Sir: Peter Hitchens's ruminations on Blun- kett's origins in relation
to his present edu- cational task touched on 'only part of a rev- olutionary daze which settled on South Yorkshire in the Blunkett era'. My abiding memory of that era was seeing policemen (from Cornwall, Dumfries, everywhere — it was a desperate situation) sleeping on the road with the kerb as their pillow because Sheffield city council and, possibly, South Yorkshire county council refused to pro- vide facilities for the peace-keeping forces that had to be drafted in to deal with the violence ensuing from the miners' strike. It was probably the start of Arthur Scargill's and the NUM's rapid decline in national economic influence.
Blunkett's platform for power was not a personal aberration and it would be helpful to be reminded of the actions and effects of that 'revolutionary daze' in the wider con- text. How can we be sure that the radical Labour creed promoting solidarity with the oppressed will not get in the way of, for example, keeping the peace in Northern Ireland?
Edward Lade
Yaldham, Sevenoaks, Kent
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