Lee Anderson
MP for Ashfield · Reform UK · United Kingdom
“There are no words to express the sadness we feel about the passing of Ann Widdecombe, but the sadness, unfortunately, is turning to anger—anger at not just the social media companies, but all of us in this place and the politicians, and some of the language that we use in this place.”
“Q13. In Ashfield, four workers, including two nurses, were kicked out of their HMO, only for Serco to put four illegal migrants in their place. One of those illegal migrants was a Pakistani national who went on to rape a vulnerable young girl in a park in Ashfield. He is now doing 14 years in prison.”
“There was the smell of the pit head bath, which I can still smell now; the sound of laughter in the bath as hundreds of men stood there naked, washing each other’s backs to scrub away the coaldust, the dirt and the grime; and the feeling of your ears popping as you went through the air doors to reach shaft side, before you went undergroun…”
“First, I would like to declare an interest: I am a former coal miner and a member of the British Coal staff superannuation scheme. In the 1950s, there were over 700,000 men working in the pits in this country—people like my grandads, great grandad, dad and uncles—in fact, I cannot remember any male member of my family not working down the…”
“One of the questions that we must ask ourselves is: how many members of the scheme will be left in 10 years’ time? I reckon there will be half as many as there are today, because members of both schemes—the mineworkers’ pension scheme and the BCSSS—are dying every single day.”
“It was the fault of politicians and union leaders that communities were divided. They killed an industry that had served us well in this country. Some men, like my dad, went on strike and others worked. Looking back, I have no problem with either group.”
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“The hon. Member is absolutely right, if I am honest, and that is what this debate is about. It is about sharing stories. As I said earlier, we could probably ask 100 people on the street what sepsis is and the vast majority would struggle to tell us what it is and what the symptoms are. What we need, and it is quite right, is a campaign for awareness, whether that is through schools or on social media or the TV. I would really like to see a campaign on sepsis so that everybody knows the symptoms. I am going to wrap up now—I have spoken for 13 minutes. I know there are lots of colleagues present who want to speak as well and I am conscious that we have only an hour.”
“I thank every hon. Member here for making some wonderful contributions and sharing some stories. I think the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) summed it all up perfectly: “Could it be sepsis?” That is the question all health professionals and families should be asking themselves if they see the symptoms. It has been a wonderful debate. Once again, I thank Abbi and Steve for coming here, because it is real-life stories such as Abbi’s that inspire us as MPs to tell them in this place. If we cannot do anything about sepsis awareness, such as having a campaign, I would be very disappointed. However, I have been very encouraged by what the Minister has said today, and by fellow Members from all parties. All I can say to sum up, Sir Christopher, is, “Could it be sepsis?” Question put and agreed to.”
“The Secretary of State will be aware that 25% of the UK is situated on top of coalmines, which can provide geothermal energy to heat houses and businesses in places like Ashfield. Will the Minister meet me to discuss how we can make that work in coalfield communities?”
“We keep hearing this slogan, “smash the gangs”. Does the hon. Member not realise that when a gang is smashed, there are another 20 gangs ready to take that gang’s place and carry on the people smuggling? I am sure that he will agree that what we need in this country is a deterrent that stops people wanting to come here in the first place.”
“Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston, who said that once they get to England they are never leaving—it is once they get in the channel. Once they get in the channel they are picked up and ferried to our country. When they get to our country, they are placed in hotels— [ Interruption. ]”
“They were young men between the ages of 16 or 17 and 30. They all said the same thing to us: they would point at the white cliffs of Dover and say, “El Dorado”. They wanted to come to this country because they thought that the streets were paved with gold—and they are paved with gold, if someone is coming from a country such as Eritrea or Sudan. The most annoying part for me was that there was a charity there called Care4Calais, which would attract those people. It would give them the co-ordinates in whichever country they came from, and it would take weeks or months for people to get there. Once they got to the camp, Care4Calais would set up a school to teach them how to speak and write English. It would give them new phones with data, give them shelter, and get them ready for the crossing to the UK. I take issue with the hon.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I thank the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston (Neil O'Brien) for securing this important debate. It is a shame that there are not more Members here today. I will choose my words very carefully in this debate, because words and language are important. We need to get tough in this place about the problem of illegal migration. I hear time and again that these people are fleeing war-torn countries—they are desperate people fleeing persecution. Well, let me say, I have been to France and it is quite a nice place. There is no war in France and they are not persecuted there. I served on the Home Affairs Committee for two years. I went to the camps in Calais, and the first thing we noticed was that it was all young men—there were no women, children or families.”
“He did not go to another country and leave his wife and children behind, which is exactly what these young men are doing. They are leaving women and children behind in a supposedly war-torn country. Quite frankly, I do not want these sorts of people in my country and neither do the vast majority of the British public.”
“We may stop 100 boats a month, but those same people will get on to another boat and keep coming. Once they are in this country, they are going absolutely nowhere, and they are costing us a fortune. At the same time as we are waiting for the results of a vote to rob our pensioners of their winter fuel payment, supported by the Government, we are spending nearly £6 billion or £7 billion on illegal migration. In the minute I have left, I will tell a quick story. In 1941, my grandad Charles William Waterfield left the Nottinghamshire coalfields. He left the pits before mining became a reserved occupation. He put a uniform on and went to north Africa. He left a wife and two children behind to fight for King and country. He did that. He did not run away.”
“We have heard some horrific cases over the past two years, with some of these illegal migrants being granted asylum status and then going on to commit horrific crimes—again, abusing our asylum system. I get reports as a Member of Parliament, and I know my colleagues do, of young, undocumented men roaming around our town centres, intimidating people. That has to stop. Yet we see the non-governmental organisations, the lefty lawyers and the Labour party together encouraging these illegal migrants to come over the channel by using the same old slogan: “smash the gangs”. I am telling everyone in this room that that slogan is a complete nonsense. We have to stop the pull factor for people coming to this country. Once these young men in northern France—I have to been to the camps—get into the channel, they are in this country.”
“Thank you, Sir Mark. Once the illegal migrants—let us get the wording right: they are illegal migrants—get into this country, there is no way they are ever going to be deported. It only happens in very rare circumstances. The most important thing for me is to get the terminology right. They are illegal migrants. They are young men coming into our country. Quite frankly—people can say what they want about me—I do not want these people in my country. They have broken into our country. They have thrown their documents away. They are undocumented. We do not know where they have come from. We do not know what they have been up to in their own country. We do not know whether they are criminals. We do not know what their intentions are when they get here. We are a soft touch. These are illegal migrants posing as asylum seekers.”
“I thank the shadow Minister for allowing me to intervene. Does he agree that if the previous Conservative Government had had the political backbone and courage to get that first Rwanda flight off and ignore the ECHR, it might have stopped this?”
“The Minister is making some good points, but does she agree that while the Prime Minister is smashing the gangs, it will be more difficult for boats to get into the sea, so more people will clamber on to the boats and we will have more deaths in the channel?”
“Every year in the UK, hundreds of teenagers take their own lives—children as young as 12, like Riley Townsend in the constituency of Ashfield, who took his own life just a few weeks ago because of mental health problems. What more can we do to support our young people through the social care and education systems to stop this epidemic?”
“I ask the ministerial team to have a look at my constituents here in the room today. I know it is not always possible to empathise, because we have not all been through the same thing, but please reassure them that they have been listened to. I cannot go any higher than this. We have the complaints in and the solicitors involved. As a Member of Parliament, all I can do is listen to my constituents and their stories, bring them to this place, let them see the people running this country, and ensure that their stories are listened to and that the facts I have given today are acted upon.”
“Baby loss will always happen—we know that—but those were preventable deaths. We must do all we can in this place to ensure that our national health service has the support it needs to make sure that we reduce baby loss. We know about the Ockenden report in Nottingham. Some of the news coming out of that is quite shocking. I fear that we sometimes treat the birth of babies like a production line—it is not. It is very personal and emotive. Every single family is completely different; mums and dads are different. If we can learn anything from today’s debate, it is that from the families I have spoken to, baby loss touches every single family in this country. Somebody along the line will know or be related to somebody who has had baby loss, whether that be a miscarriage or during childbirth or post-natal.”
“We never see the front page of a local paper saying, “Hospital saves a life”, although that is what they do every single day. Mistakes have been made, and individuals have made mistakes, but I also have to say that I am incredibly proud of King’s Mill hospital, which is where I was born and where my children were born, and it is probably the place where I will leave this earth, when I eventually go—though I have no plans to do that just yet. It is a brilliant hospital, but mistakes have been made. But King’s Mill hospital acknowledged the mistakes; it put measures in place and learnt from some of the heart- breaking stories we have heard today. I am not here to talk about King’s Mill hospital; I am here to talk about my constituents, who have suffered the most horrendous grief.”
“Got there, was sent into assessment unit. Midwife came, checked for heartbeat…had to wait for scan…then moved down to room 11, where the bereavement midwife came up. The doctor was pushing me to go natural again as I was stable. The midwife at the time, along with my sister, was pushing for my C-section…in the end, I did get rushed down for a C-section, and again my placenta had erupted. The aftercare I received from midwife Holly…was outstanding.” That is four stories. Recently, I visited King’s Mill hospital and the maternity unit, where I managed to walk around with the chief nurse, Mr Phil Bolton. It is a brilliant facility at that hospital. The problem that hospitals have, however, is the headlines in the newspapers, which are always bad.”
“This is the story of Hayley Moore: “My story…Had previous placenta eruption in 2021, was very lucky—was picked up and I was straight down to theatre for an emergency C-section. This time around I was very anxious about it happening again, was questioning the consultant. He said I was only under him because small baby last time. I wanted a planned C-section, but he kept pushing me to go natural and full term. I went in on the 17th of February with reduced movements and pains, was hooked up to the monitor, was told I can’t be having contractions so was sent home. On the 19th, went for a scan. I felt it was rushed, still said I don’t feel right. They said baby had grown and looked fine. Felt movement early hours. The next morning by 10 am on the 20th I was at home in agony, rang the birthing unit, they told me to go down so I did.”
“After being in the room for 37 minutes, while 2 triage midwives, a labour ward co-ordinator and several other staff were sat around their nursing station discussing how many Haribos they’d eaten on the shift, and how other midwives who were on bank shifts were getting paid more…a midwife” never entered the room. When one did enter, she “took a look at the pad and her face dropped, noting the seriousness of my condition. She couldn’t find Theo’s heart rate, so went to get support and a Doppler to see if this could pick the heart rate up. She found him to be bradycardic and issued a 2222 emergency. The consultant came and ordered for a category 1 C-section to take place.” The baby died.”
“They asked if I had lost more than a teaspoon of blood, to which my mum said ‘Yes, it’s like a heavy period, but pure blood.’ The midwife didn’t ask any questions about the pain I was in and didn’t try to gather further information on the amount of blood loss. She told me to come back to the hospital. We returned to the hospital just before 1 am and on getting to the ward at 01:04, I was put into a triage room. 10 minutes later, a support worker came to take my observations, but ignored my mum when she tried to show her the blood-filled pad, and then failed to alert any of the midwives that I was bleeding.”
“She still deemed me as low risk, gave me a codeine tablet and said that I would still be suitable for a homebirth, as the only pain relief I could get with a water birth would be gas and air. I got home at around about midnight and got into my birthing pool, before leaving it to use the toilet at around 12:30 on the 14th September. I had 2 contractions on the toilet and felt a pop, which was followed by bleeding. I put on a pad to monitor the bleeding and within 2 to 3 minutes, it was full. Luke rang the Birthing Unit and put the phone on speaker so I could consent to them talking to Luke and my mum because of how much pain I was in, and I couldn’t speak for myself.”
“On the 13th September 2023, I attended King’s Mill Hospital in the evening, despite being a booked homebirth, to get some pain relief. On the first admission to the Sherwood Birthing Unit, I was left waiting for 40 minutes, before being told by a supporting midwife that they were really busy, and someone would see me shortly. 30 minutes later, the same midwife returned to complete my original triage assessment, something that should be undertaken within 15 minutes of arrival. This midwife apologised for the delays and started my assessment immediately when she came back into the room. She told me that I was l to 2 cm dilated and that my cervix still had some changes to make until I was in active labour.”
“Those vital few hours made all the difference yet we was left to suffer a lifetime of pain through a choice of a fully qualified consultant…We were also told he would of known her life expectancy would be short due to the abruption yet he told us she would be home with us for Christmas and not to worry. We believed in them to be later proved it was all a lie. All that happened to the consultant responsible for our baby girl’s death was he was audited. We are now both changed forever…I was pushed out in a wheelchair holding a memory box as that’s all my daughter then was, a memory.” Amelia Bradley wants to tell Theo’s story: “My pregnancy was the typical normal pregnancy. I attended all antenatal appointments and was deemed as low risk.”
“She was later transferred to LRI, which was when we were finally told the truth: she had a bleed on her brain due to being left inside me too long with no oxygen. Her nappy was filling with blood. Within the space of a few hours, we were told she would be highly disabled, to get your family here, who you would like to meet her, as it’s in her best interest we turn her life support machine off. After turning her life support machine off I was then told I was going to be put back on the maternity ward around all mothers and babies…There was no way in this world I wanted to be around alive babies. Once we had our investigation, we were told a lot of things that could have prevented all of this. We was told if she was taken out around 7 am she would be alive right now.”
“In the space of just over 24 hours I then had several more bleeds. It wasn’t until my daughter’s heartbeat baseline stopped beating I was considered to be allowed surgery. The consultant in charge had gone missing, which delayed my daughter coming out. The ward was on code red. It took 45 minutes to find him. I was then operated on to find out my placenta had abrupted inside me. They struggled to get my daughter out so they had to make a further cut in my stomach, which now due to that I will never be able to give birth naturally. My daughter came out at 11.16 am not breathing. It took 7 minutes to resuscitate her. I had clumps of placenta floating around my stomach and had to be put to sleep to have further surgery. We were led to believe she was fine, but we weren’t able to see her. We were told they was just waiting for her to urinate.”
“After this we left for home and returned to the ward around 19:45. Emma was admitted for monitoring and once she was settled, I returned home. Upon entering the house, I received a phone call from a midwife advising me to return as soon as possible as no foetal heartbeat could be obtained. I went straight back to the ward to be informed our baby…had died. Emma was given medication to induce labour and gave birth to our stillborn daughter three days later at 18:13.” The next story is from Bianca Chapman. This is Imiza’s story: “My placenta was completely covering my cervix. I was a high risk pregnancy. I had a bleed in the November and wasn’t given much advice on any risks. In the early hours of 3/12/22 I had a big bleed and went into KMH. The registrar raised concerns but was ignored by the consultant.”
“They tell the story of Olivia. This is from Rob: “On the 31st of May 2023, Emma and I attended a routine scan at King’s Mill Hospital, Mansfield. During the scan a few issues arose. The sonographer called for assistance from her senior and her recommendation was made to contact a consultant. His decision was that Emma needed admitting immediately for observation. The time was approximately 14:30. We were taken upstairs to the maternity unit where the situation was explained to a midwife at the nurse’s station. Her reply was we should return later as no beds were available and a phone call should have been made to the ward prior to attending. The consultant suggested for us to return in a couple of hours to which the midwife replied this wouldn’t be feasible due to shift change over. She said between 19:30-20:00 would be better.”
“The families that I have brought here today believe, along with the hospital, that deaths were preventable. Mistakes were made and things were missed. I hope that today the ministerial team can give the families something so that they can go away and know that they have been listened to. There are factors apart from mistakes, such as diabetes, obesity, drinking too much, smoking and other factors in pregnancy that can affect how a baby develops and ultimately how healthy it is once it is born. But as I say, in these cases mistakes were made. I have spoken to some of the families, and two families are here today. I will read out their stories—not my words, but their words. I asked them to print out their stories so that I could read them out here in Westminster Hall. The first one is from Rob and Emma Stretton.”
“Mums look at princess dresses, even though the baby is about as big as your thumb. Grandparents squabble over who will have rights to look after the new grandchild. There are all sorts of plans such as what schools they will go to. Especially for first-time mothers it is a strange time—a wondrous, joyful time—and once things settle down would-be parents sometimes get a little bit apprehensive and scared, worried about the baby and whether he is going to be well. Will he be born well? Will he develop properly? It turns from being happy to being concerned, but still happy. There are quite a few risks, as we know, in pregnancy, during birth and in the postnatal period. Every preventable stillbirth, neonatal death or infant death of a child is a tragedy and we must make all efforts to prevent it happening.”
“I beg to move, That this House has considered preventable baby deaths. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mr Dowd. This debate is not the type of debate I look forward to because it is filled with sadness and sorrow. I am delighted to be joined by some of the Ashfield families who have been affected by baby loss in the past couple of years or so. According to the Royal College of Midwives, every day in the UK 1,845 babies are born alive and there are between 302 and 428 miscarriages. We have eight stillbirths per day with 145 babies born prematurely and five neonatal deaths. When a pregnancy is announced in the family, on most occasions it is a joyous, wondrous time in people’s lives. They are happy. Dads make plans for their son to be a footballer—they have picked the football team already.”
“The hon. Gentleman is making a very passionate speech, and I think everybody in Westminster Hall can tell how impassioned he is. He tells a very touching story. Does he agree that it does not matter how long ago baby loss occurred—it will always stay with the family?”
“They will go through all that because they will be around other children and young people who were born around the same time, and they will be thinking, “That could be my child in that class”, “That could be my child in that football team”, “That could be my child playing in that netball team”, and, “That could be my child going to prom in a Cadillac.” I thank the hon. Member for Strangford for that. He always speaks with great passion. I thank all Members for all speaking with great passion and great dignity. It has been a wonderful debate—very sad, but a wonderful debate nevertheless. I thank the ministerial team and the shadow Minister, but most of all I want to thank those in the Public Gallery. They have been extremely brave. The families from Ashfield, the councillor and the lady from Sands have been incredible.”
“I know that it creates problems as well with the scarring and wounds and that sort of stuff, but I thank Members for educating me on that. One of the most moving stories came from my good friend, the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). As he said, this never leaves a family, no matter if it is 50 years on. These parents and family members will probably celebrate birthdays—first birthdays, second birthdays, the child’s fifth, their 10th, when they would have started school, their 18th and their 21st.”
“First, I want to thank everybody for coming to this debate. It has certainly been an education for me—the number of Members who have all been touched by baby loss and turned up for this Westminster Hall debate is incredible. During this debate, I have been educated about C-sections. When I went to my local hospital to talk about births and the number of C-sections as opposed to natural births, I asked the question: why are people having all these C-sections and why not just—and I apologise for this—make them have a natural birth? But actually, during this debate, I have come to understand why there are different outcomes for different people, and that sometimes a C-section is more appropriate for the woman.”
“This Secretary of State is living in a completely different world from my constituents, because they are not asking for this on the doorstep at all. By the way, he is quite happy to spend £11.6 billion on climate aid abroad and £8.5 billion on GB Energy, yet rob our pensioners of £300 at the same time. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt. When will my pensioners in Ashfield receive significant discounts on their fuel bills, and of how much?”
“The amount of stabbings and deaths by stabbings in this country is reaching shocking levels. Over the past few weeks, the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister have fast-tracked the violent criminals in these riots, and got them into court and in prison within two weeks. Is it not about time that we did the same with these yobboes—these thugs—who are carrying knives?”
“I welcome the news of a council house revolution, and we all know that the Deputy Prime Minister is a little bit of an expert when it comes to council housing, but can she confirm that priority will be given to British families, veterans and pensioners?”
“On behalf of myself and Reform UK, I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the children involved. I commend the Home Secretary: she has carried herself with great dignity today, so I thank her for that. I was just looking at the three names of the children—it is absolutely heartbreaking to see the names of these little children. I kindly ask the Home Secretary, what more can we do as a House to support these families and the emergency workers up in Southport? Please send them our love.”
“Six boats came over the channel on Saturday, and there have been reports of another four today. That is more than 500 illegal migrants being escorted into our waters by the French authorities. Does the Home Secretary agree that it is time to stop paying the French any more money until they stop being complicit in this evil trade?”
“This, to me, seems a little bit unfair. A political party that is represented in this House and got over 4 million votes at the last election will have no representation whatsoever on these Committees, yet a party that got 3.5 million votes will have plenty of representation on them. Does the Leader of the House think that is fair?”
“During the general election campaign, the Health Secretary visited King’s Mill hospital in Ashfield, and I am sure that helped me to get re-elected. King’s Mill was built on a private finance initiative deal by the last Labour Government and is going to cost £3 billion for a £300 million hospital. Will the Secretary of State please now assure me and the people of Ashfield that this will never happen again?”
“When I was in the migrant camps in northern France last year, the migrants told me and some of my colleagues that one deterrent that would stop them coming would be if they were turned back in the channel or sent back the same day. We saw the Border Force agency take a boatload back just last week. Will the Home Secretary now, with that advice, grow a political backbone and order the Border Force to send the boats back the same day?”
“The Secretary of State speaks very passionately about GB Energy. I remind him that just a few years ago, the Labour-controlled Nottingham city council had its own energy company called Robin Hood Energy, but this was Robin Hood with a modern twist: it robbed from the poor and gave to the rich, and cost the taxpayer about £50 million. Can the Secretary of State tell the House from that Dispatch Box how much GB Energy will cost the taxpayer?”
“Some mining groups say the sum is nearer to £10 billion, but I will take the figure I have here. In just the last three years, the Government have taken more than £400 million out of the surplus, which is a lot of money. This is miners’ money. In effect, the Treasury’s guarantee is an insurance scheme. It guarantees to make up the shortfall and pay the bonuses, and so on, if there is not a surplus, but I cannot think of any insurance scheme anywhere in this country, or the world, that has never had to pay out. In 30 years, not a penny has come from the Treasury or the taxpayer to top up the mineworkers’ pension scheme. I think that is a bit of a scandal, and so does my mining community.”
“But at the last minute, it ended up being—and depending on who you talk to, whether it is the trustees at the time or the mining organisations involved in campaigning, nobody can get to the bottom of it—a “take it or leave it” 50:50 deal. The Government at the time never undertook a proper financial risk assessment or had actuarial advice on the split. We can never get to the bottom of that—it was a simple “take it or leave it.” When I was working at the pit with my friends, we never really had a say in this. I cannot remember any man I worked with underground being happy with the 50:50 split, because we knew how rich the pension fund was. Thirty years on from 1994, successive Labour and Conservative Governments have not paid a single penny into the pension scheme, which is a cash cow. They have taken £4.8 billion out of the scheme.”
“In my area, it was RJ Budge Mining that took over the pits. At that time, a big bone of contention was what was going to happen with the MPS, or the mineworkers’ pension scheme. It was probably one of the richest pension schemes in the world at that time, and was worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, in today’s money. It was always accepted that there would be a 70:30 split in favour of the miners. When the then Government sat around the table with the trustees to make an offer to guarantee the mineworkers’ pension scheme, we automatically surmised that there would be a 70:30 split, which would have been fair.”
“It would have been 50 years, but he took a break between 1940 and 1945, and went to fight Hitler. Then he came back and went straight back down the pit the following week. When he finished in the pits in 1979, he got a tankard, a certificate, 500 quid and a meagre pension— imagine that. As miners, we knew about the risks underground when we went down the pit every day. Since mining started in this country in the 1600s, over 160,000 men, women and children have died in the coalmines, so we knew the risks. We knew there was always a chance that something might happen, but these were the risks we took. The miners took these risks for simple reasons: to earn a wage, put food on the table and make sure their kids were well dressed. In 1994, when I was still working in the pits, they were privatised.”
“In 1950, there was a fire at Cresswell colliery and, sadly, 83 men and boys lost their lives. The mine rescuers had to seal the pit off underground to save the colliery, so that it could produce coal again. They sealed off some of the old workings and left the men inbye, because there was no chance of saving them, but when they took the stops down just a few months later, the men were on the other side. Some of them had scratched their names into the wall. It was terrible, and this sort of thing is hard to explain to people who have not worked down a coalmine. It was a very tight-knit community, and people worked in difficult conditions. I had just over 10 years of working in awful conditions, but my grandad Charlie had 45 years down the coalmine and finished up at New Hucknall colliery.”
“He was a rope fitter, and I went to work with him underground. I had a good time working with my dad and my friends at Sutton colliery, which was a family pit. It was a small coalmine with small coal seams and difficult conditions. It was a family pit where brothers worked with their brothers, dads and grandads. It was a proper community, but like all coalmines, there was tragedy underground. At Sutton colliery in 1957, there was a methane explosion and, sadly, five men lost their lives. I knew some of the friends, families and descendants of the people who died. I then went on to Cresswell colliery, in north Derbyshire, to do my coalface training. It was another family pit where, again, men worked with their sons, and brothers worked with their brothers, and it too was tinged with tragedy.”