SIR – No-one would dispute Mary Moorhouse’s suggestion (Letters, April 25) that miners in the 1980s were comparatively well paid and could afford holidays in Benidorm. Where she is wrong, however, is to give the impression that the 1984-85 strike was also about pay and therefore unnecessary.

This time round it was the National Union of Mineworkers’ response to the National Coal Board’s intention and at the behest of the Thatcher government to drastically reduce the number of working pits and with it the loss of thousands of jobs across the mining industry.

The trigger was the proposal to close Corton Wood Colliery near Barnsley which Arthur Scargill thought he could get rescinded by a short strike. This proved to be a major miscalculation made worse by his failure to appreciate the extent of the preparations made by the Government.

The result was a catastrophe for mining communities everywhere leaving Maggie triumphant and the industry in a worse state than had closures been negotiated on a pit-by-pit basis.

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley