Things Go Better With Coke

If steel is now made using marshmallow, and if in any case wind turbines and everything else will soon be made of gingerbread, then tell that to West Cumbria Mining and to EMR Capital. No, I would not have chosen a private equity firm registered in the Cayman Islands, either. But that firm is doing it neither for charity nor on an off chance.

This coming April, it will be 10 years since the death of Margaret Thatcher. The inevitable return of the British coal industry is happening right on schedule. If it is a problem that much of this coking coal is to be exported, then revive the British steel industry as well. We need the State. But we can forget about the Labour Party, which is already committed to closing this mine even before it has been sunk.

Welcome to the coke war. On one side are those for whom coke is used in smelting. On the other side are those for whom coke is used for snorting. Whether it is the coal to make their turbines and their cars, or whether it is the precious metals for their Green New Deal and their toys, or whether it is their cocaine, the Snorters will cheerfully import the produce of child and slave labour, extracted with no environmental standards whatever and then shipped over vast distances of carbon footprint. But they will never, ever, ever countenance the well-paid, unionised, environmentally safeguarded employment of their compatriots, the Smelters. The Labour Party has chosen its side.

We are heading for a hung Parliament. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. There does, however, need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not.