Dennis Skinner, speaking to the Durham Miners Gala in brilliant sunshine last Saturday. After having been ejected from Labour’s national executive the previous week by Labour MPs, he was in fine form, speaking about Cameron, the public sector strikes and ballot rules, the miners’ strike, Thatcher’s “share-owning democracy,” the mantra of “balancing the books” and much else.
Video by ‘gustinden’
This year’s 130th Durham Miners Gala was a huge success. The weather was perfect, there were over 60 banners from former coalfields across the region and the festival atmosphere was complete with superb brass bands playing everything from miners classics to modern standards.
The Gala remains the UK’s largest annual trade union gathering despite the closure of the surrounding coalfields. This year’s event marked 30 years since the miners’ strike and the predictions of the Gala’s inevitable demise have never materialised with over 100,000 attending the Big Meeting. Continue reading
Ed Miliband is set to become the first Labour leader in more than two decades to address the Durham miners’ gala. Short of openly coming out in favour of the Transitional Programme and the decisions of first four congresses of the Communist International, little could be better calculated to piss off the residual Blair fanboys that still populate sections of the media and the backbenches. Continue reading
