Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. This month marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the start of the 1984-85 miners' strike. The strike had a significant impact on mining communities throughout the UK, including those here in Wales, and including the ones that I represent in Cynon Valley. Indeed, growing up in a village like Cwmbach, where many of my friends and neighbours were directly affected by the strike, I myself and a whole generation of young people and women, as well as the miners and families themselves, couldn't fail to be shaped and moulded by its effects. 

The strike didn't start in Wales, but, by 14 March, every colliery in south Wales was on strike, and, of the 21,500 miners in south Wales, a staggering 99.6 per cent took part. Remarkably, 93 per cent were still on strike a whole year later. That retention figure far surpasses other areas, testament to the resolve and solidarity of the miners and their communities. Yet it's also a reflection on how much their towns and villages relied on the pits. The miners and their families endured unprecedented hardships, yet historians have written of the sense of community that was created, and not just within mining areas. I'm sure we're all familiar with the inspirational film Pride, telling one such story. In Cynon Valley, the miners' support group was twinned with Islington and the London Turkish community. The miners said that the UK Government had a long-term plan to decimate their industry, and as we mark the start of their struggle, we can only reflect on how perceptive they were.