NO ONE should apologise to Arthur Scargill (Letters, January 7). Clearly there must have been a good deal of elective memory loss over the past 30 years. 

The miners brought down the Heath government in 1974, and were determined to do the same with Mrs Thatcher’s government; it didn’t have to be Mrs Thatcher, any Conservative government would have got the same.

So Mr Scargill called an undemocratic strike, not supported by thousands of his own miners in an attempt to bring the government down, not forgetting these same miners were at the top of the pay scales and heavily subsidised by the taxpayer.

But times had changed by 1984, we had a strong government and the general public was sick of being held to ransom. Mr Scargill got what he deserved; the miners themselves deserved better.

E Sawdon, Whernside Avenue, York.