Dear Jim,
Thank you for your letter of 29 December about the situation in the steel industry.
Like you I shall be extremely sorry if there is a strike by workers in the industry. Great harm would be done to the industry, to those who work in it and to all those who use its products.
While sharing, therefore, your views about the gravity of the situation, I do not think it would be helpful to recall Parliament this week. But you may be assured that I would not hesitate to do so if I thought that circumstances at any point made it desirable.
Yours sincerely
Margaret Thatcher