Letter: Effect of Tory policies on society

Sir: It is terrible to think of the last British mine pit going. The coal miners were particularly splendid people. My father, J. S. Haldane, probably did the most for making coal mining tolerably safe. He took me down my first pit when I was around 14. The miners (recently equipped with canaries, I think) all welcomed 'the doctor's lass' and avoided bad words in front of her and made me take a strike at the black. My father was in his pit clothes, which he had worn for many a pit disaster and rescue.

My mother, usually fussy about visitors and 'who they were', always welcomed the miners; I knew them as brave, faithful, sensible. Probably they are all that now. Have we thought of what people we are losing? Perhaps miners are people whom we should be proud of and cherish. If we lose them, it is bad for the world.

Yours,

NAOMI MITCHISON

Carradale, Argyll