Back in 2014, the film Pride shed a light on one of the most captivating episodes that has inadvertently shaped recent British politics. The movie is a dramatization of the true story of a group of lesbian and gay activists from London during the Thatcher era, who decide to support miners striking in South Wales. The story managed to portray an alliance between the traditional working class, represented by Welsh miners, and Londoner activists for sexual diversity. Perhaps this alliance is best described by the speech given by Dai Donovan, a Welsh unionist, in a gay club in London:
" You have worn our badge, Coal Not Dole, and you know what harassment means, as we do. Now we will pin your badge on us, we will support you. It won't change overnight, but now 140,000 miners know that there are other causes and other problems. We know about blacks and gays and nuclear disarmament and we will never be the same."
Now, years later, a lot has been said about Labour’s failing alliance between socially liberal city voters and its traditional working-class support in smaller towns. In the 2019 general elections, Neath, the constituency where the Pride miners went on strike, remained as one of the party’s historical working-class strongholds. However, this was not the story for most of the so-called “red wall”, of working-class Labour-supporting constituencies.
