Britain should embrace new coal mining

For those of us who remember the miners’ strike in the 1980s it takes some getting used to the journey made by coal miners over the past 40 years: from working class heroes to climate ‘criminals’. To hear today’s reaction to the news that Michael Gove has granted permission to build Britain’s first deep coal mine for a generation is to step through the looking glass into a bizarre world where a Conservative government is considered evil for helping to create mining jobs in a de-industrialised region – and the ‘enlightened’ position is to eradicate the very last traces of the coal industry.

Lord Deben, chair of the government’s Climate Change Committee, thinks Gove’s decision to be ‘indefensible’. COP president Alok Sharma thinks it will damage the UK’s reputation. Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron likens the mine to Betamax (the long-redundant video format) and thinks it will become a ‘stranded asset’.