In the north-east, where mining, shipbuilding, iron and steelmaking had supported communities for generations, the closure of pits and shipyards left families stranded by sudden unemployment.
The letter, released under the Freedom of Information Act, concluded: "Scargill could immediately announce that the NUM will continue its policy of opposing the closure of pits for economic reasons".
I first saw Brassed Off – the tale about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit – in June 1997.
Lord Prescott has credited 1996 film Brassed Off - about the struggles faced by a colliery brass band after the closure of their pit - as the inspiration for a Labour regeneration programme for coalfield communities.
The move to rescue SeaFrance recalls the successful co-operative takeover in Wales of the Tower Colliery, north of Aberdare in 1995, following the closure of the pit by British Coal a year earlier.
He added: "We are inviting ex-miners and their families to go back over their memories of the strike and what has happened since the closure of the pit.
Last month, sudden flooding forced the closure of the pit, the last deep mine in Scotland.No such excuses can be made for the £40m poured into the Selby coalfield in Yorkshire.
Tudor Hart retired from clinical practice in 1987 and he and Mary moved from Glyncorrwg, which by then had gone into steep decline following the closure of its pit, to a house on the Gower peninsula overlooking Oxwich Bay, where he found more time for his drawing – he was a talented cartoonist – and precision modelling.
The irony is that many of those who now make these kinds of arguments about the strike often accused the miners' leaders at the time of scaremongering about pit closures; ridiculed the NUM for resisting the closure of uneconomic pits; and wouldn't in any case have welcomed the consequences of a miners' victory.
It's never recovered from the closure of the pits".
