MARGARET Thatcher’s mission is almost complete if the Tories allow two of the last remaining deep coal mines to close. More than a thousand jobs will be lost to imported subsidised cheaper fuel.

As Arthur Scargill said 30 years ago, the UK has the finest deep-mined coal in the world and if it had been subsidised as much as the imported stuff the UK would be energy rich and even exporting coal to boost revenues.

Our energy bills would be half what they are today and thousands of families would not have been sacrificed on behalf of the Tories’ wealthy pals.

We have the equivalent of vast Middle East oilfields if we used gasification to extract the energy from our coal.

We, of course, should help impoverished people where we can around the globe, but it makes no sense to send £11 billion annually in aid to save lives and jobs abroad when our own lives and jobs are placed in jeopardy.

This continual attack on the working class in the UK by our privileged political Eton class rulers is having really detrimental consequences on young and old alike.

The lights may yet go out due to the dimwits in power.

Tom Scaife, Manor Drive, York.