Letter: Balance sheet all on the debit side as 30,000 British miners see their jobs destroyed

Sir: Miners have more than doubled their productivity in the last few years. Farmers have not. Miners are being sacked, farmers are being paid set-aside money for doing nothing. Could this disparity be because miners vote Labour and farmers vote Tory?

When farmers have to survive in the free market, or when miners are paid to leave the pits fallow for a year I will believe that this Government is even-handed. Until then, I conclude that it only believes in the rigours of the marketplace for its political enemies and not for its friends.

Yours faithfully,

DAVID E. FLAVELL

Minister

Easington Colliery

Methodist Church

Peterlee, County Durham