pm. After a division, Mick Welsh, Labour MP for Doncaster North, a Yorkshire miner, got up, and he was so incensed at the cut of a further £1 a week from the benefit paid to the families of miners on strike that he stood shaking his finger. Quite spontaneously, Eric Heffer, Dennis Skinner, Dave Nellist and Terry Fields went and stood in front of the mace; a number of people joined them, including myself. I remember the same thing happening over the Industrial Relations Act. On this occasion the Speaker suspended the sitting for ten minutes. There was uproar in the House, and I believe Dave Nellist tore up the statement that the Social Services Secretary, Norman Fowler, was making. The Speaker came back, saw people still standing and adjourned the House. It was a tremendous row, and gave publicity to the miners’ strike and the demand for a debate.
Things happen when you make a row, and if you don’t make a row people don’t give a damn.

Thursday 22 November

To Brussels for a meeting with the British Labour Group in the European Parliament, and we collected £400 for the miners.

Friday 14 December

At 10.35 pm, Joshua rang to say that William Graydon Feeney Benn had been born – our third grandchild. He is six weeks early, but seems to be all right.

Tuesday 8 January 1985

Bought four rather clever attachments to put on my shoes so that I wouldn’t slip on the ice. I’ve been afraid of falling and breaking my hip or something. With the remains of the Guillain-Barré Syndrome I’m still not getting a perfect set of messages from my feet.

Thursday 31 January

Peter Heathfield said there were pickets who simply couldn’t go on any more because their shoes had worn out, they hadn’t got any warm clothes, they had been evicted from their homes, and their gas and electricity had been cut off. The union hadn’t any money; they needed £150,000 a week to keep the strike going.

Sunday 10 February

The judge in the Ponting case apparently said that the interests of the state were the interests of the Government of the day, implying that criticism of the Government was unacceptable.

Monday 11 February

We heard on the news that Clive Ponting had been acquitted – a tremendously significant victory, particularly after the judge had given a violently anti-Labour summing-up. He almost directed the jury to convict.

Wednesday 13 February

A man in Wales has left me in his will many personal papers, including letters from Keir Hardie to Emrys Hughes’s sister (while Emrys was in prison as a conscientious objector during the First World War), and a lovely ebony stick which Mahatma Gandhi gave to Hardie, and a small armchair.

Tuesday 19 February

The press generally presented yesterday’s debate on the
Belgrano
as a great government triumph, with Heseltine having completely destroyed the
reputation of Clive Ponting. The Labour attack hasn’t really registered, and that is the problem that we are facing as a party.

Sunday 3 March

Today the delayed miners’ delegate conference took place at TUC headquarters. The NUM executive had been split 11:11 on the continuation of the strike, and Arthur had refused to use his casting vote. The delegate conference itself ultimately voted by 98 to 91 for an organised return to work.

I felt like weeping when I heard it on the news, after this great struggle – at the fact that the people who had been victimised were not being negotiated back, and at the Coal Board’s and the Government’s arrogance.

The strike has been a monumental and titanic struggle. The overwhelming majority of the miners and their families have supported it to the last, and the crude use by the Government of the apparatus of the state to crush the miners has been on an unprecedented scale. The lessons to be learned from that are enormous. The Coal Board as a nationalised industry has completely abandoned any legitimate loyalty from the miners – they are just state coal-owners.