The London media are going bananas about the new deep coal mine "in Cumbria". They cannot say "Whitehaven". Every hamlet in the Home Counties is assumed to be known universally, but a port town of 20,000 "in the North" might as well be on the Moon.
Anyway, they are having kittens about this new pit. But it comes as no surprise to the rest of us. As soon as Margaret Thatcher died, then we knew that the miners would be back. As soon as Jeremy Corbyn became the Leader of the Opposition, then we knew that the miners would be back within 10 years. As soon as Donald Trump became the President of the United States, then we knew that, by crossparty consensus, the miners would be back within five years. And now, here we are.
A new pit will mean a new branch of the NUM. 35 years after the Miners' Strike. "Who won?" is suddenly no longer the rhetorical question that those who posed it had always assumed it to have been. We may look forward to seeing the Whitehaven banner at the Durham Miners' Gala. And indeed, at the 2026 Burnhope Miners' Gala, to be addressed, like that in 1986, by Jeremy Corbyn.
If you want to guarantee that there is a Burnhope Miners' Gala in 2026, and if you want the balance of power in the coming hung Parliament to be held by someone who recognised that Britain needed to return to being the world leader in clean coal technology that it was until the Strike, then it has become a local commonplace that I am on 30-30-30 with Labour and the Conservatives here at North West Durham, so that any one of us could be the First Past the Post. I will stand for this seat, if I can raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
Anyway, they are having kittens about this new pit. But it comes as no surprise to the rest of us. As soon as Margaret Thatcher died, then we knew that the miners would be back. As soon as Jeremy Corbyn became the Leader of the Opposition, then we knew that the miners would be back within 10 years. As soon as Donald Trump became the President of the United States, then we knew that, by crossparty consensus, the miners would be back within five years. And now, here we are.
A new pit will mean a new branch of the NUM. 35 years after the Miners' Strike. "Who won?" is suddenly no longer the rhetorical question that those who posed it had always assumed it to have been. We may look forward to seeing the Whitehaven banner at the Durham Miners' Gala. And indeed, at the 2026 Burnhope Miners' Gala, to be addressed, like that in 1986, by Jeremy Corbyn.
If you want to guarantee that there is a Burnhope Miners' Gala in 2026, and if you want the balance of power in the coming hung Parliament to be held by someone who recognised that Britain needed to return to being the world leader in clean coal technology that it was until the Strike, then it has become a local commonplace that I am on 30-30-30 with Labour and the Conservatives here at North West Durham, so that any one of us could be the First Past the Post. I will stand for this seat, if I can raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
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