HAVING lived in the mining community since 1942, the son and grandson of miners, who married a miner’s daughter, and spending most of my teen years underground, I am not totally surprised about the vitriol displayed following Lady Thatcher’s recent death.

However, I cannot avoid reflecting on some aspects of that dreadful period that some of Mrs Thatcher’s critics appear to have overlooked.

First, coal was a rapidly diminishing industry before she became Conservative leader – the result of the colliery closure programme of the Harold Wilson Labour administration, which exceeded that of the Conservative government.

Second was the influence that the card-carrying communist leader of the NUM, Arthur Scargill, had over the South Wales miners.

He blatantly hijacked their loyalty and solidarity, and repaid them by withdrawing their basic right to hold a ballot which may have resulted in an honourable settlement.

This was a deliberate attempt to use the miners as pawns in his futile attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government. This has at long last been recognised and accepted by the now Lord Kinnock in his interviews.

As I write, Mr Scargill is costing the waning National Union of Mineworkers thousands of pounds in legal fees in their attempt to remove him from his luxurious flat in London. The Welsh vitriol may be misdirected.

David Davies, Mandeville Road, Blackwood