Thanks Eddie !
I am aware that some of our coal is expensive to bring to the surface, but not all. For example, they have been talking about the Margam Super Pit where I live in South Wales for many years. There are humongous reserves of coal there, and not that far from the surface.
But this argument about the cheapness of foreign coal is not as simple as you make out. One of the reasons that it appears to be cheaper to import coal from the other side of the planet is that the end-users here in Britain don't have to pay the huge cost of the social deprivation that results from importing unemployment.
If the power stations had to pay for all the unemployment benefits of the sacked miners, together with all the other benefits needed to replace the lost wages, perhaps that cheap coal wouldn't be so cheap after all !
The burden on the already overstretched benefits budget has to be paid by someone, and that someone is you and I and every other taxpayer.
But I concede that in the case of Redcar, the Government had its hands tied somewhat. But the repercussions from shutting down the steel works will be felt for generations to come, in an area that already has huge social problems.