WITH the release of secret Government papers under the 30 year rule, at last the truth has come out about the 1984-5 miners strike. Despite all their denials at the time, Margaret Thatcher and the Tories had a hidden agenda to destroy the mining industry, through her well-planned strategy of killing off Britain’s weak, poorly-led Trade unions. She first struck at the engineering unions, and provoked a strike with British Leyland.

Her next target was the steel industry, which initiated the demise of the 10,000 strong Llanwern steel union membership.

The public sector followed, including nurses and the whole of the NHS. The railway union was next in line.

Arthur Scargill did his utmost to expose the half truths and downright lies.

However, with the help of the media – especially the London press and a hostile Parliament, including Welsh MPs, the lies of Thatcher and MacGregor began to stick. The miners fought a heroic fight back. Cardiff and our Valleys were at the centre of the world’s attention.

They were never defeated. They marched back to their pits and the prospect of a devastated community.

A lost generation of kids will forever curse Thatcher, MacGregor and the Tories.

Ray Davies Pandy Road Caerphilly