Can the arts stimulate old mining communities like Doncaster?

[Sprotyrover]

Filo I'm not on about that I'm referring to the myth about sqaddies being used in Police uniforms

[Filo]

Filo I'm not on about that I'm referring to the myth about sqaddies being used in Police uniforms

Did I mention squaddies?

[roversdude]

It would be easy to dispel these urban myths by releasing records, can’t understand what is so secret that these are not available

[Donnywolf]

... well being ever the sceptic it suggests there maybe is something to hide - perhaps the urban myth may be true after all ?

Personally I have no idea whether the swelled Police ranks at the time were augmented by Soldiers / hired hands / or by paying vast Overtime sums to Police from elsewhere in the country but someone will know and that may be the reason . Genuinely their may be no skeletons in that cupboard but as you say why not say so

Have the Papers reached and passed their release date - and are there different times that apply - I dont know that either !

[roversdude]

Time has been and gone DW but government refused to release until 2066 https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/27/amber-rudd-review-secret-police-files-on-1980s-miners-strike-yvette-cooper-orgreave

[idler]

I met a lad on holiday in Tunisia in 1990. He was a police motorcycle sergeant then. He had been on the picket lines when a PC with the Met.
He said he felt sorry for the miners but some of the Met lads had taken the mickey and waved pay slips to wind miners up. He was glad to go back, if I remember right he got thumped a couple of times but could understand the miners frustration. They were put up in a school whilst here I think. When they finally left their buses were stopped on the motorway and not allowed to go until a PC on one of the buses gave back a TV that he had decided to take with him.

[Filo]

Time has been and gone DW but government refused to release until 2066 https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/27/amber-rudd-review-secret-police-files-on-1980s-miners-strike-yvette-cooper-orgreave

Which all suggests there is something to hide, so the keep them secret until eveyone involved at the time is dead

[roversdude]

Think a lot were billeted at Bawtry

[Sprotyrover]

Sqaddies in Police uniforms! Not one single member of the armed forces from that time has ever come forwards  And claimed they were used in such a way, not one.

[Filo]

Sqaddies in Police uniforms! Not one single member of the armed forces from that time has ever come forwards  And claimed they were used in such a way, not one.

Official secrets act?

[roversdude]

Something hidden though Sproty
There were an awful lot of police uniforms with no numbers on, if there is nothing to hide release the records

[Sprotyrover]

Unfortunately we have a lot of our ex service men in the Prison system and in mental health treatment I doubt very much that they would give 2 hoots about whistleblowing on something that happened 30 years ago, and let's just look a recent events if one came forwards others would and do you really believe we would be prosecuting them under the official Secrets Act?

[Not Now Kato]

Wonder if they did only contain police personnel?

Whoever they were, they never wore any id numbers

I really can't believe how people still believe these silly urban myths.

You're way off beam with that one Sprotty.  And further, some of the ones who did have numbers were wearing 'false' numbers - I can confirm that from personal experience when, after being nearly run off the road by one of the police 'battle wagons' I went to Bently police station to lodge a formal complaint against the driver and one officer who refused to give me his name and simply stuck his shoulder number under my face.  When I made the complaint the seargeant who investigated advised me that there was no police officer with such a number, neither were there any records of the registration numbers of the 'battle wagon' or the police car also involved.
 
Oh, and I was simply going about my business and had nothing to do with the miners or the strike.  Wrong place, wrong time, disgraceful policing.