Time is ripe for clean coal to make a comeback in Britain

I READ with interest the letter from Barrie Frost (Yorkshire Post, April 24) on his experiences during the 1984 miners’ strike and the devastating effect this had on all within the local communities, not just the miners.

I was born and brought up in a community dominated by coal mining and the adjoining Coalite and Chemical Company. My paternal grandfather was killed in a mining accident and my father ruined his health latterly, covering with double shifts for frequently absent colleagues.

There was no control or discipline over attendance matters at the NCB, and, while the vast majority of miners were decent hard-working types, the minority of workshy employees were ripe for exploitation by Arthur Scargill to fulfil his political ambitions using the miners as a very handy smokescreen.

The many friends and family members I had within the mining community are still convinced that, had Scargill allowed a vote, the 1984 strike would not have happened.

They also say that, while there was much violence between police and pickets, that was to be expected, what was not was the violent threats from pickets against the very many miners who refused to picket or wished to go to work, threats that spilled over into schoolyards against the wives and children.

Furthermore, the year-long picketing of the Coalite works, preventing the supply of coal to them, led to the closure of that plant and the loss of many jobs there.

The strikes, along with the three-day weeks of the 1970s, were the start of the downfall of coal as the continuing increase in the price of coal and its unreliable supply led many bulk energy users, not least power stations, in order to survive, to switch to other sources, mainly oil.

From that time, coal has had only a smaller contribution to make as North Sea oil and gas and nuclear power have taken over.

The situation now is ripe for coal to make a comeback as successive governments have neglected renewal of nuclear and been taken in by the supposed benefits of wind power as a way of reducing carbon emissions.

As Mr Frost rightly says, we can only guarantee the energy supply which comes from our own sources and, to combine this guarantee with lowering carbon emissions, it makes sense to expand the nuclear content and take the massive emission reductions available on fossil fuels, particularly locally on coal at Don Valley Power Project and Drax.

With the help of the Yorkshire Post we have been campaigning and urging our constituency MP Ed Miliband and his Doncaster colleagues to hammer home to Ed Davey the great benefits available to this area in job prospects, investment and prosperity.

From: Geoffrey Thorpe, Lister Avenue, East Bowling, Bradford.

BARrIE Frost wrote a good letter (Yorkshire Post, April 24) regarding the miners’ strike and coal mining. We must now remember that Britain is ruled and told what we can and cannot do, as far as coal is concerned it is a pollutant, and this country has to shut a number of our coal-powered power stations. It seems not to matter that Britain is the leader in clean coal technology. With fossil fuel stocks depleting at an alarming rate, the EU should be encouraging building coal-fired power stations, not telling us to shut power stations.

Could we produce coal to compete with Poland or other European countries as the EU will not allow protectionism? This now brings me to a major problem. The unions. Bob Crow brought out workers at British Airways after the airline had made a £400m loss, even though they were the best paid workers the best in the flight business.

I now read in a national newspaper that Len McCluskey wants the Labour Party to get rid of Labour MPs that do not toe the line of the union. What company in its right mind would invest millions in Britain when there are union leaders wanting to run the country?