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Durham Miners’ Gala attracts 50,000

Jul 12 2009 by Neil McKay, Sunday Sun

THE sun shone, the bands played and the marchers marched yesterday to make the 125th Durham Big Meeting a huge success.

The annual miners’ gala attracted 50,000 people last year and early estimates put this year’s turnout at the same number.

This year’s gala was of particular significance, as it was the 25th anniversary of the miners’ strike and also the 100th Gala Durham Cathedral service.

Veteran MP Dennis Skinner gave a speech from the platform where he harked back to the “glorious” year-long struggle between the National Union of Mineworkers and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government.

National Union of Mineworkers president Ian Lavery, from Ashington, Northumberland, also showed that scars have not healed by telling the crowd, to loud applause: “I for one would not have been sorry had Thatcher not come out of hospital this week.”

David Hopper, general secretary of the Durham Miners’ Association (formerly the National Union of Mineworkers) took the opportunity to have a swipe at Labour MPs’ expenses claims.

Mr Hopper, who has been the subject of stinging criticism by North Durham MP Kevan Jones for his union’s practice of deducting from their membership a 7.5 per cent cut from successful coal health compensation pay-outs, accused Labour MPs of “paving the way for the return of the Tories.”

On the subject of MPs’ expenses he said: “While some MPs made modest claims, the majority did not. The abuse must have been common knowledge at Westminster but no one blew the whistle so the system continued to be milked.

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