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

Sir: Some mistake surely? Your front-page banner headline today declares 'Pit closure package costs pounds 1bn'. What it should have announced was 'Pit closure package costs 30,000 jobs'.

Your preoccupation with double-entry book-keeping may commend itself to readers in the Square Mile and university economics departments, but this Tory government's latest blunder is not to be assessed in terms of public money. It is a human tragedy of the first magnitude - the destruction of hundreds of communities and the impoverishment of many thousands of (formerly) working people. Don't forget: readers are people, too.

Yours faithfully,

TOM BAISTOW

London, W1

14 October