Orgreave

Orgreave

The 18th June Nineteen Eighty Four

A date that The State had been long planning for

Revenge on it’s mind, heart filled with hate

No chance that Orgreave would be Saltley Gate

No diversions or road blocks for pickets that day

Just escorting of miners along their way

For those men their fate was already sealed

As the bobbies led them down to the corn field

Battle lines drawn, plans hidden from sight

Horses and dogs to the left and the right

Five thousand coppers armed up to the teeth

Community policing this wasn’t to be

The order was given, mounted police charged

Then short shield units commenced the barrage

Blows rained down to the head and the back

As the pickets they fled from the brutal attack

The beatings were savage, injuries many

Broken limbs, gashes, bruises ten a penny

Policemen delivered what their masters had yearned

Expenses and overtime dutifully earned

That paragon of virtue, the BBC

Doctored the film that the public would see

Footage reversed, truth bent like a bow

Government and broadcaster had their ducks in a row

Shamefully, ninety five miners charged with riot and affray

Their crime it appeared was just running away

A potential life sentence for these men of coal

The State had bloodied body but still desired soul

Ninety five acquittals eventually served

Collusion and perjury exposed by lawyers

No officer prosecuted, nor yet disciplined

For the lies that were peddled about “the enemy within”

The “enemy within” who works deep underground

In the damp and the dark with no natural sound

Who with each breath of dust reduce their life term

As in retirement they wait for the dreaded “e” word

And now a public inquiry denied by the Home Secretary

A stockbroker’s daughter, a Cheltenham College lady

No need then for justice, no search then for truth

That’s a privilege reserved for a more genteel group

A word for you Amber, it doesn’t end so

Politicians will come and politicians will go

But the working man and women no longer bend at the knee

The truth we will have it, whenever that be!