Energy Minister Michael Fallon admits that a third of the coal supplies needed for electricity generation in Britain is imported from Russia, yet he is content to see this country's deep-mined coal industry go to the wall.

The conservative coalition has been among the most strident Nato governments in demanding economic sanctions against Moscow, but it seems unaware of the potential consequences.

Although this island sits on top of huge coal reserves that could meet its needs for a couple of centuries or more, government complacency dictates dependence on imports from Russia, Colombia and the US.

It prefers to offer a £10 million loan to UK Coal to finance the "managed closure" of Kellingley in North Yorkshire and Thoresby in Nottinghamshire rather than seek ways to rescue and sustain coalmining operations in Britain.

This avoidable elimination of hundreds of well-paid skilled jobs is a disaster for the workers concerned but it will also make a dent in Treasury finances through lost tax and national insurance contributions of £30 million a year.

These twin tragedies could be avoided if the government was prepared to invest in this natural resource and build a modern, cleaner coal industry.

All politicians pay lip service to the need for cutting down fossil fuel emissions, but they are unwilling to finance the massive investment needed to introduce new technologies on the scale necessary.

The same goes for clean coal technology and carbon storage, which should be prioritised.

Governments that regard it as normal, if not essential, to set aside £1.3 trillion to rescue and underwrite the private banking system dig their heels in against calls for public investment in coal.

Mining cannot be reduced to an industry that depends on short-term profit levels to survive. Deep pits cannot be closed and reopened on the whim of global coal prices.

That approach has been the death of Britain's deep-mined coal industry, which threatens the dependability of power generation.

The government has an irreplaceable role to defend the continued exploitation of this natural resource that could guarantee energy security.

Insulting offer

Once you get into the habit of regarding public funds as your own, it's very difficult to kick it, as Maria Miller's latest conduct shows.

Labour MP John Mann had asked the unlamented culture secretary to do one decent thing before shuffling off the ministerial stage.

He adjudged it inappropriate for her to take a £17,000 severance package for standing down, adding quite reasonably that "for her to accept a pay-off would be a further insult to the taxpayer."

Miller's response has been to say that she will after all take the £17,000 but will donate it to a local charity in her Basingstoke constituency.

Has someone told her that this will help waft away the stench of greed that has upset her constituents?

Is it calculated to assist her uphill struggle to be re-elected next year?

Perhaps she doesn't understand the basic principle that donations to charity are supposed to be personal.

Having made a million-and-a-half-pound profit from selling her house in Wimbledon she can certainly afford to dip into her own bank account.

But just as she expected the taxpayer to bear the brunt of mortgage payments on what she designated her second home, she now thinks it's up to the rest of us to fund her charitable donations.

Have these people no shame?