Rory Stewart

Bags the concern is the precarious financial position of Uk Coal, and the concern that, having done the mining, they would still be broke and the cost of restoring the landscape would fall on the taxpayer. I'm not sure how many jobs opencast mining does create anyway.

jen those links to Facebook and Twitter only allow you to share the story on your own timeline. If I did that, my own Facebook friends would see it and be able to comment, but it wouldn't be like a thread of comments on the Journal's own website, that anyone could comment on.
I don't really know how Twitter works but someone reading that article wouldn't know anyone else had tweeted about it.
I agree with bags you will have to resort to pen and paper!

Actually, I have signed the Pont Valley petition.
I have written to Pat Glass before about lots of things. I do it by email. She replies either by email or by letter. There's a website called www.theyworkforyou.org I think, or it could be .com
UKCoal wanted to opencast near Gibside, so the National Trust bought the land so they couldn't. Opencast is nothing like mining, it destroys the character of the land, and provides jobs for lorry drivers, just a few, not miners. One of the sites is near the Tanfield railway and one on your side of the border, Jane, is at the roman road. UKCoal have tried to get permission for all these sites in the past and have been turned down. They just carry on in the hope that the opposition will give up.
The point is that the newspaper should not only let people comment online if they have facebook or twitter. It should be open for all internet users, like all other papers are.

www.theyworkforyou.com

Jane, down the bottom of the article is a link to put a comment on it, but you need a facebook account to sign up to it. The comment with the link on about the Pont Valley, which is over near Consett, was a facebook link.

You can still write to the editor. To say that you "have no voice" on issues reported in a paper seems like misinformation to me.

An undismissive view of Twitter from a scientist.

jen I still can't see any comments section, possibly it's because I'm using my phone.