Adam Jogee

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. My wife is a wise and wonderful woman, so he will be reassured to know that I learn lots from her. I agree that we are one United Kingdom, and that this issue requires one approach. At the commemoration last month to which I referred, the order of service contained a poem from Captain John William Roberts, whose grandfather died in the disaster and whose daughter, Maisie Farrell, was at the memorial with me despite suffering a stroke in recent months. I am pleased to say that she is on the road to recovery. Staffordshire women are made of strong stuff— I should know, as I was born to one—and I wish Maisie well in her recovery to full health. It just so happens that Maisie is Newcastle-under-Lyme born and bred, and is a close friend of my family. I want to share a small part of that poem with the House: “Diglake Disaster: That bitter day in January, Christmas not long gone We went to work joking and singing—clogs echoing to mirth How could we guess early, subterranean Niagara sweep lads away By the nature of its vector, trap mates without escape? While we struggled in icy water, choked for clear air, agony of heart, Burning in our mind we were separated for ever from loved ones. This mixed group of men, not able to see Easter—” It ends, “Bequeath our generation acts, they knew we could perform— Advancing wisdom, better leaders, unselfish goals Thus, take up the human charter: embrace our task. The words of Captain John William Roberts, ACF.” What a tribute those words are to the sacrifice of those men and boys who died, and to the shared experience of miners right across our United Kingdom, from South Wales to the east midlands and from Yorkshire to the jewel in our kingdom’s crown in north Staffordshire. Those miners worked hard, they powered our economy, and they showed what grit, determination, dignity, strength and commitment look like. As my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins) alluded to, we have a duty to give back to the communities that gave us the men and boys, and the strong women right beside them, without whom our country would never have developed in the way that it has.