tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/south-yorkshire-police-28080/articlesSouth Yorkshire Police – The Conversation2017-10-16T09:00:12Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/856972017-10-16T09:00:12Z2017-10-16T09:00:12ZNew files add weight to calls for Battle of Orgreave inquiry<p>In a dramatic decision, Amber Rudd, the home secretary, decided a year ago not to hold a Hillsborough-style inquiry into the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-orgreave-to-rotherham-the-trials-and-tribulations-of-south-yorkshire-police-69690">Battle of Orgreave</a>. This conflict during the 1984-5 miners’ strike resulted in the arrest of 95 miners and a trial on the (very serious) charge of riot that collapsed spectacularly due to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/18/scandal-of-orgreave-miners-strike-hillsborough-theresa-may">unreliable evidence</a> from South Yorkshire Police. </p>
<p>Files newly released and declassified since Rudd’s decision shed more light on the actions of both South Yorkshire Police and the Thatcher government during this time. These new files add more evidence relating to many long-standing accusations made by the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, which continues to press for an inquiry. </p>
<p>Principle among the claims from the original 1985 trial is that the police collaborated on their statements about the incident. They’ve been accused of directing or consulting with each other on events, rather than providing their actual evidence or experiences of events.</p>
<p>This claim is now arguably supported by a 1991 letter from South Yorkshire Police deputy chief constable Peter Hayes to West Midlands chief constable Ron Hadfield in 1991. Hayes wrote that given the large number of different police forces present, “teams of South Yorkshire detectives found it necessary to assist them in the preparation of their statements”.</p>
<p>Hayes claims this was done because some officers drafted in from other parts of the country had a “complete lack of local knowledge” of the area and needed assistance with their statements. Or it was for “scene-setting and introductory information before those officers left the South Yorkshire Police area” and returned to their home force. Whatever the reasoning, this is a clear admission of some kind of collaboration on police statements by South Yorkshire Police.</p>
<h2>Thatcher’s role</h2>
<p>The newly released files also shed more light on the role played by the government. As shown by <a href="http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/tom-richmond-the-confidential-cabinet-papers-and-how-thatcher-interfered-in-policing-of-miners-strike-1-7911007">previously released files</a>, Margaret Thatcher had a strong personal investment in ensuring the dispute was (heavily) policed. These files further demonstrate her strong personal involvement. In the weeks following the strike, Thatcher attended a drinks party held for chief police officers, where she took the time to “thank them personally for all that they and their forces did to maintain public order”, and “discuss with them other matters of current concern to us”.</p>
<p>This sense of gratitude was clearly shared by other senior cabinet ministers. They also felt the need to offer some protection to South Yorkshire Police and other forces involved in the strike. In a January 1985 meeting at his department, Leon Brittan, then home secretary, said he “remained of the view that the government should not encourage any form of public enquiry [sic] into the conduct of police during the miners’ dispute”. He said he feared an “anti-police bias” that would eventually turn into a “witch-hunt”. This was despite suggestions from civil servants present at the meeting that such an inquiry would be “helpful in terms of enabling the police to defend their conduct of the dispute”.</p>
<p>The Home Office’s policy of resisting such investigations, particularly into the Battle of Orgreave, continued. Civil servants stated in a 1991 brief on policing at Orgreave, prepared for John MacGregor when he was leader of the House of Commons, that “the government does not believe that a public inquiry into police operations during the miners’ strike is necessary”, feeling there was more to lose than gain. The argument was that such an inquiry “would stir up the deep feelings which were aroused by the miners’ strike and its policing at the time”, and would simply turn into an exercise of seeking to apportion blame. </p>
<p>For the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, finding out about all this has been a slow and arduous process. Many files related to the battle have been held back from public release. Indeed, some of the files from folders I’ve used in my research are to remain classified until 2072.</p>
<p>South Yorkshire Police is under intense public pressure over its actions in the 1980s. Several senior officers are currently being prosecuted in relation to their roles in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/hillsborough-3838">Hillsborough disaster</a>, which left 96 dead. The Hillsborough disaster also involved allegations of fabrication of police statements and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/apr/12/hillsborough-battle-orgreave">cover-ups</a> designed to blame fans by South Yorkshire Police – allegations that were eventually proven to be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/26/hillsborough-families-27-year-struggle-for-truth-vindicated">correct</a>.</p>
<p>The Hillsborough campaign has shown what can be achieved by persistence from a determined organisation eager for the truth. As more files are declassified and released, pressure will continue to mount on the government and South Yorkshire Police to hold an inquiry into this crucial event in post-war policing. Did South Yorkshire Police seek to turn the striking miners at the 1985 trial into scapegoats? The appetite for answers regarding South Yorkshire Police will not be sated anytime soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Daniels does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Latest releases suggest police collaborated on statements and benefitted from the Thatcher government’s desire not to hold an inquiry.Steven Daniels, PhD Candidate, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/696902017-01-04T11:20:26Z2017-01-04T11:20:26ZFrom Orgreave to Rotherham – the trials and tribulations of South Yorkshire Police<p>Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s decision to rule out a public inquiry into the “Battle of Orgreave” is once again back in the spotlight after being <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2017-01-02/council-to-call-for-orgreave-public-inquiry-derbyshire/">publicly condemned</a> by North East Derbyshire Council. The Labour-run council is now calling on Rudd to “think again” about her decision not to order a full probe into the notorious miners’ strike clash between South Yorkshire Police and striking pitmen.</p>
<p>Rudd made the decision not to hold a public inquiry into Orgreave without reviewing all of the evidence. In an <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/government-decision-rule-out-orgreave-9553428#ICID=sharebar_twitter">announcement in 2016</a>, she claimed that there had been “very significant changes” in the oversight of policing since the miners’ strike, meaning that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There would be very few lessons for the policing system today to be learned from any review of the events and practices of three decades ago.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She further suggested that there were “no miscarriages of justice” at Orgreave, given “there were no deaths” and “no convictions”.</p>
<p>At the time, Rudd’s decision triggered widespread condemnation and was said by <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2017-01-02/council-to-call-for-orgreave-public-inquiry-derbyshire/">councillor Derrick Skinner</a> to show “contempt for the many former miners, their families and communities … who have waited patiently for decades for the truth”.</p>
<p>This news comes after it was recently announced that files relating to the so-called Battle of Orgreave are expected <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-38276208">to be made public this year</a>, which could well lead to further scrutiny of South Yorkshire Police.</p>
<h2>A bloody battle</h2>
<p>The “Battle of Orgreave” became one of the most decisive events of the 1984-85 miners’ strike. It happened on June 18 1984, after <a href="https://theconversation.com/war-on-the-picket-line-how-the-british-press-made-a-battle-out-of-the-miners-strike-60470">striking miners</a> picketing a South Yorkshire coking plant were herded into a field near Orgreave coking plant, outside Rotherham.
The miners were then reportedly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/21/orgreave-campaigners-tell-amber-rudd-trust-in-police-remains-broken">charged by cavalry</a> and subject to a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8217000/8217946.stm">series of violent attacks by police</a> on foot and horseback. </p>
<p>Ninety-five miners and supporters were subsequently charged with riot and unlawful assembly, but were acquitted after a seven-week trial in light of allegations that police officers had lied in court and fabricated evidence. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151636/original/image-20170103-18641-1g4r14j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151636/original/image-20170103-18641-1g4r14j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151636/original/image-20170103-18641-1g4r14j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151636/original/image-20170103-18641-1g4r14j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151636/original/image-20170103-18641-1g4r14j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151636/original/image-20170103-18641-1g4r14j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1098&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151636/original/image-20170103-18641-1g4r14j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1098&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151636/original/image-20170103-18641-1g4r14j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1098&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orgreave coke works in Yorkshire during the miners’ strike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The events have caused lasting rifts between police and former mining communities, and serious questions remain about the relationship between the policing operation at Orgreave and the “underhand tactics” used by the same police force to deadly affect at the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hillsborough-at-last-the-shameful-truth-is-out-58456">Hillsborough stadium disaster</a> less than six years later. </p>
<p>And in 2016, the conduct of South Yorkshire police was once again called into question at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/16/asian-men-far-right-rotherham-cleared-violent-disorder">conclusion of a trial of ten Asian men</a> accused of violent disorder. </p>
<h2>Further scrutiny</h2>
<p>The men were arrested along with two others following their involvement in an anti-racism protest in Rotherham in September 2015. In the aftermath of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28934963">child abuse scandal</a> which erupted in the town earlier that year, the area had become a magnet for far-right groups, who organised a series of provocative marches in the town. </p>
<p>And while the jury at Sheffield Crown Court heard that members of Rotherham’s Muslim community had largely chosen to ignore the far-right marches following <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-35688543">the racist murder</a> of 81-year-old Mushin Ahmed in August – who suffered a brutal attack as he walked to mosque for morning prayers – the community organised a peaceful counter-demonstration.</p>
<p>When the protest came to an end, the anti-racist group were shepherded by police past a local pub known to be associated with the far-right. There, they were physically attacked, suffered a barrage of racist abuse and were forced to defend themselves. Following a gruelling six-week trial, the jury unanimously returned not guilty verdicts for all ten of the men standing trial. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151637/original/image-20170103-18641-t0w1rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151637/original/image-20170103-18641-t0w1rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151637/original/image-20170103-18641-t0w1rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151637/original/image-20170103-18641-t0w1rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151637/original/image-20170103-18641-t0w1rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151637/original/image-20170103-18641-t0w1rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151637/original/image-20170103-18641-t0w1rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151637/original/image-20170103-18641-t0w1rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not guilty verdicts in the Rotherham 12 case raise serious questions about the conduct of South Yorkshire Police.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rotherham 12 campaign</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Rotherham 12 case triggered a national campaign in support of the arrested men. This was backed by the <a href="http://otjc.org.uk/">Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign</a> whose members attended the trial to show support. Both groups have drawn parallels between the Rotherham 12 case and the treatment of the miners at Orgreave. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.tmg-uk.org/rotherham-12-the-jury-finds-all-the-defendants-not-guilty/">public statement</a> following the verdicts, the Rotherham 12 Defence Campaign was heavily critical of South Yorkshire Police, stating that officers “led the local community towards danger and left them unprotected”. </p>
<p>In the words of one of the acquitted men:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are similarities with what the police did to the Orgreave miners, and how they herded them to a particular spot … I had a bin thrown at me, punches thrown at me and I had literally done nothing. Now you imagine five weeks later, at six or seven in the morning, police officers, ten of them, coming to your house. Your children are scared, you’re scared, you’re treated as some common criminal.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>From bad to worse</h2>
<p>The arrests have worsened the already strained relations between South Yorkshire Police and the local Muslim community in Rotherham, who have raised concerns that the force have failed to adequately respond to far-right violence in the town. </p>
<p>The Rotherham 12 Defence Campaign have called for an independent inquiry into the conduct and behaviour of the police, noting that public confidence in the force “is at an all time low”. The police force <a href="http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/south-yorkshire-police-told-to-improve-1-8279247">has also been told</a> it “requires improvement” in how it keeps people safe and reduces crime by the police watchdog, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of the Constabulary.</p>
<p>So, two cases, over 30 years apart, both involving a community under siege, constructed as an enemy within. Over-policed and under-protected, a fundamental breakdown in police community relations and a deep sense of injustice. And at the heart of both cases is South Yorkshire Police. </p>
<p>Perhaps then Rudd’s refusal to hold a public inquiry into Orgreave is not because the event is no longer relevant to contemporary policing, but because of just how relevant it continues to be. </p>
<p>The Orgreave and Rotherham campaigners have made clear that their fight for justice will continue and a protest has been called outside the Home Office on March 13. And despite the home secretary’s decision, the trials and tribulations of South Yorkshire Police look set to continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Gilmore is affiliated with the Northern Police Monitoring Project. </span></em></p>South Yorkshire Police has recently been criticised for how well it protects people and prevents crime, and it isn’t the first time.Joanna Gilmore, Lecturer in Law, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/604702016-06-08T11:12:21Z2016-06-08T11:12:21ZWar on the picket line: how the British press made a battle out of the miners’ strike<p>The recent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/26/hillsborough-inquests-jury-says-96-victims-were-unlawfully-killed">Hillsborough verdict</a> highlighted the way the British press <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/29/hillsborough-disaster-press-coverage-odious-sisters">demonised Liverpool football fans</a> while justifying the actions of South Yorkshire police in their coverage of the disaster. </p>
<p>In light of this, calls have been made for a similar Hillsborough style public inquiry <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/04/police-fahy-inquiry-1980s-miners-strike-scargill-orgreave-thatcher-hillsborough">into the policing of the British miners’ strike</a> between 1984-5, with newspapers facing fresh allegations that the coverage of the strike amounted to a “<a href="http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/0905shaf.html?i=flolder&d=2009_05">propaganda assault on the miners</a>”. </p>
<p>The miners’ strike started when the Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, announced the closure of Cortonwood Colliery in Yorkshire. This was to be the first of 20 pit closures and, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25549596">with many more believed to be in the planning</a>, it led to the longest running industrial action in Britain since the 1926 General Strike.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://hartcda.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/metaphor-and-intertextuality-in-media-framings-of-the-1984-85-british-miners-strike.pdf">recent research</a>, which involved analysis of both news language and press photographs of the time, shows that this year-long strike was portrayed by newspapers – on all sides – as a metaphorical war between the government and the National Union of Mineworkers.</p>
<p>It shows how the media used “war framing” words, phrases and photographs while reporting the strike – often drawing on iconic texts and images associated with World War I. This framing presented the miners as “the enemy”, while at the same time, it justified the actions of the government and the police as necessary and even noble. </p>
<p>This “war framing” is likely to have had a significant impact on the course and eventual outcome of the strike as research has shown that <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016782">metaphors help to shape public opinion</a>. The war framing even worked its way up into government policy-making. </p>
<h2>Waging war</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Front page of The Sun, March 1984.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The “war metaphor” was established from the very beginning of the strike with the headline in The Sun Newspaper on 13 March 1984: “Pit war: Violence erupts on the picket line as miner fights miner”. A few days later, in reference to violence at Ollerton colliery, the Express described “rampaging armies of pickets at the besieged Nottinghamshire pit”.</p>
<p>Later, The Sun went on to describe “an army of 8,000 police at battle stations in the bloody pit war”. Police officers and picketing miners were seen as soldiers on opposite sides of the “war”. Arthur Scargill – the then president of the National Union of Mineworkers – was described as an “army general” in the Express and a “dictator” in The Sun.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police on horses at the miners’ strike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>News photographs painted a similar picture, drawing subtle analogies with World War I in particular. <a href="http://bit.ly/1X8nx0P">Images of wooden stakes at Orgreave</a>, South Yorkshire, resembled the barbed wire barricades associated with German defences in the Battle of the Somme. Pictures of police on horseback were reminiscent of mounted warfare typically associated with cavalry charges in World War I.</p>
<p>Even peaceful moments that were captured on camera, such as a football match played between police and miners at Bilsthorne colliery in Nottinghamshire, stuck to the war narrative – with the image bringing to mind the celebrated 1914 Christmas Day football match played between German and allied forces. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Football played in ‘No mans land’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was reinforced in the caption that accompanied the photograph which described a football match “played on no-mans land during a break from picketing”.</p>
<p>At the end of the strike, the front cover of The Sun showed a picture of a blooded police officer accompanied by the headline “Lest we Forget”. This evocative phrase is associated with the Ode of Remembrance where it is added as a final line to the fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon’s poem <a href="https://theconversation.com/lest-we-forget-binyons-ode-of-remembrance-13642">For the Fallen</a>, written in 1914 in honour of British soldiers who had already lost their lives in World War I. It serves to compare the efforts of police officers during the strike with the sacrifice of British soldiers during the Great War. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Headline from The Sun at the end of the miner’s strike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The war metaphor eventually became part of government policy. This can be seen in <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/901.htm">Cabinet documents</a> recently released under the 30-year rule. Thatcher was encouraged by her policy unit to pursue “a war of attrition” with the miners.</p>
<h2>A war of words</h2>
<p>With the miners’ strike thought of in terms of a war, it helped to define the miners as “the enemy”, who must be “defeated”. This meant that any chance of compromise or resolution in the strike was very much diminished from the beginning.</p>
<p>The “war metaphor” justifies the violent actions of the police “on the frontline” at Orgreave. Analogies with World War I in particular exploit collective emotions associated with key historical moments and arouse feelings of both national pride and prejudice. </p>
<p>Constructing the miners’ strike as a war was one way in which a powerful media demonised miners – just as they did with football fans at Hillsborough – while at the same time justifying police practices. It also helped pave the way for the government’s hard line policy toward the miners. Had the media followed an alternative strategy in linguistic and visual representations of the strike, it may well have taken a different, and less violent course.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Hart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The truth is out on how the media’s reporting of the Hillsborough disaster impacted the public perception of the tragedy, but could the same be said for the British miners’ strike?Christopher Hart, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.