Day 375, Arthur's seat, lies, smears, sociopathy, eyesore

These are doors that nobody has ever stepped through.  A main entrance that was never used.

The building is the former headquarters of the NUM, in the heart of Sheffield, right next to the City Hall.

During the miners strike when this building was seen on the TV news the cameras would always show people entering or leaving via the entrance to the car park.  The car park is just out of view to the right.

At the time of the strike we would see coach loads of police, with no numbers on their uniforms, travelling through the city centre being bussed in from University halls of residence.  These coaches would be heading out to Orgreave.

The news footage of the trouble at Orgreave shows the miners making unprovoked attacks on the police.  It has been shown since that this was counter to what actually happened with the reports edited in such a way as to make the miners appearing to charge the police when the truth was the opposite.  The BBC seems to have a self-preservation habit of abandoning factual reporting when there's a Tory government in power - and at the time both Thatcher and the right wing press had it in for the organisation, sound familiar?

Years later the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found evidence (misleading legalese which masks the enormous amount of evidence) of assault by police, and perversion of the course of justice, and perjury in the failed prosecutions of miners.  Thirty nine miners at Orgreave sued for unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution.  The case was settled by South Yorkshire police with a payment of £425,000 and no admission of liability.  Despite the evidence of perjury the IPCC didn't pursue this any further deeming it "not in the public interest" ...

People still believe the lies and smears.  Maybe there is a case for full disclosure, although it is hardly likely to change the opinion of those that want to believe otherwise.

Someone at the time said to me "Scargill is a sociopath."  She was a secretary that worked in the NUM headquarters.  Nearly thirty years later, after belatedly looking up the definition of the word, I'm not convinced.  I get the impression her view was based on political bias implicit in the conversation.  Maybe neither of us was fit to judge, based on our combined lack of medical knowledge and loose interpretation of the meaning of the word.

And perhaps we ought to put these conflicts in the past, they only drain energy and feed bitterness.

No matter what your view, from the side, from the front, from a bias, this building needs to go. 

For official/internal use only:

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