FORMER miners delivered a bag of coal to a government department yesterday to protest at the continued decline in the industry.
Four men, wearing full pit gear, demonstrated outside the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in London, holding up placards which read "Coal Not Dole" and "Fair Play For Miners".
The protestors, who used to work in pits in Yorkshire and Derbyshire, said the Government should nationalise collieries to preserve the few jobs that remained in the industry.
Protestor Terry Butkeraitis said: "Private companies have taken handouts from the Government and then closed down pits.
"They do not care about the communities that are affected by pit closures."
The British coal was handed to a DTI official, while another bag of imported coal was smeared with tomato sauce to symbolise the blood of miners overseas who work in poor conditions.
A DTI spokesman said the Government's Coal Investment Aid programme was putting £60m into the industry in an attempt to create long-term viability.
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