Letter: The mines: effects of closure on the economy, the environment and individual lives

Sir: While reading the latest edition of the Tablet I came across an article on Chris Patten. It mentions that Mr Patten, while giving his annual address as Governor of Hong Kong, quoted Isaiah Berlin on democracy, including the following passage:

Without an independent judiciary enforcing laws democratically enacted, businesses will be vulnerable to arbitrary political decisions taken on a whim - a sure recipe for a collapse in confidence and a powerful deterrent to investors from overseas.

How ironic that, while Mr Patten lauds democracy in the face of totalitarian Chinese Communism, his erstwhile colleagues await the adjourned decision from Mr Justice Vinelott on whether their arbitrary political decision, to devastate the lives of so many mineworkers and their families, can go ahead.

Yours faithfully,

STEPHEN N. RIGBY

Grasby, Lincolnshire