Kevin Maguire writes:
The 150,000 who packed into the magnificent city of Durham on a glorious sunny day at the weekend for the annual miners’ gala were cheering, clapping, yelling proof that David Cameron’s writ does not extend across Britain.
Crowds 10-deep on the medieval streets to applaud a six-hour procession of trade union banners, brass bands and proud marchers from pit villages – stripped of their coal mines but never their fighting spirit – were another reminder that fewer than a quarter of voters in Britain handed the Tories a flukey election victory.
Cameron is as unwelcome a viceroy from the Conservative Home Counties in North East England as he is in much of a divided nation.
The gala is political Glastonbury, a celebration of working people.
And if this Tory Prime Minister wants to visit Durham on July 9 next year for the 132nd “Big Meeting” he would need to deploy more coppers than Thatcher did when she turned coalfields into militarised zones to defeat men fighting for their jobs in the 1984-85 strike.
Just one colliery is left in Britain, Kellingley – after Thoresby in Nottinghamshire ceased production – and the Child of Thatcher will complete his mother’s work when that pit in Yorkshire shuts by the end of the year.
Clueless Cameron has no mandate in large swathes of the country for malicious policies that impoverish working people, to flog and shut services or strip them of their job rights either individually or together in trade unions.
It was inspiring to stand on the County Hotel’s balcony to enjoy the procession and then listen to fiery speeches on the racecourse on a bank of the River Wear these days used as Durham University’s cricket ground.
The Durham Miners’ Gala is an antidote to the myth and fears pushing some working people to Nigel Farage’s Purple Shirts [Who? I do not know why you can still be bothered to mention them after their all of one seat, and that in the South East].
The answer is hope and a message identifying the enemy as banksters and political charlatans, rather than scapegoated migrants.
Durham is a warning too for Labour’s wannabes, as acting leader Harriet Harman waves her white handkerchief of surrender at Tory social security cuts.
The working class is alive, and kicking Labour politicians who worry most about what Middle England supposedly wants instead of standing up for workers on low wages in insecure jobs.
Labour is paying a heavy price today for all those years when New Labour acted, and continues to act, as if everyone was middle class. They’re not.
Indeed 55%, a majority, define themselves as working class.
Left-winger Jeremy Corbyn electrifies the Labour leadership contest, enjoying a hero’s welcome in Durham, because he challenges a miserable consensus.
Instead of slagging him off, Corbyn’s rivals should display his passion.
Because there is nothing bold about swallowing nasty Tory policies.
The 150,000 who packed into the magnificent city of Durham on a glorious sunny day at the weekend for the annual miners’ gala were cheering, clapping, yelling proof that David Cameron’s writ does not extend across Britain.
Crowds 10-deep on the medieval streets to applaud a six-hour procession of trade union banners, brass bands and proud marchers from pit villages – stripped of their coal mines but never their fighting spirit – were another reminder that fewer than a quarter of voters in Britain handed the Tories a flukey election victory.
Cameron is as unwelcome a viceroy from the Conservative Home Counties in North East England as he is in much of a divided nation.
The gala is political Glastonbury, a celebration of working people.
And if this Tory Prime Minister wants to visit Durham on July 9 next year for the 132nd “Big Meeting” he would need to deploy more coppers than Thatcher did when she turned coalfields into militarised zones to defeat men fighting for their jobs in the 1984-85 strike.
Just one colliery is left in Britain, Kellingley – after Thoresby in Nottinghamshire ceased production – and the Child of Thatcher will complete his mother’s work when that pit in Yorkshire shuts by the end of the year.
Clueless Cameron has no mandate in large swathes of the country for malicious policies that impoverish working people, to flog and shut services or strip them of their job rights either individually or together in trade unions.
It was inspiring to stand on the County Hotel’s balcony to enjoy the procession and then listen to fiery speeches on the racecourse on a bank of the River Wear these days used as Durham University’s cricket ground.
The Durham Miners’ Gala is an antidote to the myth and fears pushing some working people to Nigel Farage’s Purple Shirts [Who? I do not know why you can still be bothered to mention them after their all of one seat, and that in the South East].
The answer is hope and a message identifying the enemy as banksters and political charlatans, rather than scapegoated migrants.
Durham is a warning too for Labour’s wannabes, as acting leader Harriet Harman waves her white handkerchief of surrender at Tory social security cuts.
The working class is alive, and kicking Labour politicians who worry most about what Middle England supposedly wants instead of standing up for workers on low wages in insecure jobs.
Labour is paying a heavy price today for all those years when New Labour acted, and continues to act, as if everyone was middle class. They’re not.
Indeed 55%, a majority, define themselves as working class.
Left-winger Jeremy Corbyn electrifies the Labour leadership contest, enjoying a hero’s welcome in Durham, because he challenges a miserable consensus.
Instead of slagging him off, Corbyn’s rivals should display his passion.
Because there is nothing bold about swallowing nasty Tory policies.
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