1980s closures left us devastated. This time we must have a plan

FOR Scots of my generation the memory of the industrial devastation of the 80s is seared into our collective consciousness.

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Families and communities like my own, who depended on heavy industries like coal mining, were left abandoned as the pits closed and factories shut down.

Growing up in a part of Ayrshire which relied on such jobs, I can still recall the impact.

It left swathes of working age people and their families in despair as many concluded they would never find a job again.

It influenced the music of the times, including the Proclaimers’ Letter From America, which lamented the loss of industrial plants in the likes of Irvine, Linwood and Bathgate.

Some argue that those huge changes were bound to happen anyway, as our economy moved into a new era.

That may be true but, even if it was, the biggest mistake which policymakers made at the time was not having a plan in place.