Letter: Coal industry shutdown 'will have a demoralising effect on the whole nation'

Sir: Tuesday's announcement that 30,000 miners and their families are to be reduced to poverty, their communities decimated and the coal industry as a whole virtually shut down at a stroke fills me, as a priest who has spent 24 years of his working life in the areas most deeply affected, with dismay and anguish.

I wish to associate myself with all those, including my brother bishops, who have expressed their view that this precipitate action is ill-considered and its consequences disastrous for the nation as a whole. It cannot be right to allow a decision of this magnitude to be taken by differing sectors of the energy industry in such an arbitrary fashion. Even if the reduction in power costs that some claim (to the scepticism of many) prove in the end to be correct, the morality of such a cavalier destruction of thousands of lives must be challenged. It is not only poor reward for an industry that in recent years has responded superbly to productivity targets, it is also a sad reflection on the Government's ability to keep its promises. It will have a demoralising effect on the whole nation.

I wish to add my voice to the chorus of others calling upon the Government to call a halt to this action now and instead to embark upon a serious reappraisal of our country's long-term energy needs.

Yours faithfully,

ROY SOUTHWARK

Bishop's House

London, SW16

15 October