Will Michael Gove’s carbuncle coal mine frustrate Britain’s green ambition?

Levelling up shouldn’t be relying upon dirty, backward-looking technologies, says James Moore

It is perfectly possible to boost the North by encouraging investment in greener, more forward-looking projects instead (PA)

City folk see real potential in London becoming a centre of green finance. The place to go to find the capital required to get projects off the ground and a means of giving a financial centre locked out of Europe and slowly leaking jobs a handy shot in the arm.

How are those who’ve thrown themselves into this idea, which has some committed and enthusiastic proponents, supposed to react to Michael Gove approving the polluting carbuncle of a coal mine in Cumbria? With outrage? Or simply a weary shrug?

It ought to be the former. The first new coal mine to be approved in decades will be built near Whitehaven by the privately owned West Cumbria Mining after the levelling-up secretary finally signed it off.