CORRESPONDENT CT Riley seems to suggest that Margaret Thatcher was wrong to curb the excessive union powers (HAS, Sept 4) contrary to the fact that ordinary people, many trade unionists included, were tired of the endless strikes and walkouts that had afflicted our industries.

She gave people the right not to strike and the right not to join a union by outlawing the absurd "closed shops" in many trades.

The comment which Mr Riley referred to was in fact aimed at the striking miners and their inexcusable violence which divided communities when she said: "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We must now fight the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty."

The unions loathe her simply because she humiliated them and they lost power, influence and millions of members.

Mrs Thatcher transformed this country in the long term. I would put the worst period under her leadership against the state of this country after ten years of Labour.

Des More, Darlington.

IN reply to CT Riley's letter about Margaret Thatcher (HAS, Sept 4) I have to wonder how he linked all of those ideas in his head.

To blame Mrs Thatcher for the existence of poor school behaviour as well as removing corporal punishment from the classroom seems a little silly because surely not beating our children is the sign of a modern society, not a weak and divided one.

I am most intrigued by Mr Riley attempting to blame Mrs Thatcher for adultery because one man impregnating another's wife was around long before 1979.

She introduced policies that smashed the unions because Arthur Scargill was attempting to run the country. It needed to happen, and Mrs Thatcher should be admired for being able to remove the unions' power. Do people remember the Winter of Discontent?

Mrs Thatcher's policies hit the North-East hard, but surely the time to blame her for everything was over during the 1990s.

G Patel, Chester-le-Street, Co Durham.