Write to the Home Secretary

Please use and adapt the template below to write to the Home Secretary asking for an Orgreave inquiry.

public.enquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk

coopery@parliament.uk

 

Dear Home Secretary

I am writing to you to ask you to set up an independent inquiry or panel as soon as possible about the actions of the police at the Orgreave coking plant on 18th June 1984 during the 1984/5 Miners Strike. On that day dozens of truncheon armed mounted officers and snatch squads in riot gear brutally attacked picketing miners. Many miners were injured and 95 miners were arrested and charged with either riot or unlawful assembly. The trial of the arrested miners collapsed when the Prosecution abandoned the case after it became clear that the police had falsified evidence and perjured themselves in court.

Some miners were later financially compensated but there was never any investigation into police conduct for assault, wrongful arrest, false prosecution and lying in evidence. Not a single officer faced disciplinary or criminal proceedings and no body in the government or the police was held to account for orchestrating attacking and arresting the miners. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) have since stated that there are “doubts about the ethical standards of officers in the highest ranks of South Yorkshire Police at the time”

The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) provided the Conservative Home Secretary, at her invitation, with a lengthy legal submission in December 2015 calling on her to set up an independent public inquiry. The Conservative government consistently rejected any kind of inquiry.

I believe that the issue of Orgreave is of local and national importance. Contact with the OTJC about a full inquiry / investigation into the violent and military style of policing on 18th June 1984, Conservative government involvement in the miners’ strike, the demonising of picketing miners by the government, media and judiciary and the perjury by the police is urgent in order for truth and justice for miners to be achieved as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely