Nothing says ‘backwards Brexit Britain’ better than a new coal mine

New coal doesn’t make sense to anyone except Conservatives still in thrall to the last dirty coins of fossil fuel capitalism, writes Harry Cockburn

Going back in time. A man walks his dog in Whitehaven, Cumbria, near the site of the proposed coal mine (PA)

The Conservatives have given the green light to a new coal mine in an act of climate vandalism which wipes away any trace of environmental responsibility the party has previously tried to portray.

With Michael Gove giving the thumbs up for the Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria, the charade is over.

It is the latest in an appalling series of environmentally ruthless policy decisions from a party unable to look past the short-term profiteering which polluting fossil fuels can still precipitate.