and the marcia is the first thing he's been involved in outside Blyth, where he lives.
He's brilliant at rattling the collecting tins and he's getting to be a cats hand at public speaking to. This is what he said at the rally in Darlington. "If the words come out a bit slow it's because the words are from the heart - 1 haven't revised any of this speech.
The trouble with unemployment is that it isn't getting enough coverage. People are forgetting there's unemployment; they're forgetting about us.
Way back in 1986 there was a local pit where I live and it closed down. I was about eight at the time and I took part in that march even then.
We waiked all the way from Blyth where I live to Bedlington and the miners' picnic, and then we saw Arthur Scargill speak. I still remember the speech, and I still remember somebody holding a child up and the child shouting "Please give us me Daddy's job back"
I remember that, it's stuck with me for years.
We had no food during the miners' strike, we had no coal to keep warm. We used to buy off people selling it round the doors or we used to go to an opencast mine -we all used to club in no matter what age and dig the coal to keep warm.
Local schools used to hand sandwiches and apples but every day to eat because it was really bad at the time - and it's just as bad now if not worse...