Letter: Scargill's struggle continues

PAUL ROUTLEDGE in his latest attack on Arthur Scargill ('Scargill: saviour to figure of fun', 6 March) again insults the mining communities that have struggled for so long against the Tory government's political pit- closure programme.

A decade on from the year- long strike of 1984-85, the miners' resistance to Tory butchery of the coal industry is being marked around the UK in events such as the 5 March rally in South Wales, which was packed out, contrary to Routledge's misinformation.

Arthur Scargill has remained true to the promise he made in 1981 to all the miners of Wales, Scotland and England - to implement the National Union of Mineworkers' policies and fight against pit closures. If that makes him a subject for Routledge's ridicule, it reflects on Routledge not Scargill.

Quoting Kim Howells MP only adds insult to insult, but it's interesting to compare Dr Howells's post-strike diatribes against the NUM's national leadership with the last sentence of a letter he sent Scargill in autumn 1983, when the union was faced with either submitting to or resisting pit closures: 'Remember that you always have our full support.' Everything Scargill was fighting for then he continues to fight for today.

Nell Myers

NUM

Sheffield, South Yorks