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The Guardian
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Tuesday briefing: Uncovering the truth behind the bloodshed at Orgreave, four decades on
Good morning. In 1999, the investigative journalist David Conn sat down at home one evening to watch a documentary by the film-maker Yvette Vanson called The Battle for Orgreave, which told the story of the violent policing in 1984 of coalminers at the Orgreave coking plant in Rotherham, South Yorkshire during the miner's strike. A pivotal moment in the year-long strike by the mining unions, opposed by the Thatcher government, what happened on that day at Orgreave is also remembered as one of the most brutal clashes in British industrial history. The violence and bloodshed perpetrated by police at Orgreave was already infamous, but it wasn't until David watched Vanson's film that he learned that 95 miners were arrested that day and then put on trial the following year on charges of riot and unlawful assembly. The trial collapsed after the police evidence was discredited. The film was the start of a 25-year reporting journey for David to investigate the injustice at Orgreave. His initial reporting into the scandal in 2012, which made links between the conduct of South Yorkshire police at Orgreave and its policing of the Hillsborough disaster five years later, has this week culminated in the government announcing a statutory inquiry in an attempt to get to the truth of what happened at Orgreave more than four decades ago. For today's newsletter, I talked to David Conn, now the Guardian's investigations correspondent, about his reporting on the Orgreave scandal and the long road towards establishing the inquiry. Middle East | Israel has launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza, targeting Deir al-Balah, the key hub for humanitarian efforts, and the last part of the Palestinian territory not extensively damaged by war. Utilities | The water industry regulator Ofwat will be abolished after a major review of the sector, which has been hit by scandals over sewage contamination and financial mismanagement. US politics | Harvard University was in court on Monday to argue that the Trump administration illegally cut $2.6bn of its funding. National Archives | The US was warned that invading Iraq without a second UN security council resolution could cost Tony Blair his premiership. Blair's foreign policy adviser, David Manning, said 'the US must not promote regime change in Baghdad at the price of regime change in London'. Reform | Nigel Farage has pledged to spend £17bn in order to halve crime in the UK if his party is elected. He claimed that the cost would be met by scrapping Britain's net zero pledge and HS2. On a hot, cloudless summer morning on 18 June 1984, at the height of the bitter miner's strike, 8,000 miners gathered to picket a coke works in Orgreave. Within hours, the day descended into chaos as the miners faced a force of 6,000 police officers. Police on horseback repeatedly charged the crowd, police bludgeoned picketers and 'snatch squads' were dispatched to arrest over 95 people, who were then charged with rioting. The incident has become widely known as the 'battle of Orgreave', and was even re-enacted in a famous performance work by the artist Jeremy Deller. But David Conn finds the term inappropriate. 'It suggests two equal sides engaged in conflict. This was, in reality, a scene of shocking police violence with officers riding horses into a crowd of men wearing jeans and T-shirts and then beating unarmed people with police truncheons,' he said. 'The miners went there as part of an industrial dispute and some did throw stones, but the extent of misbehaviour was greatly exaggerated and they were met with a state force that was equipped and ready to inflict violence.' How this story of a injustice came to be told Fifteen years later, when David sat down to watch Vanson's documentary, he was shocked by the images of unarmed men being set upon by police, but it was what happened at the trial that was more disturbing. 'I had no idea it had even happened,' he said. 'Yet it was clearly a huge injustice, dubbed an alleged 'frame-up' by South Yorkshire police.' All 95 men were acquitted after their defence team argued that the police's own footage at Orgreave contradicted the testimony from officers that had been the backbone of the case against those standing trial, all of whom would have faced heavy prison sentences if convicted. 'Some of the miners who were acquitted that day said that they expected to be greeted by banks of TV cameras and reporters when they walked out of court because of the discrediting of the police case . But the world had moved on,' said David. 'Their stories just did not become part of the public narrative about what happened at Orgreave.' *** What is the connection between Orgreave and Hillsborough? David immediately saw a link between the forgotten trial and the conduct of the South Yorkshire police at Hillsborough. 'I was already reporting on the false narrative that the South Yorkshire police had constructed seeking to blame Liverpool supporters for the disaster but which was due to their complete mismanagement of the football match,' he said. 'So watching that film was a jaw-dropping moment because [I realised] it was the same police force accused of fabricating evidence and lying.' During his later reporting on Orgreave, David found a document that showed the chief constable of South Yorkshire police, Peter Wright, had been invited to in March 1985 for drinks at the Home Office to celebrate the great work he and his officers had done policing the miner's strike. 'So not only were they not held to account for violence that everyone had seen on television or the fact that, later, the trial had collapsed, but they were congratulated for their fine policing,' he said. 'And it appeared to be the same culture, led by the same chief constable, supported and celebrated by the government, that was in place during the disaster at Hillsborough, and the same lack of accountability was allowed to shift responsibility and falsely blame the victims – another huge injustice – for decades.' Back in 1999, with the Hillsborough injustice still enduring and scant public awareness of the Orgreave trial, as a young freelance journalist David found it difficult to secure commissions to report on these scandals but stuck with the stories for decades as he became established at the Guardian. It wasn't until 2012, when his reporting on the Hillsborough disaster and alleged police cover-up had helped establish the Hillsborough Independent Panel Report (HIP), that he was able to publish his first piece making the connection between the two scandals. The HIP's 2012 report became a landmark, leading to a second Hillsborough inquest, whose jury in 2016 found that no behaviour of Liverpool supporters was to blame for the disaster and that the 96, now 97, people who died were unlawfully killed due to gross negligence manslaughter by the police. Why did it take so long for an inquiry to be set up? David's 2012 article, pointing to the link between the two 1980s South Yorkshire policing scandals, prompted a BBC Yorkshire documentary about Orgreave, broadcast the same year, which highlighted that dozens of police officers' statements alleging criminal behaviour by miners had the same opening paragraphs apparently dictated to them by detectives. Shortly after, activists and veterans of the strike set up the Orgreave Truth and Justice campaign, which has since fought for justice for the victims and accountability for the violent policing that they were subjected to and the discredited evidence advanced to try to convict innocent miners of serious crimes. By 2015, Yvette Cooper was calling for an inquiry, which Labour included in its 2017 manifesto. The government made it a priority to establish the inquiry after they came to power last summer. What happens now? The inquiry will comprise a panel of experts, chaired by Pete Wilcox, the bishop of Sheffield, modelled on HIP. Yet, unlike that panel, the Orgreave inquiry will be statutory, giving it the power to compel people to provide information. Wilcox, who is developing the framework of the inquiry with the Home Office, said he expects it to begin work in the autumn. Eventually, it is likely to produce a report that will aim to illuminate the full truth of the police operation and, campaigners hope, redress the historic 'enemy within' portrayal of the miners involved in industrial action in the 1980s perpetrated by the Thatcher government and large sections of the media at the time. It may also shine light on the culture of South Yorkshire police that was still in place in 1989, when the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough would descend into horror. Although no police officer has ever been held to account for the false evidence that was used to charge 95 men, David said it could be unlikely that anybody could be prosecuted, although it has not been ruled out. Is this a victory for the Orgreave campaigners? The launch of the inquiry into the Orgreave scandal is 'a hugely positive outcome', said David. 'It's a positive result for the families and the campaigners and it does show that our journalism can make a concrete difference.' Reporting on Orgreave has been long and time-consuming. 'I've interviewed some of the miners who stood trial after being falsely accused and a lot of them were young guys at the time, with young families and they talked about just how terrifying it had been coming up against the system,' he said. 'They'd been through the strikes, they'd lost so much – their industry, their jobs – they'd faced violence at the hands of the police, and then they were terrified they'd spend years in prison.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion One man called Arthur Critchlow (pictured above), who David first saw breaking down in tears while being interviewed in Yvette Vanson's documentary, who had suffered a fractured skull from a police truncheon, had said this week that the injustice was a trauma that he carried around with him every day for decades. 'And so seeing Arthur Critchlow, with Yvette Cooper in Orgreave this week, talking about what happened and the need for justice is a very emotional moment for me as well, if I'm honest.' Yet for David, this week has been bittersweet: 'It has been 40 years that this injustice has been allowed to stand.' In recent years, the tiny nation of Qatar (population: fewer than 3 million) has acquired an outsized influence, not only due to its immense wealth but its new role as global conflict mediator. Nesrine Malik teases out the story of how and why this happened in a meticulously reported long read. Alex Needham, acting head of newsletters Louise Lancaster, the jailed Just Stop Oil campaigner, is moving and eloquent about her time behind bars in this prison diary. Annie In 2017, Bijan Ghaisar was involved in a minor traffic accident near his home a few miles from Washington DC. Police ended up shooting the unarmed 25-year-old dead. Annie Kelly talks to his mother, Kelly, who was denied justice and can only conclude that the authorities 'wanted us to suffer'. Alex The plight of school staff caught in the minefield of school culture wars is laid out in this anonymous op-ed by a teacher. Annie What do 90s icons do when they want to feel like teenagers again? Go to see the re-formed Oasis, of course. 'I danced my little bottom off,' declares Anna Friel in an interview by Zoe Williams. Alex Football | Liverpool are to take their summer spending to almost £300m after agreeing to pay £69m plus £10m in add-ons for the Eintracht Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike. The 23-year-old Frenchman emerged as the Premier League champions' favoured No 9 after they received no encouragement regarding their interest in Newcastle's Alexander Isak. Tennis | A proposed expansion of the Wimbledon tennis site will go ahead after the high court ruled in favour of an original decision to allow a further 39 courts, including an 8,000-seat show court, on the grounds of the old Wimbledon Park golf club. Rugby union | Andy Farrell has named his son Owen as captain of the British & Irish Lions for the squad's final midweek fixture against a First Nations and Pasifika XV on Tuesday. Farrell will lead a side containing eight players who were not originally selected for the tour as the management seek to keep most of their first-choice 23 fresh for Saturday's second Test against the Wallabies. The Guardian's splash is 'Israel launches offensive on Gaza aid hub amid fears over starvation' while the Mirror headlines on 'End this horror now' under the strapline 'UK condemns aid attacks'. 'Britain to be charged by Brussels for sales won via €150bn weapons fund' – that's the Financial Times on another Brexit consequence. An FT-style headline in the i paper: 'Rise in state pension age beyond 68 is 'inevitable', warns Farage – as future of triple lock in doubt'. A more familiar-sounding Reform leader in the Daily Mail – 'Britain is facing societal collapse, warns Farage' – and the Express: 'Farage: three strikes and it's life in jail'. The Telegraph has 'Rayner demands tax on tourists' while the Times runs with 'Patients at risk during walkouts, warns BMA'. 'Come on England' – the Metro supports England's women as they meet Italy at the Euro. What's holding up a ceasefire in Gaza? How are controversial plans for a 'humanitarian city' in Gaza complicating a deal to stop the fighting? Emma Graham-Harrison reports A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad Andy Kalli (pictured above) once lived a double life, earning money during the day and spending it on crack cocaine at night. He first took cocaine at a pub in his late 20s after a business deal went wrong. 'Once I took that line, in my brain, I was 10ft tall. I started doing a bit more. I started going to casinos to make up the £50k I lost. I ended up blowing £100k in a week,' he says. The years ticked on but it became harder to hide his addiction after his daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Kalli missed hospital appointments during her final year of life due to his addiction. Six months after her death, in 2014, he visited a hospital in the West Midlands and asked for help. Kalli has been clean ever since, and he trained as an addictions counsellor. Three years ago, at 61, he graduated with a first degree in psychology focusing on substance misuse. Now he works at the Perry Clayman Project in Luton, Bedfordshire, and says he advises rehab clients not to apologise. 'Your families have heard it a thousand times. It's by making change that you'll be making amends.' Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
The Independent
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
What happened at the Battle of Orgreave – and why is there an inquiry 40 years laster?
The government has announced it is launching a statutory inquiry into the violent policing at Orgreave during the infamous miner's strike of 1984. Dubbed the 'Battle of Orgreave' by historians, the event saw dozens of picketers and police injured in a morning clash with an estimated 14,000 participants. The inquiry will also look into the collapsed cases of the 95 miners accused of offences there, more than four decades after the events. Home secretary Yvette Cooper announced the inquiry having first informed campaigners last Thursday. She spoke from the site in Orgreave where the coking plant that was the target of the picketing was located. 'People have waited for answers for over 40 years,' she said. 'The scale of the clashes, the injuries, the prosecutions, the discredited evidence, all of those things – there's still so many unanswered questions.' 'I think the miners' strike still has deep scars across coalfield communities, and the decisions made at that time – the broadest decisions that were taken by the Thatcher government in the 1980s – the scars can still be felt across the coalfields.' Here's everything you need to know: What happened at the Battle of Orgreave? On 18 June 1984, one of the most brutal clashes in modern British policing history unfolded as workers organised by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) gathered to picket a South Yorkshire coking plant. The previous evening, NUM president Arthur Scargill addressed miners about plans for the following days' picket. Around 2,000 miners were due to visit Orgreave, a major plant near Rotherham where coal was processed into coke to be used in British Steel factories. Picketers begin gathering as early as 4am on the hot day, and by 7am are being guided in their thousands by police to a nearby field. Here, an estimated 6,000 police officers have assembled, and are facing around 8,000 picketers. Many of the officers are equipped with truncheons, riot shields, or on horseback. Just after 8am, empty wagons begin arriving to pick up coke from the plant. Miners begin pushing towards police line, and police push back. At this point, picketers recall struggling to keep their footing or even breathe in the crush. A few minutes later, the police line opens up, and officers on horses carrying long truncheons advance on the miners. Two more charges like this would take place within the hour, as one senior officer is filmed advising the police: 'Bodies, not heads.' The third charge is accompanied by snatch squads – police with batons and short shields – marking the first time this kind of unit had been deployed on the UK mainland. Miners that have not fled are dragged out of the crowd and pulled to the ground. One news report captures footage of a miner named Russell Broomhead being repeatedly hit in the head with a truncheon. Around 2,000 of the remaining miners are sent to another entrance to Orgreave, where there is another large field. Gates open at 10.15am, when around 30 lorries packed with coke leave the site. Pickets attempt to stop them, and more arrests are made, with allegations of more violence. It is during this final frenzy of activity that Mr Scargill is injured, claiming he had been hit by a police shield. He said: 'All I know is that these bastards rushed in and this guy hit me on the back of my head with a shield and I was out.' Police deny that Mr Scargill was hit by a shield. The lorries get through, and police continue to attempt to disperse remaining picketers. The horse charges and snatch squad activity continues until around 1pm, when the majority of the violence subsides. What was the aftermath? Following the clash, South Yorkshire Police was accused by critics of having pre-planned the violence and overstating the unlawful behaviour of the striking miners. This criticism was also lodged against then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who said the Orgreave picketers had attempted to 'substitute the rule of the mob for the rule of law,' adding that the strike action failed 'because of the magnificent police force well trained for carrying out their duties bravely and impartially.' The following year, the prosecution against 95 of the picketers charged with riot, unlawful assembly and similar offences collapsed. All charges were dropped after their barristers repeatedly accused police officers of lying. Michael Mansfield KC, who represented several of the miners in court, called the event 'the worst example of a mass frame-up in this country this century.' A number of lawsuits were subsequently brought against South Yorkshire Police for assault, unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution. The force would later agree to pay £425,000 compensation and £100,000 in legal costs to 39 picketers in an out-of-court settlement. To this day, the police have not admitted any fault, and no officer has been disciplined for misconduct, Why has an inquiry been launched now? The subsequent 41 years have seen several calls for an official inquiry into the events. In 2012, the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) was launched following the success of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign in forcing an investigation into police conduct in that event. However, in 2015, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it would launch a formal investigation because too much time had passed. Prior to the July 2025 general election, the Labour Party led by Sir Keir Starmer promised to launch an inquiry into Orgreave should it secure victory. A year on from its election, the government has delivered on that promise. OTJC secretary, Kate Flannery, said: 'We have waited a long time for this day and this is really positive news. All these years of hard work by the OTJC and our many supporters has helped to influence this constructive announcement. 'We now need to be satisfied that the inquiry is given the necessary powers to fully investigate all the aspects of the orchestrated policing at Orgreave, and have unrestricted access to all relevant information including government, police and media documents, photos and films' The NUM president, Chris Kitchen, said: 'We are over the moon. We're hoping the inquiry will show that our dispute, which we believe was industrial, was political, orchestrated from No 10, or higher up the food chain towards No 10. 'We never came to this field to cause a riot or to deliberately lame people. I don't think that was the same for the police, who came tooled up, with a plan to injure us, and to try and get the public perception on their side and end the strike.' A spokesperson for South Yorkshire police said: 'We will fully cooperate with the inquiry in a bid to help those affected find answers.'
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Government launches Orgreave inquiry, 40 years after clashes at miners' strike
More than four decades after the violent policing at Orgreave during the miners' strike and a failed prosecution criticised as a police 'frame up', the government has established a statutory inquiry into the scandal. The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced the inquiry having informed campaigners last Thursday at the site in South Yorkshire where the Orgreave coking plant was located. The inquiry into the policing on 18 June 1984 and the collapsed prosecutions marks the culmination of remarkable persistence by campaigners, who argue that the miners' strike remains an enduring source of injustice. The present-day focus on Orgreave developed after 2012, when the Guardian highlighted the violence and alleged manipulation of evidence afterwards by South Yorkshire police, and the fact that five years later the same force was responsible for the Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 people were unlawfully killed. Speaking to the Guardian at the Orgreave site, which has now been developed into an advanced manufacturing complex, retail estate, new homes and parkland, Cooper said: 'I think the miners' strike still has deep scars across coalfield communities, and the decisions made at that time – the broadest decisions that were taken by the Thatcher government in the 1980s – the scars can still be felt across the coalfields.' The Home Office said in its announcement that the criminal charges brought by South Yorkshire police against 95 miners were dropped 'after evidence was discredited'. The legacy of Orgreave has been to undermine 'the wider mining community's confidence in policing for decades,' it said. Cooper said that as an MP for a former mining area in West Yorkshire, she understood the community feeling. She made it clear that the inquiry would address the collapsed prosecutions as well as the policing on the day. 'People have waited for answers for over 40 years,' she said. 'The scale of the clashes, the injuries, the prosecutions, the discredited evidence, all of those things – there's still so many unanswered questions.' At Orgreave, about 8,000 miners assembled for a mass picket called by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and were met by 6,000 police officers from forces nationwide, led by South Yorkshire police. The violence that ensued has become an infamous episode in British history, police charging on horseback and hitting miners over the head with truncheons. Some miners did throw stones before the police charge and retaliated after it, and the next day 28 officers were reported to have been injured. Official reports later put the figure at 72. The NUM, however, has always believed the police violence was pre-planned, and that the South Yorkshire force, and Margaret Thatcher herself, who described the Orgreave picketing as 'mob rule', greatly exaggerated the extent of miners' misbehaviour. The prosecution of 95 miners for the offences of riot and unlawful assembly collapsed on 17 July 1985 after their barristers repeatedly accused police officers of lying in their statements and in court. Michael Mansfield KC, who represented several defendants, said after their acquittals that it had been 'the biggest frame up ever'. The form of the Orgreave inquiry is modelled on the Hillsborough independent panel, whose 2012 report is recognised as a landmark, establishing crucial details about the disaster and overturning the false South Yorkshire police narrative that was intended to avoid responsibility and blame the victims. The inquiry, which will have the power to compel witnesses to testify, will be chaired by Pete Wilcox, the bishop of Sheffield, who has long regarded it as important for community healing. As dean of Liverpool from 2012 to 2017, Wilcox worked with James Jones, then the bishop of Liverpool, who chaired the Hillsborough panel. The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), founded by strike veterans and activists in 2012, welcomed the announcement. Joe Rollin, a founder member, said he was 'cautiously elated' by the prospect of the inquiry. 'We've got a long way to go – and people know us, we're determined, and we'll not give up until we get the justice we deserve.' Arthur Critchlow, one of the miners prosecuted, suffered a fractured skull from a police truncheon blow at Orgreave. He was with the OTJC representatives who met Cooper, and said he lived with the trauma every day. 'It's a massive injustice. For the 48 days of that trial I was convinced I was going to get life in prison.' The inquiry announcement was fantastic, he said. 'I just hope the miners will be vindicated, and the majority of the country will realise that we weren't lying – the media were lying, and the police were lying. I just want the truth, for people to know what the police did, and who ordered it.' The NUM president, Chris Kitchen, said: 'We we are over the moon. We're hoping the inquiry will show that our dispute, which we believe was industrial, was political, orchestrated from No 10, or higher up the food chain towards No 10. 'And that the police were used as a parliamentary force to push a political objective, against working-class lads that were fighting for their jobs in this community and the industry. 'We never came to this field to cause a riot or to deliberately lame people. I don't think that was the same for the police, who came tooled up, with a plan to injure us, and to try and get the public perception on their side and end the strike.' A spokesperson for South Yorkshire police said: 'We will fully cooperate with the inquiry in a bid to help those affected find answers.'
