Lasting Impact

Excellent news about Jackdaw. Now, on to Rosebank, while even the Green Party has dropped its opposition to nuclear power. The time will come when everyone will pretend always to have been in favour of the all-of-the-above energy policy. In the meantime, though, some old wrongs still need to be righted, as Grace Shaw writes:

People with a connection to the 1984 Battle of Orgreave are invited to attend community listening events to help the public inquiry into the dispute "understand its lasting impact". Violence broke out between police officers and miners outside the Orgreave coking plant in Rotherham on 18 June 1984, in one of the pivotal moments of the 1984–85 miners' strike. 

The independent Orgreave Inquiry, announced by the government in July 2025, will examine planning around the policing of the demonstration, events on the day itself and charging decisions following the arrests made. Anyone connected to the incident is invited to attend listening events in Barnsley on 28 October and Durham on 12 November. 

Orgreave Inquiry chair the Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, Bishop of Sheffield, said: "The events at Orgreave affected many people in different ways, and those experiences continue to resonate more than 40 years on. We want to ensure that those voices are heard and understood. Whether you would like to share your own story, listen to others, ask questions about our work or simply find out more about the inquiry, I warmly encourage you to register and join us."

The events at Orgreave took place during the miners' strike which was sparked after the National Coal Board announced in March 1984 that it was shutting 20 UK collieries it said were unprofitable, resulting in the loss of at least 20,000 jobs. More than three quarters of the country's 187,000 miners went on strike in response to the announcement.

The Orgreave Inquiry organisers said the events were about listening and conversation and were not a formal evidence-gathering exercise. Stories heard will support the chair and panel's investigation into the events. The events will take place at the National Union of Mineworkers offices on Huddersfield Road in Barnsley on 28 October, and at Redhills Durham Miners Hall on Flass St on 12 November. Both will run from 10:00-17:00 GMT.

Justice must be served so that we can move on from the situation in which no energy price cap could meaningfully be said to exist, since it kept being put up, while the standing charges on gas and electricity were 50 times the cost of maintaining the networks, and although they were supposed to protect the suppliers from going bankrupt, not only had they repeatedly failed to do so, but they had never come down when those suppliers have been eye-wateringly profitable. As ever, someone is getting paid. And as ever, it is not us.