Government and unions
Sir: Without attempting to argue the rights and wrongs of the respective protagonists (Government vis-a-vis trade unions) in the present struggle. I am nevertheless struck by the parallel between the attitude of the Prime Minister and the philosophy of the subject of the poet Horace's ode beginning:
"Justum et tenacem propositi virum" — the Man conscious that his policy is fair and tenaciously resolved to pursue it, in face of the "Civium ardor prava jubentium" — although, as I say, whether the miners' demands for extra cash are 'wrong' is likely to be the subject of a long and acrimonious debate. However, we hope that the poet's line "Impavidum ferient ruinae" ("the ruins will smite him untrembling") will not be the outcome of the present occasion, and that it may
• be possible to offer the NUM a little more — even though, at the moment no-one knows whence it is to come! B. L. Howarth Jon Dalton & Howarth Ltd, 39/41 Kent Street, Fleetwood, Lancashire
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