THOUSANDS DEMAND AN END TO GOVERNMENT LIES AND COVER-UPS

Are the Tories afraid that an Orgreave Inquiry would  further expose their scandals and corruption? 

Community support for truth and justice continues to grow, with almost 12,000 people so far signing a recent petition for the Home Secretary to order an inquiry into police brutality and government involvement at Orgreave during the 1984/5 miners’ strike.

Thousands of supporters of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) will also be writing to Priti Patel to  demand an inquiry to put an end to years of lies and cover-ups by the Conservative government about the political role they played in orchestrating and managing the pit closure programme in the 1980’s, directing militaristic police operations in an industrial dispute and manipulating the media to manufacture a false narrative to demonise workers fighting for their jobs and communities.

At the request of the previous Tory Home Secretary, Theresa May, in 2015 our campaign submitted detailed information and compelling evidence about the police riot at Orgreave on 18th June 1984 when striking miners were violently assaulted, then charged, some held in custody to be later acquitted due to police lies and fabricated evidence. Her successor Amber Rudd ignored this evidence and after giving the OTJC false hope, in October 2016 ruled out any kind of inquiry. No one in Government or the police has ever been held to account for what happened at Orgreave.

Joe Rollin, Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign Deputy Chair said:

“Rudd’s successor Sajid Javid and now Priti Patel have sidelined our requests to meet with them to discuss the important growing and mounting evidence and information that has come to light about the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike even since 2016. Patel’s attempts to ignore the campaign are cowardly and unacceptable. Sweeping malicious and dangerous government and police conduct under the carpet does not make it go away and is a serious threat  to democracy” 

John Dunn, ex miner assaulted by the police and arrested during the strike said:

“We know that Rudd’s spurious reasons for preventing an Orgreave inquiry was about dodging scrutiny. It has also been recently confirmed that she chose to continue to protect the vile legacy of the Thatcher years rather than come clean about the cesspit of Tory government corruption and police malpractice.”

Planned pardons by the Scottish government for Scottish miners arrested during the strike, the continuing seething anger in ex mining communities, the fact that police papers from the time of the strike are embargoed from public release until 2066 and the growing numbers who support this campaign for truth and justice, show it is in the public interest to hold an Orgreave inquiry to have a full and authoritative review of what happened at Orgreave.