I READ Ron Howse’s letter (“It’s worth recalling” June 2) with great interest probably because we are contemporaries.

In fact I am somewhat older than him.

I agree about the camaraderie and community spirit of the Second World War but this is tempered by other recollections, far less pleasant.

Queuing ‘elbow to elbow’ to see a doctor ‘on the panel’ at 6 pence a time, forced to live in one room with my mother and chronically sick sister with my Dad absent for six years in the army, tradespeople serving their mates ‘under the counter’, a ‘black market’ in many cities which created some of today’s ‘respected’ rich citizens are just a few.

It took some really brave and imaginative governments by Clement Attlee from 1945-55 to establish the base of the security we now take for granted. National Health, pensions for everyone and better education formed our society’s (and that of other countries’), bedrocks. Too many of us have forgotten their roots with their 'new' comparative wealth.

'Recalling’ our past is fraught with danger since we can tend to remember only the things we programme ourselves to recall. A lecture I attended in Dorchester last year described how we are all guilty of ‘changing’ our memories when they are tested by subjection to differing versions of the same event.

It’s called ‘false memory syndrome’.

I’m not suggesting that Ron is suffering from this but he should remember perhaps that Trades Union needed to fight for decent working conditions for decades.

The coal industry was nationalised in 1945. Up until then, miners had to suffer like 'slaves' under the private ownership of ruthless pit-owners. When interviewed by the War Office Selection Board in 1953, I made the mistake of defending nationalisation of the National Coal Board for whom I had worked as a research scientist.

A deafening silence filled the room!

I hope Ron realises that the abuse of power is not just the prerogative of the working classes.

I have been employed at all levels of industry but I have to say that more often than not, it has been my fellow ‘working class’ colleagues who were the most genuine and empathetic. I read the other day a survey of what most workers now think of their managers. It made unpleasant reading.

By sharing our memories 'true' or 'false', perhaps Ron and I can provide your readers with a rounded picture? Nothing is ever black and white! Last point; if youngsters of 16 can work, drive, marry and have children, why shouldn't they have say in their futures?

MIKE JOSLIN Dorchester