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Gifts from The Morning Star
£10m bailout Loan will close two-thirds of Britains remaining deep coalmines
Tories offer bailout loan to cash-strapped UK Coal - on condition it shuts two pits and puts hundreds on the dole

Bloody-minded Tory ministers tried yesterday to finish the job Thatcher started by refusing to save two of Britain's last three surviving deep coalmines.

Business Minister Michael Fallon offered a £10 million loan to UK Coal - but only to help close the Kellingley and Thoresby pits.

The 340 workers he has already condemned to the dole will walk out of their colliery gates for the last time next month in a throwback to scenes from the 1980s.

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