[9] This performance strengthened his popularity with the Yorkshire miners. They're at it again! Allies of Scargill counter that there is a clear and present danger that the funds will be misused, and as the union's membership shrinks, they want its handsome holdings to somehow be ploughed back into former mining communities. ", "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. I had a job at the Co-op. Arthur Scargill destroyed many lives with his attitude and his . 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 . He felt the need to fight for changes in the capitalist society, and vowed that he would work towards making the world more equitable. To his remaining allies, this fact confirms that his reputation still burns bright: Scargill was right, they say, and this verdict extends beyond the fate of the British coal industry, to every key aspect of his leadership of the NUM. Scargill had, before becoming president, favoured moving the head office of the NUM out of London, which he described as a "prostituting place". Or are the Scargills effectively hoping to make a quick return by flogging the joint immediately and trousering 1million tax free? I think we should be told. They were released from prison in November 1989. The comments below have been moderated in advance. [9] Scargill saw this strike as a turning point in the union's attitude to militancy.[10]. Arthur Scargill was married to Anne Scargill, who is herself the daughter of a miner. "I am writing a book, but he'snot mentioned in it. "I would have thought that someone who was public enemy number one, with MI5 tapping his calls and following him, and everything else they were allegedly doing to him I'm very surprised he managed to live the life hedid and get away with what he did without being pulled up," he says. To his detractors, by contrast, the fact that he understood what was at stake is no excuse for a series of elemental mistakes that sealed his union's fate and marked a huge turning point in postwar history. . 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. Along with Tony Benn, veteran left-wing MP from the Labour Party, he campaigned to free the two strikers Russell Shankland and Dean Hancock, who were convicted of killing a taxi driver named David Wilkie. I receive no reply. Every Monday, she says, she helps out a local church project that gives free breakfasts to whoever shows up. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. 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. 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. Arthur Scargill was born in England, United Kingdom on Tuesday, January 11, 1938 (Silent Generation). [43] In February 2012, Scargill won 13,000 in a court action against the NUM, primarily for car expenses, and for the earlier temporary denial of membership. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Hanging on a door facing the back garden is a fluorescent jacket. 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. Just to hammer the point home, it was in block capitals: "SCARGILL ALIVE! The sneak has tried to pocket a smallfortune while proclaiming to be the great fighter against the evils of capitalism and the elite. It was alleged that, of the money donated from Libya, Scargill took 29,000 for his own bridging loan and 25,000 for his home in Yorkshire, but gave only 10,000 to the striking Nottinghamshire miners. 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. Like Anne Scargill and Betty Cook, Capstick will be appearing at this year's commemorative events, across Yorkshire and elsewhere. [22][23], Many found Scargill inspiring; many others found him frankly scary. The hidden ingredient in your supermarket loaf that might put you off bread for good. So does his son-in-law. They still pay 3,500 a year towards the upkeep of his Yorkshire home as they believed it was his main home. He took a part-time course as well at the University of Leeds. They divorced in 2001. 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? [3] Kitchen has said he believes Scargill is out to destroy the NUM. Arthur Scargill's net worth estimate is $100,000 - $1M. He also became known in the 1972 strike, where he was the spokesman for the Yorkshire miners. Scargill was born in Worsbrough Dale near Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire. So I sent an email, and the 7,000 was rejected. For other uses, see, Early political and trade union activities. Arthur Scargill celebrated that he had outlived his old foe Lady Thatcher when he heard of her death, it was revealed last night. Elegant Princess of Wales is all smiles as she plays with children on visit to a nursery amid backlash over Thrifty Kate strikes again! Back in 1993 he first tried to acquire the flat under Margaret Thatchers right-to-buy scheme. THE man set to marry the daughter of miners' leader Arthur Scargill was yesterday branded a love cheat - by his own daughter. His daughter is in leg braces and takes tenuous steps into parliament, while members shake her hand . MINERS' leader Arthur Scargill has left his wife after 37 years, it was revealed last night. That's what I believe.". : A Review of Literature on the 1984/5 Miners' Strike. [32] The documentary suggests that the claims against Scargill were untrue. He reaches for his phone and shows me what he received. [34] Scargill accepted Lightman's statement that many of his actions suffered from a lack of professional advice, which he was unwilling to be bound by. In 1973, Scargill was elected to the full-time post of compensation agent in the Yorkshire NUM. It is only after I leave the NUM's HQ for the last time that one striking fact hits home. Mention of him draws a quick response. But his daughter visits him regularly. 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. And this is why. ", ITN, he claims, offered Scargill 7,000 for a five-minute interview. Arthur Scargill, the union boss who led the 1984 miner's strike, reacted to the death of Margaret Thatcher by pointing out he was still alive, it has emerged. "But we've had to move to new premises. "We're going backwards, aren't we?" That house sits on the edge of Worsbrough, close to the pit village where Scargill was born. In 1958, he attended the World Federation of Trade Unions youth congress in Prague. "I've never, ever said owt. They had one daughter named Margaret. 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. Arthur Scargill was born on 11th January 1938, in Worsbrough Dale, in South Yorkshire, England, into a family of coal miners. "Goodbye to all that? 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. Arthur Scargill, I ask you. He had no means of calling a strike in Yorkshire.[27]. "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. Angry Stefni Logan revealed that her father James had dated his estranged wife Heather while romancing Dr Margaret Scargill. To be paid 400,000-a-year to eat cake for an hour makes it the least onerous and most highly paid TV job with the exception of football pundit. 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. As the militant leader of the miners, Arthur Scargill fought Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s. [29], In 1998, Scargill and his wife, Anne, separated.[30]. Hundreds of strikers were arrested, including Scargill and his wife. The Enemy Within", Verso 2014. It is now worth around 2million. 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". 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. 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. Half our time is spent discussing the strike and its aftermath; for the remainder, the two of them talk about what has happened to the place where they live since then. Downstairs in the NUM's waiting room there are flyers and posters advertising other events, complete with long lists of invited speakers. What would have become of our democracy had they succeeded?. [49], After stepping down from leadership of the NUM, Scargill became active in the UK's Stalin Society[50] saying that the "ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin explain the real world". SMS: Ken Capstick, treasurer of the Socialist Labour Party which Arthur Scargill leads, sent the former union boss a text message reading: 'Thatcher Dead'. (The Yorkshire Left had already decided to stand him as their candidate even before the strike.) I hope Thatcher's death was degrading and painful, tweets From the Iron Chancellor to the Iron Lady: Angela Merkel 'Thatcher is to blame for Britain's poor relationship with Royal Family will find it 'impossible' to compromise with Sussexes, Man ordered to take off a Jesus Saves t-shirt at Mall of America, Russian pro-war fanatic warns Britain could be 'wiped off the map', BBC Breakfast celebrates forty years of hilarious bloopers, Ken Bruce will be joining the Greatest Hits Radio family in April, As it happened: UK Government blocks Scotland's new gender law, Bungling helicopter pilot blows over stadium roof injuring eight, Kamala opts out of kneeling with Biden for Warriors photo op, Shamima Begum never considered turning back during journey to ISIS. Its main street leads to a huge expanse of rubble and weeds; on the way there, you pass a branch of a business called The Recycle Shop. But so far, Arthur Scargill is conspicuous by his absence. Loyal Anne Scargill, 57, has moved out of the couple's luxury pounds 200,000 bungalow. It's too soon to say.". On his first day, he was horrified to see the working conditions. Feedback | In 2016 it was reported that the grandfather of two was living in a three-bedroom detached country house in Yorkshire owned by his. There's more to this new Arthur Scargill chic than mere fashion nostalgia. We got 111. Its energy is that of Mother Gaia. 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. There was some controversy in February 1985 when Times journalist Paul Routledge engaged the Queen in discussion on the strike, and the Queen said that the strike was "all about one man", which Routledge objected to. Labours Lord Gilbert hailed Lady Thatchers good fortune in facing Mr Scargill. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}, Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in, Please refresh your browser to be logged in, Extra 20% off selected fashion and sportswear at Very, 5 off first orders using this QVC discount code, Up to 20% off and extra perks with Booking.com Genius membership, 10% off all orders of 100+ and this Soak & Sleep discount code, Compare broadband packages side by side to find the best deal for you, Compare cheap broadband deals from providers with fastest speed in your area, All you need to know about fibre broadband, Best Apple iPhone Deals in the UK January 2023, Compare iPhone contract deals and get the best offer this January, Compare the best mobile phone deals from the top networks and brands. 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. I said: 'I'll pass it on. 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. They'll probably be 10 or 11 now.". The house in which he was born and in which he lived for his first three years had neither plumbing nor electricity. [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. That couldnt be true as she announced after the series ended she was gay. The militant former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers. Anne, in 2001 and reportedly refused to attend the wedding of his daughter Margaret. First, I ring the bell, to no avail, then usea door knocker in the shape of a miner's lamp. I received one almost instantly saying Scargill alive! and hes very much alive. "I shall never, ever forgive the police for doing that to me," she says. "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. ", Gildart, Keith. Let them eat cake! "He doesn't live lavishly, although he does like a glass of red wine. His father, Harold, was a miner and a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. After all hes 78 and the old fraud must go some time. He played a significant role in the unofficial strike of UK miners in 1969. A secret record is kept of the time at which all workers arrive and leave each day. 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 former Labour Party member, Scargill is now leader of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP), founded by him in 1996. Scargill had condemned the killing at the time. 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. Instead she went on aspokesmansaid.com and Axa covered her for 343, a saving of 424. Arthur Scargill joins rail picket line in Sheffield Former NUM leader says he feels duty-bound to offer his support to striking workers, and has choice words for Starmer and Johnson Arthur. 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. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. "He's. I presume Ms Tandohs bile is based on the fact she was NFI (not flipping invited) or more seriously NEFC (never even flippin considered) for the role at C4. ", There follows the most illustrative of anecdotes. They've made me worse.'". "Leadership in the Miners Union-Scargill, Arthur Rise to Power. "One day last year, I was talking to him on the phone. "I was either on a picket line, or in a soup kitchen. We were busy. But he will not be drawn any further. "It was Thatcher's legislation, actually giving council tenants the right to buy their own houses. Having been elected president of the NUM in 1981, Scargill held that position for just over 20 years. This was denied by the government at the time, although papers released in 2014 under the thirty-year rule suggest that Scargill was right. Prince Albert of Monaco is the first Euro monarch to confirm he and his wife Keep calm and carry on! He lost on both occasions, winning 2.4% of the vote in Hartlepool at the 2001 general election. Here as elsewhere in post-industrial Yorkshire, the surrounding landscape attests to what arrived instead. 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 miles across broken glass to stop the sell-off of council properties. ", Howell, David, et al. He understood the plight of the workers, and chose to stay and remain a self-appointed representative of the workers. Not very often the CEO of such a large company would admit there was work to be done and it means my gripe must be mirrored in their customer research. [60][61], London Assembly elections (entire London city), "Scargill" redirects here. Hero of the working classes, Arthur Scargill, has joined the Conservative Party after they allowed the opening of a new coal mine in Cumbria. He also stated regarding Brexit that "we should just invoke the first clause of Article 50 and that means we could leave the EU tomorrow". And I got a reply." Was it an investment by her so she cleans up when he dies? {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Photograph: Don Mcphee for the Guardian. I drove the picket bus. 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. Princess Royal honours Team GB curling stars and Scottish police chief at Palace of Peter Andre launches scathing attack on Prince Harry as he says Duke of Sussex is 'publicly trashing his Heartbreak for Kate: Auschwitz survivor Zigi Shipper, who dedicated his life to educating on the horrors of Charles's first royal RSVP! Scargill must be very proud that his campaigning had the convictions downgraded to manslaughter and both men released from prison in November 1989. . It's Mr (coffee) Bean! However, in 1979, the Conservatives were able to win again under Margaret Thatcher, and destroy the majority of the Labour Party. He has contested two parliamentary elections. He was 17 at the time of the strike, and an active picketer, in Yorkshire and elsewhere. To my mind there should be no criticism of Mr Hollywood for following the money and I suspect if you had been in the same position you too would have gone. Staff members suddenly taken ill, or with long-standing medical appointments, require his personal consent to be absent from the office. [55], In 2017, Scargill spoke at an event in Cardiff setting out how British manufacturing could be rebuilt after Britain had left the European Union. "Analysing the British miners' strike of 19845.". The strike ended on 3 March 1985 following an NUM vote to return to work. They brought into office the Government of Lady Thatcher. 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. His mother, Alice (ne Pickering), was a professional cook. Cabinet papers released earlier this year proved that when, at the start of the strike, Scargill claimed that there were secret plans to shut around 70 pits in the face of endless official denials, he was unquestionably correct. View our online Press Pack. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian, Margaret Thatcher didn't expect it, but miners' wives galvanised the '84 strike, Labour calls on government to apologise over miners' strike, Thelong, slow death of the UK coal industry, Thatcher had secret plan to use army at height of miners' strike, Theclosure of Maltby colliery in pictures, the horrific police violence seen at the Orgreave coking plant. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian, Chris Kitchen, general secretary of the NUM, at the union's headquarters in Barnsley. Mr Scargill replied simply: 'Scargill Alive! Coles worker fights a woman allegedly trying to steal groceries, Motorists slowly drive down snowy hill in treacherous conditions. They need this like a hole in the head', They expected, particularly Master Scargill, to bring down her Government, too. He is 84 years old and is a Capricorn. It was all or nothing. Scargill led the union in the 19841985 miners' strike. The names of all incoming telephone callers are recorded on a central log. Advertisement Further Reading on Arthur Scargill The best work on Scargill was Michael Crick, Scargill and the Miners (1985). Mr Scargill first came to prominence in the early 1970s, when he was involved in a mass picket at the Saltley Gate coking plant in Birmingham. If you're out for a wage increase, you can cut a deal. "Don't you think I've done enough without him?". They brought down Jim Callaghans Government. But his brain is as active as ever. My mother was strictly non-political. He felt that the Labour Party had betrayed the basic principles of the party`s constitution. Herein, she says, lies a direct link to what she did three decades ago. News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Arthur Scargill emerged from semi-retirement from politics to speak at a meeting of the Communist Party of Britain's wretched little pro-Brexit front organisation Leave Fight Transform (LeFT) in Brighton on 11 September, alongside Eddie Dempsey (the man who said Tommy Robinson supporters were right to hate the "liberal left") and other assorted xenophobes, nationalists and social . Scargill, the former militant leader of. All rights reserved. The one who very secretly tried for two decades to buy a council flat in Londons fashionable Barbican so he could pocket a fortune. I think people would be astounded if they knew that."[42]. I thought: 'Well I've got to do it.' ", R.R. "The gentleman was not for turning.". He also represented the Barnsley Co-op at Cooperative congresses. "It's sad to be inthis position. This eventually led to the strike of 1984, when the government announced that they intend to close 20 coal mines. After a Labour Party conference speech on energy policy by Richard Marsh in July 1967, Scargill said: I can honestly say that I never heard flannel like we got from the Minister he said that we have nuclear power stations with us, whether we like it or not. All but two of the county's collieries have closed, and in their place are seemingly endless retail parks, the foundations of a local economy in which people work in shops to spend money in other shops. 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. "In the strike, he were never at home We didn't spend much time together that year," she says. In the 1981 election for NUM president, Scargill secured around 70% of the vote. Some scholars have concluded that Scargill's decisive tactical error was to substitute his famous flying picket for the holding of a national strike ballot. An article published in The Times in August 2015 stated that Scargill had spoken to the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union conference in June 2015, and that he was due to appear alongside Jeremy Corbyn at the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign in September 2015. They made a final offer of 16,000." Some historians have provided interpretations and explanations of the defeat. His hair is much thinner than it was 30 years ago. According to one of Scargill's oldest friends, former miner Derek Stubbings, now 74, who worked at Woolley pit with him and was a fellow 'Young Red' in the British Communist Party, Scargill busies .