Yorkshire<\/a> miners and wider working-class communities that was the lasting effect. This was particularly true in the following days, when the government of Margaret Thatcher and South Yorkshire police influenced the media narrative. Some former miners have since spoken about feeling outraged and despondent that their experiences from that day were misrepresented.<\/p>\nCompounding matters, 95 miners were charged with rioting, in a case that ultimately collapsed after the police\u2019s evidence was found to be unreliable and, in some instances, fabricated. It was described by the barrister Michael Mansfield as \u201cthe biggest frame-up ever\u201d.<\/p>\n
All this led to mistrust in authorities, particularly the police, for generations \u2013 a situation that has still not been resolved.<\/p>\n
Pete Wilcox, the bishop of Sheffield. Photograph: Joel Goodman\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Wilcox said it was not right to say that the public consciousness had moved on since the miners\u2019 strike. \u201cNobody in South Yorkshire or in the former mining communities of the north-east is saying we\u2019ve all moved on. It\u2019s easy to say that if you are not part of a community that was impacted in 1984.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe point of this inquiry is to enable communities to move on which have not been able to move on since the miners\u2019 strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evidence will be especially difficult to gather, however, given that many people who witnessed or participated in the events at Orgreave have since died. \u201cI\u2019m sorry to say that\u2019s true,\u201d said Wilcox, who has spent years speaking to mining communities and who in 2018 tried to persuade the then home secretary, Amber Rudd, to launch an independent public inquiry, but was rebuffed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a sense it might have been most effective for this inquiry to have been held 30 years ago, but you can\u2019t turn the clock back. We are where we are. And as a matter of fact, there are still many, many people who are frustrated that they have not yet been able to put their story on the record.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there are many people who are really happy that the moment has come when they will be able to give their account of what happened at Orgreave. And we will try to be creative about the way in which we source witness testimony and to do it in a way that is trauma informed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of their age, many both former miners and indeed former police officers, some of them are in a state of frailty and we will want to be extremely sensitive to the needs of individuals in the way in which we get their story on the record.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bishop said he did not think there was a risk that witnesses\u2019 recollections would not be accurate 42 years on from such a traumatic day.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor one thing, we won\u2019t just be relying on oral testimony. There is a great deal of documentary evidence and audio files and video files. And we will, because it\u2019s a statutory public inquiry, be able to compel evidence, so we\u2019ll have access to documents that are currently embargoed or restricted. We will be able to give a much fuller picture based on documentary evidence than has previously been available. And that\u2019ll help us to triangulate, I suppose, with witness statements to make sure that we\u2019re telling a truthful story.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut actually, although as a general rule it\u2019s true to say that human memory fades, when you\u2019ve lived with a traumatic experience, it remains vivid for you. And I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to encounter a great deal of misleading memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inquiry will rely in part on police records, some of which have since been destroyed, but Wilcox said he felt encouraged that police would cooperate with the inquiry in the way they are legally compelled to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do know that the Northumbria police did destroy some documents within the last 12 months, actually, so the timing is excruciatingly unfortunate. We understand the reasons that they\u2019ve provided for why they\u2019ve done that. But most police forces, as far as we are aware, haven\u2019t destroyed relevant documentation. And I know that South Yorkshire police have not only retained their documentary evidence, they have been digitising it in readiness for this inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilcox urged anyone with recollections of the events to contact the inquiry<\/a>. He said his hope was that the inquiry \u201cwill provide answers to some of the questions with which, particularly former miners and those in former mining communities have been living for the past 40 years.<\/p>\n\u201cBecause if we can provide some answers, that will, I think, help to resolve the trauma that has not yet been resolved in those places.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former miners will finally get the chance to speak the truth about their experiences after four decades of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-499135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}