ABSTRACT
By 1914 the Yorkshire miners had come to terms with the Labour Party as the future of party-political action lay with Labour as nationalisation of the mines was now the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) 1s prime aim. Although the MFGB affiliated to the Labour Party in 1909 many Yorkshire miners were unwilling to abandon their traditional Liberal political loyalties. During 1919 the Yorkshire Miners Association (YMA) took an active role in establishing Party organisation and in propagating the Party’s message, organising a series of mass meetings on behalf of the Party in all the constituencies fought by the YMA. The British party system is traditionally described as competitive, but a number of geographical areas are characterised by one-party dominance. The Yorkshire Area has long recognised the deficiencies of delegate mobilisation. The political influence of the miners can best be charted by the number of delegates able to attend Party GMCs, selection conferences and so on.
