Pardon for miners is decades too late - Helen Martin

It takes many years, if at all, to correct the wrong and evil things a government has done. Now that the Scottish Government has a Bill to pardon coal miners who were convicted for actions during strikes when Margaret Thatcher shut down the industry, it’s been almost 40 years.

Former miners outside the Scottish Parliament last week

A protest was one thing. But police were ordered into violent attacks. Thatcher was loathed in Scotland. Most supermarkets where I lived and worked (Glasgow) had huge containers for shoppers to give food for penniless miners’ families. Everyone did, whether they were professionals or “working class” in the early 80s.

Miners who were convicted (whether that was hitting back in defence at an attacking copper or just a breach of the peace) were condemned as criminals and their lives ruined.

Families were shattered with some divided over the strike. I worked in a Glasgow newspaper then and was sent to a picket line where, with a bit of investigation, I found one miner whose brother was a policeman. They’d actually managed to shut down the subject at home and the officer was being sent to another picket line than his brother’s.

Many miners have died before this pardon would wipe out their criminal records.

Younger people today may not understand why so many older Scots hated Margaret Thatcher and her Tory government, subjecting Scots to a poll tax, selling council houses, treating workers abysmally, and more.

It seems a bit shameful now, but I have to admit, many of us were glad with her dementia and death.