My father was there in Orgreave on the morning of 18 June 1984 and like many others he looked on in incredulity as a sea of 8,000 police officers opened up—many of them, of course, in full riot gear with long shields suddenly opening up to allow a cavalry charge through to chase down miners, like my father, just dressed in T-shirt and jeans. It was only luck, actually, that he was not arrested by some of the snatch squads with their short shields and batons—the first time that that tactic had ever been used in mainland Britain. We now know, as Lee Waters said, that, actually, the battle of Orgreave—and it was a battle—the first pitched battle, actually, on the island of Britain since the battle of Culloden. It was a deliberate act of entrapment and framing—you know, an act of collective punishment against the miners, deliberately designed for that purpose.

What I’d like to ask the Cabinet Secretary is whether, in the light of the refusal by the Westminster Government to conduct a public inquiry and the fact that the south Yorkshire police and crime commissioner has asked the 20 police forces across the UK that have relevant information in their archives, he would convene a meeting of the four Welsh police and crime commissioners to see if we can co-operate, at least to create maybe a people’s inquiry and possibly put some resource behind that, so we can put pressure on the Westminster Government to get the inquiry that we really need.

Finally, in the light of the fact that, of course, there was a civil case brought in 1991, which was settled out of court, for wrongful arrest, for malicious prosecution and for assault, and in the light of the information that has now come out, isn’t there a case, actually, to look at, if necessary, a private prosecution for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and for incitement? Because that’s what actually corralling the miners into that field and opening up the full force of the state actually represented—an incitement of violence against people doing nothing other than following their lawful right to strike and fight for their communities.