Best coal miner/mining orator.

[Ragger]

Putting aside any political views, who was the best coal miner/mining orator you ever personally heard?

At a push, just to widen the topic include politicians.

[shropshirebloke]

At a local rally during the 84/5 strike I was priveleged to both chat with and later listen to Peter Heathfield - what a lovely bloke and impressive speaker! The other speaker that evening was Tony Benn.....you KNOW when you've been patronised...

A few years later, during the campaign against the pit closures, I was standing outside the Grosvenor House Hotel next to Hyde Park, wondering where the hell our coach had gone. We'd got elderly people, babies in pushchairs, it was cold and peeing down with rain. I'd tried asking the police what was going on, then this bloke came up with a baseball cap and a walkie talkie and asked where we were from - it was Arthur - no minders - just trying to get people home. I know he's had his errr, moments, but that day he was a star.

Around the same time I was at a rally at Birmingham Town Hall, waiting in the foyer when this little plump woman walked up with a couple of carrier bags full of paperwork and asked me where I was from. We ended up chatting for about ten minutes - it was only when she appeared on stage later I realised it was Mo Mowlem, the main speaker (or Dr Maureen Mowlem as she was then known) - what a lovely woman!

[Sam from Kent]

I was always amazed at the late Harold Davis from Tilmanstone. He would have gone down pit straight from school probably pre war and he could hold and sway a pit gate meeting. He had no formal education and I don't believe he used the union education services, he was just a natural