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Francis hits out at Tory’s anti-mining TV stance

MINERS’ MP Hywel Francis has hit back at a former Tory special adviser who said the decline of the coalmining industry should be celebrated.

The controversial claim was made by Hywel Williams — a cabinet aide during John Major’s government — in a documentary he made about the epic 1984-85 miners dispute broadcast on Welsh channel S4C last night.

In the y Gwir am y Glo (the Truth About Coal) programme, he called coalmining an “old fashioned industry” that could not be modernised with new technology.

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