I AM long enough in the tooth to remember how the miners held the country to ransom in the 1970s and their ideological battles with Edward Heath’s Conservative government.

As we all know, Margaret Thatcher’s iron fist eventually crushed the miners, and Britain has never since been at the mercy of workers’ power – until now.

The panic which the mere threat of a tanker drivers’ strike caused among our fuel-guzzling nation must have brought our present government out in a cold sweat.

Even if this current dispute is settled, the damage has been done – and the Unite union must be rubbing its hands with glee at the power it now undisputably wields.

Inevitably, sometime soon, they will be on a collision course with the government.

Question is, who can stop them?

Observer, Blackburn.