Quote of the day 23rd January 2021

“We have steel processes, we have industrial processes which use coking coal and if we don’t have sources of coking coal in the UK we will be importing those anyway.”

(Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng explaining why the government did not call in the West Cumbria Mining application for a new coal mine, much of which is in the area I represent.

When some the words he used immediately after this about a "slight tension between the opening of this mine and our intention to decarbonise” are quoted out of context - as they usually have been, often without the word 'slight' either - they can be and have been presented as an admission that the government had decided to take no account of whether the mine will have an environmental impact. When the words are read in context this is clearly not the case ) 


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