Scargill won widespread applause for his response to the disaster at Lofthouse Colliery in Outwood, West Yorkshire, at which he accompanied the rescue teams underground and was on site for six days with the relatives of the seven deceased. ", "Cabinet papers reveal 'secret coal pits closure plan', "Cameron rejects Labour call for miners' strike apology", "SCARGILL LEAVES HIS WIFE AFTER 37 YEARS; My marriage is over he tells pals", "Scargill used Thatcherite policy in bid to buy London flat", "National Union of Mineworkers 'expels' Arthur Scargill", "Arthur Scargill wins 13,000 union damages", "Why Arthur Scargill is reluctant to leave his 1.5m Barbican flat", "In search of Arthur Scargill: 30 years after the miners' strike", "List of candidates for the EU Parliamentary elections", "Stalin apologists drink to the memory of Uncle Joe", "Scargill angers unions with Solidarity attack", "Old comrades rub hands with glee at return of hard left", "Scargill highlights policy differences with Jeremy Corbyn", "Brexit means we can reopen the mines and cotton mills, says Arthur Scargill", "Ex-miners' leader Arthur Scargill announced among speakers for 'Rebel Town Festival' in South Tyneside", "Arthur Scargill joins RMT picket at Wakefield", "Arthur Scargill joins striking rail workers on picket line", "Engagements - Debated on Wednesday 22 June 2022", "Johnson and Starmer spar over rail strikes at PMQs", "National Assembly for Wales Election Results 19992007", "Arthur Scargill and the Battle of Saltley Gate" BBC News 10 February 2012, Review of BBC Radio Play: "The Duel", by Michael Samuels the struggle for control of the UK coal industry in 1984, Trade Union International of Energy Workers, Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom, List of political parties in the United Kingdom, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arthur_Scargill&oldid=1133268694, Young Communist League of Britain members, Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, Presidents of the National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain), Short description is different from Wikidata, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from April 2021, Articles with dead external links from October 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. And Stefni warned Margaret's parents that Mr Logan is a "sly, deceitful toe-rag''. As the militant leader of the miners, Arthur Scargill fought Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s. He had also refused to speak to the media, after Margaret Thatcher`s death in 2013, though he was offered a sum of 16,000. [4] He joined the Young Communist League in 1955, becoming its Yorkshire District Chair in 1956 and shortly after a member of its National Executive Committee. Lady Thatchers victories over Mr Scargill in the miners strike and Argentine dictator General Galtieri in the Falklands war were hailed by her supporters as the two key moments of her premiership when they paid tribute in Parliament on Wednesday. He gained fame for using the tactic to win the Battle of Saltley Gate in 1972, and made it his main tactical device in the 1984 strike. Thereafter Scargill led the NUM through the 19841985 miners' strike. 10 Dec 2012. "He doesn't live lavishly, although he does like a glass of red wine. He claimed that the government had a long-term strategy to destroy the industry by closing unprofitable pits, and that it listed pits it wanted to close each year. [22][23], Many found Scargill inspiring; many others found him frankly scary. His father was also a loyal member of the Communist Party. "It was Thatcher's legislation, actually giving council tenants the right to buy their own houses. Anne Scargill (left) and Betty Cook at the National Union of Mineworkers headquarters in Barnsley. And now he's ditched all that. That violence strengthened the stature of the Coal Board and the Thatcher government. They need this like a hole in the head.. During this time, he earned the esteem of significant sections of the left and the British working class, who saw him as honest, hard-working and genuinely concerned with their welfare,[12] and he was also respected for improving the administration of the compensation agent's post. But my father never forced me to be involved in politics at all.[5]. This had great implications for regional relations in the NUM; the executive was described as dominated by "Gormley's rotten boroughs", since every region even quite small ones had one delegate, and the larger regions had only a few more (Scotland and South Wales had two delegates each, Yorkshire had three). McIlroy, J. I've always said that if Arthur can no longer control the NUM, he'll try and destroy it. I received one almost instantly saying Scargill alive! and hes very much alive. We got 111. ", R.R. He called for the cotton mills, steel plants and mines to be re-opened and that under EU rules, the government had not been able to subsidise the coal mines. All rights reserved. Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938)[1] is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. A PEACOCKING manchild lingering where the money is. View our online Press Pack. His time at the top of the union saw not just the strike and his union's defeat, but the rapid decline of the British coal industry not least in the early 1990s, when the-then trade minister Michael Heseltine announced that 31 ofthe UK's remaining 50 deep collieries were to shut. They made a final offer of 16,000." Instead she went on aspokesmansaid.com and Axa covered her for 343, a saving of 424. Angry Stefni Logan revealed that her father James had dated his estranged wife Heather while romancing Dr Margaret Scargill. At the top, surrounded by sunbeams, is the single word "socialism": the destination that, some would say, decisively disappeared from view midway through the 1980s. Shankland's and Hancock's life sentences for murder were reduced to eight years for manslaughter on appeal. He played an important role in the miners' strike of 1972 and was involved in the mass picket at Saltley Gate in Birmingham. His comments followed a question in the Commons from Labour MP Lisa Nandy, who said the miners and their families deserved an apology for the mine closures. People have said things about him and his affairs, and it's only fair that he should be given a chance to respond. I got my mobile phone, and I sent him a text. "At least Women Against Pit Closures tried to do something to prevent it happening. He then started working as a coal miner. Arthur had told me that under no circumstances was he going to give an interview. So how is he? He reaches for his phone and shows me what he received. "But we've had to move to new premises. A former miner and vice-president of the Yorkshire NUM, he now serves as the treasurer of the Socialist Labour Party, the would-be challenger to Tony Blair that Scargill founded in 1996, whose membership has since dwindled to around 300. The two men had been convicted of the murder of David Wilkie, a taxi driver, by throwing a block of concrete from a bridge onto his car. He injured himself acouple of years ago playing penalty shoot-out with his grandkids. And then there is the real Arthur Scargill. {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. ", There follows the most illustrative of anecdotes. [14], Scargill was a very vocal opponent of Thatcher's Conservative government, frequently appearing on television to attack it. They cut it by 255. . In time he and his family moved to a more comfortable, modern home in the town where he grew up. He may still lose. I think people would be astounded if they knew that."[42]. I've had hundreds and hundreds of pounds offered for my story, and I'm not washing my dirty linen in public.". He has his relatives around him, his two grandsons ". Further afield, amid great stretches of empty space, you find places that seem to be clinging on by their very fingertips, such as the former pit village of Goldthorpe, stranded halfway between Barnsley and Doncaster. His last formal tussle with Scargill came on 13 February, when Scargill took four matters to an Employment Appeal Tribunal, and was granted a future hearing. And did we win that? [17], The government announced on 6 March 1984 its intention to close 20 coal mines, revealing as well the plan in the long-term to close over 70 pits. His application was refused because the flat in the Barbican Estate's Shakespeare Tower was not Scargill's primary residence. She and Cook, then a miner's wife were among the founders of an organisation called Women Against Pit Closures, and organised support for striking miners' families, as well as taking to picket lines: early on in the strike, she was hauled away from one such gathering in Nottinghamshire, and detained for hours at a police station, where she was eventually strip-searched. Its main image is of a solitary miner, with arms aloft, climbing a staircase to the clouds. At the top, surrounded by sunbeams, is the single word "socialism": the destination that, some would say, decisively disappeared from view midway through the 1980s. I don't know how far he's got. [32] The documentary suggests that the claims against Scargill were untrue. In the 1997 general election, he ran against Alan Howarth, a defector from the Conservative Party to Labour, who had been given the safe seat of Newport East to contest. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. "[46] Kitchen says that Scargill "has had 30 years of decent living out of the union, and he's got a pension that's second to none. IN Fridays column I was critical of my British Airways flight to New York where both the food and service were poor. Five seconds later, the door creaks open, and there he is: the man who onceparried the huge forces of British industrial history, dressed in a white-and-blue check shirt and light blue denim trousers. Three decades on from 1984, Kitchen says there are many aspects of the strike and its aftermath that have yet to be thrashed out in public: the precise details of what the Thatcher government were up to, the horrific police violence seen at the Orgreave coking plant, the involvement of MI5 and some matters relating to Arthur Scargill. Capstick a genial, soft-spoken man, whose disposition rather belies the rock-solid certainties of his politics talks to me for well over two hours. THE man set to marry the daughter of miners' leader Arthur Scargill was yesterday branded a love cheat - by his own daughter. "And I tell you summat: when I come out of there, I thought to myself, 'Right they can't do owt any worse to me now. The editor of the Daily Mirror at the time, Roy Greenslade, wrote an article in The Guardian in May 2002 to apologise to Scargill for the false claims about paying off the mortgage and for putting too much trust in Roger Windsor, who at the time had still not repaid the 29,500 that he had taken from the Miners' Welfare Fund and that the Lightman Report had asked that he repay. "I'm just curious as to why some of the stuff we're finding out and bringing to light wasn't brought to light years ago," he says. He arrived at the colliery to find he could not get into his office because someone had super-glued the door shut. When the suggestion was put to Mr Cole, why didnt he say the idea was out of the question, not least because the public would want to see an officers face? Scargill decided to turn his attention to politics. He had also refused to speak to the media, after Margaret Thatcher`s death in 2013, though he was offered a sum of 16,000. I receive no reply. DESPITE all the weeping and wailing about Sports Direct, a little known fact is that Karen Byers, the head of ops and credited by founder Mike Ashley as the brains behind the company, started with the firm 25 years ago on. In January 2014, the Prime Minister, David Cameron stated, "I think if anyone needs to make an apology for their role in the miners' strike it should be Arthur Scargill for the appalling way that he led the union. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? 'We now have a situation where the government and the establishment have a funeral on their hands which they wish they didnt have. He felt that the Labour Party had betrayed the basic principles of the party`s constitution. [53] He was not attending any of the events to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the 1984 strike at the NUM. A motion from the Kent area was passed by the NUM conference to move the head office to a coalfield. Wilsher, Peter, Donald Macintyre, and Michael CE Jones, eds. Jeremy Hunt is mocked over toe-curling 'inflation explainer' video by ordering How much will YOUR broadband go up in price? Princess of Wales recycles 1,600 orange Gabriella Hearst top and skirt and 349 Adorable moment the Princess of Wales and a little girl dressed as Snow White play with some sand during a No rest for Anne! Arthur Scargill is now 76. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Dear+Arthur+Scargill%2c+before+you+let+your+daughter+marry+my+love-+rat-a060693318. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984-85), a major event in the history of the British labour movement. In 1958, he attended the World Federation of Trade Unions youth congress in Prague. Robert Taylor depicts Scargill as an 'industrial Napoleon' who called a strike 'at the wrong time' on the 'wrong issue', and adopted strategies and tactics that were 'impossibilist', with 'an inflexible list of extravagant non-negotiable demands' that amounted to 'reckless adventurism' that was 'a dangerous, self-defeating delusion'. A secret record is kept of the time at which all workers arrive and leave each day. They came back to me, and said: 'We'll up it to 10,000.' They divorced in 2001. A lot of conflict followed between the government and Scargill`s union. We now know, for example, that until late 2012, the NUM paid 34,000 a year in rent for his council flat in the Barbican in London and that in 1993, he tried to use the Right to Buy scheme pioneered by Thatcher to buy it. Feedback | Why Arthur Scargill is reluctant to leave his 1.5m Barbican flat The National Union of Mineworkers is fed up of forking out for their former president, but he clearly likes his home among the. MINERS' leader Arthur Scargill has left his wife after 37 years, it was revealed last night. That house sits on the edge of Worsbrough, close to the pit village where Scargill was born. It just said: 'Thatcher dead.' Arthur Scargill wins 13,000 damages from National Union of Mineworkers. In 2016 it was reported that the grandfather of two was living in a three-bedroom detached country house in Yorkshire owned by his. It's the last place Ivisit in Yorkshire before I turn the car round and head south: a low, long, stone-clad cottage only 50 or so yards from the M1, with a silver 4x4 parked outside, and a modest set of gates. One he enjoys showing the world: The great trade unionist, the great Socialist, the great fighter against the evils of capitalism, the man who would walk 1,000. On 25 August 2010, it was reported that Scargill had been told that he no longer qualified for full membership of the NUM under union rules that he had helped draw up, but was only eligible for "life", "retired" or "honorary" membership, none of which carried voting rights. "Yes. They're at it again! [53] Following Margaret Thatcher's death in April 2013, ITN made Scargill several offers for a five-minute interview, with the final offer reaching 16,000, but Scargill refused all the offers and did not speak to any media organisation. Downstairs in the NUM's waiting room there are flyers and posters advertising other events, complete with long lists of invited speakers. Hanging on a door facing the back garden is a fluorescent jacket. After the miners' strike, Scargill was elected to lifetime presidency of the NUM by an overwhelming national majority, in a controversial election in which some[who?] Wheat it and weep! He also represented the Barnsley Co-op at Cooperative congresses. "Well, you've knocked on my door," he says. He wouldn't say another word. And Scargill, 60, has been dividing his time between a granny flat over his union's HQ in Barnsley, Yorks, and his pounds 300,000 London apartment. However, in 1979, the Conservatives were able to win again under Margaret Thatcher, and destroy the majority of the Labour Party. There aretwo security cameras fixed to the front wall, and all the blinds are closed. On the appointment of Ian MacGregor as head of the NCB in 1983, Scargill stated, "The policies of this government are clear to destroy the coal industry and the NUM". Lord Tebbit, one of Lady Thatchers closest allies, said: The trades union generals had brought down Ted Heaths Government. He lives a normal sort of a life. After all hes 78 and the old fraud must go some time. [36] In September 1990, the Certification Officer brought criminal charges against Scargill and Heathfield for wilfully neglecting to perform the union's duty to keep proper accounting records. "Five years ago, when I first started, if we got 30 or 40, we thought we'd got a lot," she says. "One day last year, I was talking to him on the phone. There's more to this new Arthur Scargill chic than mere fashion nostalgia. [16] One branch of the NUM, at Annesley in Nottinghamshire, put forward a vote of no confidence in Scargill in autumn 1983 following his comments on these matters, but Scargill defeated this at a December meeting and won a vote of confidence instead. : A Review of Literature on the 1984/5 Miners' Strike.". Had he done the humble thing and walked away with what he were entitled to, his reputation would still be intact.". 'No.' Arthur Scargill is being investigated by his former unionover the purchase of one of his properties Sources at the development in the Barbican say Mr Scargill is rarely seen at the 2million. In 2014, it was reported that Scargill had become a recluse. Hero of the working classes, Arthur Scargill, has joined the Conservative Party after they allowed the opening of a new coal mine in Cumbria. SCARGILL'S GIRL TO WED MAN WHO SHUT LAST PIT; Mum-in-law's office attack. "Analysing the British miners' strike of 19845.". Like Anne Scargill and Betty Cook, Capstick will be appearing at this year's commemorative events, across Yorkshire and elsewhere. How will she write a book like that while somehow keeping him out of the story? They need this like a hole in the head', They expected, particularly Master Scargill, to bring down her Government, too. Arthur Scargill's net worth estimate is $100,000 - $1M. Scargill had condemned the killing at the time. "It's so hypocritical it's unreal," he said. Another column reader, Sandra from Pinner, North West London, was quoted 767 to renew her car insurance by Direct Line. We went in search of Yorkshire's living legend and found him, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Arthur Scargill leads picketing miners at Orgreave, 1984. Even Muslim groups think the idea is mad. [51] Scargill criticised Poland's Solidarity calling it an "anti-socialist organisation which desires the overthrow of a socialist state", which Scargill saw as deformed but reformable. [15] However, Scargill's statements in the years after becoming NUM president divided left-wing opinion with his support of the Soviet Union, most notably when he refused to support the TUC's positions on the Solidarity union in Poland or on the Soviet shooting down of the Korean Air Lines Flight 007. Does she think she ever will talk about him? of the other candidates claimed that they were given very little time to prepare. Baroness Thatcher was very lucky,' he said. a zero-hours contract. What I infer from that, I tell him, is that he believes the secret services deliberately turned a blind eye to some aspects of Scargill's life. Despite years of bitter battling with the Tories as they closed practically every mine in the early eighties, the bizarre u-turn by for the former union leader has been welcomed by the Conservatives. All net worths are calculated by applying a proprietary algorithm. And he's done very well out of it.". says Scargill. That's what I believe.". He felt the need to fight for changes in the capitalist society, and vowed that he would work towards making the world more equitable. That's what I believe". We did soup kitchens. Its main image is of a solitary miner, with arms aloft, climbing a staircase to the clouds. In a 1975 interview with New Left Review Scargill said: I was in the Young Communist League for about six or seven years and I became a member of its National Executive Committee responsible for industrial work. Anne, in 2001 and reportedly refused to attend the wedding of his daughter Margaret. His major innovation was organising "flying pickets" involving hundreds or thousands of committed strikers who could be bussed to critical strike points to shut down a target. But so far, Arthur Scargill is conspicuous by his absence. It's Mr (coffee) Bean! Having been elected president of the NUM in 1981, Scargill held that position for just over 20 years. So that was my initial introduction into socialism and into political militancy. "There's definitely a disproportionate amount of time and money being spent fighting Arthur Scargill rather than looking after the members and protecting the union," he tells me. Simon Cole, the Chief Constable of Leicestershire has followed the West Midlands Chief Constable and said he would consider Muslim officers wishes to wear burkas. Just to hammer the point home, it was in block capitals: "SCARGILL ALIVE! My father was a Communist. It's always those lower down who are suffering. Back at the NUM I have an appointment to meet Betty Cook and Anne Scargill, to discuss the 30th anniversary of the miners' strike of 1984-5, which began in Yorkshire during the opening days of March 1984. Soon, he also made his first attempt to win political office in a local council election, though he was defeated. Would you not love to have Arthur Scargill as your opponent in any debate, a man who is frightened to go to his own members to get them to vote for a strike that he called? They'll probably be 10 or 11 now.". The staff at headquarters issued a press statement in January 1983 to deny this and to list twelve grievances against Scargill's treatment of his staff. Arthur Scargill destroyed many lives with his attitude and his . He had been a Communist and retained strong Marxist views and a penchant for denouncing anyone who disagreed with him as a traitor Scargill had indeed been elected by a vast margin and he set about turning the NUM's once moderate executive into a reliably militant group By adopting a position that no pits should be closed on economic grounds, even if the coal was exhausted more investment would always find more coal, and from his point of view, the losses were irrelevant he made sure confrontation would not be avoided. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Scargill recalled how after becoming a miner, the poor working conditions and "people who should never have been working, having to work to live on that first day I promised myself I would try one day to get things changed". His policy alienated most of the Nottinghamshire miners, undermined his position with the leaders of the trade union movement, hurt the union's reputation in British public opinion, and led to violence along the picket line. Yet that has not stopped the ardent communist exploiting one of her flagship policies. His mother, Alice (ne Pickering), was a professional cook. I suggest to this Conference that we have coal mines with us but they did something about this problem: they closed them down. . Many of the details are too complex and arcane to comprehensively explain, let alone understand, though some of what has emerged from all this tussling has been manna from heaven to those sections of the press who would have their readers believe that Scargill's reputation is beyond repair. Online calculator reveals how inflation-busting 14.4% hike will Aldi and Lidl shoppers face highest inflation hikes: Cost of basic groceries rise by more than 20% at the Is inflation FINALLY on the way down? "Goodbye to all that? To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Loyal Anne Scargill, 57, has moved out of the couple's luxury pounds 200,000 bungalow. ", She then shoots me a look. They divorced in 2001. Scargill, the former militant leader of. He left school in 1953 at fifteen years old to work as a coal miner at Woolley Colliery, where he worked for nineteen years.[2][3]. He understood the plight of the workers, and chose to stay and remain a self-appointed representative of the workers. Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, dies at . Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Kitchen has said he believes Scargill is out to destroy the NUM. One of his closest associates is Ken Capstick, 73, who lives 20 minutes' drive from Barnsley in a quiet corner of Wakefield. Rivals: Arthur Scargill (left), the militant former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, was the Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher's (right) most bitter enemy during the miners' strike of 1984. Arthur Scargill acquired a lease on the flat around 1982, when he became president of the NUM, as the the union was then based in London, though Scargill soon moved its headquarters to Sheffield . But one name is missing: that of Scargill's ex-husband, who will forever be synonymous with the events of 1984 and 85, but has seemingly resolved to sit through the anniversary in silence. The man's had 30 years of decent living out of the union, and he's got a pension that's second to none. Arthur Scargill was born in England, United Kingdom on Tuesday, January 11, 1938 (Silent Generation). Scargill was divorced from his activist wife Anne in 2001. [9] Scargill saw this strike as a turning point in the union's attitude to militancy.[10]. So I sent an email, and the 7,000 was rejected. In May 2009, he was a candidate for the Socialist Labour Party for one of London's seats in the European Parliament. The political power of the NUM and of most British trade unions was severely reduced. "I don't see much difference betweenthe way Arthur has lived his life and thecapitalist system he built areputation for fighting in that he's allout for his self. We stood and fought against enormous odds, and not just for the pits for our way of life. I were 42, me. . The strike began on 12 March 1984, and became known for being one of the most violent events in British labour history. Why should the leader of the Socialist Labour Party (a Corbyn ally naturally) be allowed to pocket a million? One by one, he bats away the standard criticisms of Scargill's leadership of the strike: that it was ill-advised to commence the strike in the spring, that he should have held a national ballot ("The miners weren't calling for a ballot the people who were calling for a ballot were our enemies"), and that in returning to work without an agreement, the miners were left in an impossible position. For webmasters |. "I was either on a picket line, or in a soup kitchen. Im shocked.. For other uses, see, Early political and trade union activities. Im massively in favour of the council sales and can well remember a friends father buying then selling his council house in Bromley, South East London, and having a fabulous retirement in Poole on the money.
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