The Tories seem determined to make our ignoble history repeat itself

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Which side are you on? (Getty Images)

I am in my early sixties. The defining political event of my generation was the miners’ strike of 1984-5 – the longest, most bitter national strike in British working-class history. For over a year, the Thatcher government mobilised the full power of the state to break the strike by the National Union of Mineworkers, who were fighting to prevent colliery closures, the destruction of their industry and in defence of their communities. It was a dispute that demanded an answer to the question: which side are you on?

In the course of the strike, the police became an occupying army in mining villages. The government-approved brutality the police used against pickets – such as that used against pickets at the coking plant at Orgreave on 18 June 1984 – exposed the myth that the police were a neutral force in society forever.

More than 11,000 people were arrested during the strike; 8,000 were subsequently charged, and about 200 served prison sentences.