Exactly sixty seven years ago today my great-uncle William died in the Creswell Colliery disaster - one of 80 victims trapped underground when a fire broke out.
On Sunday after bumping into Labour veteran Dennis Skinner - MP for Bolsover - outside the conference hall he told me he was in the local hospital as the survivors were being brought in for treatment. Sadly William Orvice - then aged just 49 - wasn't among them.
But it seemed apt that Skinner gave one of the most passionate speeches at this year''s Labour Conference - showing there is still life in the old campaigner yet. As well as the Party itself
He admitted: "The party is alive and well and kicking.
"But we have to get rid of those zero-hour contracts. I worked down the pit with Poles and Lithuanians and the difference then was we all got the same money and were part of the NUM. Now in Shirebrook where a pit was there is a man called Mike Ashley paying workers little and on zero contracts.
"People also ask me where is the money coming for all our plans. Well they used to ask Nye Bevan that when he was building hospitals and council houses. The country was skint then and Nye Bevan told them we're going to borrow the money.
"What does the private sector do when they want money? They borrow it."
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