Durham Miners Response to the Tory Annual Dinner Provocation

From Alan Cummings DMA

“We can only assume that the Conservative Association involved has sought to organise its event at your museum as a deliberate insult and act of provocation.”

Alan Cummings, Secretary of the DMA, has written to the director of the National Coal Mining Museum for England following the announcement that it is hosting the political party which destroyed the coal mining industry.

The full text of Alan’s letter:

We are very concerned to learn today that a Conservative Association has announced it is holding a fundraising event at the National Coal Mining Museum on 10 March 2018.

We very much appreciate the work that the museum undertakes to celebrate the rich history of our country’s mining heritage. We cannot see how it could ever be deemed appropriate to host the same political party which destroyed the coal-mining industry and labelled our communities ‘the enemy within’. The communities of the Durham Coalfield like other former coal-mining communities across the country, continue to suffer the social impact of this political act of economic vandalism, inflicted by the Conservative Party.

The National Coal Mining Museum itself stands on the site of the former Caphouse colliery. It is just a few miles away from Orgreave, the site of appalling police violence against miners.

The current Conservative Home Secretary last year refused to hold a public enquiry into this outrage and a campaign is ongoing to secure a public inquiry, establish the truth, and seek justice for the victims.

The guest speaker at the event is a Conservative Party politician who has played a prominent and active role in the oppression of disabled people, including many former coal miners and their families.

Given the above, we can only assume that the Conservative Association involved has sought to organise its event at your museum as a deliberate insult and act of provocation.

We regard the decision to accept this booking as an extraordinary error of judgement. We hope common sense prevails.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Cummings

Secretary

Durham Miners’ Association