I HAVE noticed that a lot of recent letters regarding the Miners’ Strike have spoken about the fact that Nottinghamshire miners worked throughout the strike.

Why? Because the Government told them that their jobs would be safe if they didn’t go on strike.

How did the Government thank them? By sacking about half of them within a year after the strike finished.

It was such actions that provoked sympathy for the miners and talk of starting a second strike in 1986.

Personally, because of this I think that a good overall description of what happened was that both sides used miners as pawns.

Iain Mahoney, Shildon.