RE Joe Wellthorpe’s letter on the above subject (HAS, Oct 21). Here he goes again, having a go at the miners, once again talking utter rubbish and hatred.
Yes, we were the envy of Europe in shipbuilding, steel, car manufacturing and, indeed, coal mining, all due to a great workforce.
But the country didn’t lose the mining industry to militant unions. It was Margaret Thatcher and her cronies who closed it, not the miners who only went on not a misguided strike, but a badly timed one, to save the coal industry and their jobs and communities.
As for Mr Wellthorpe saying miners should count their lucky stars for getting pensions at all, he is right – only because it’s a wonder Mrs Thatcher and her cronies didn’t take those as well after all the years of the miners paying into it and making it the success the pension scheme is.
Joseph Marley, Wingate, Co Durham.
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