The Spectator’s Notes | 3 September 2005

Our children recently went to the stage version of Billy Elliot and, like most, loved it. I am sure it is an inspiring tale about aspiration, disadvantage and dancing. But the politics…. The miners, striking for a year in 1984–85, sing ‘Solidarity solidarity/ Solidarity forever’ while their police antagonists sing: ‘Keep it up till Christmas, lads,/ It means a lot to us/ We send our kids to private school. On a private bus.’ Were there really many rank-and-file policemen at that time who could afford to send their children to private school, even with the overtime? And where was the solidarity in a strike which was imposed on members of the union without a ballot? The careers of people like Elton John, who did the music, Stephen Daldry, who directed, and Lee Hall, who wrote those lyrics, have benefited enormously from the prosperity ushered in by the defeat of Arthur Scargill and other union bosses.