Coal - the answer to fuel poverty

The coalition government in Westminster obviously hasn't a clue about how ordinary people are struggling to pay their energy bills, otherwise they wouldn't have just voted for a £100 rise in our annual bills by 2020! Their energy policy is a shambles, and the Scottish Government's one is even worse. There is no ideal way of generating electricity and the sooner our politicians grasp that nettle and start thinking about their constituents, the better. In the years following WW2 this country invested hugely in building steam locomotives when the rest of Europe was going electric. The reason? We had massive reserves of coal and didn't want to be dependent on any other nation. Would that today's governments had the same sense. We still have large reserves of coal, which could produce cheap energy without us being dependent on any other nation, and Calton doesn't see why we shouldn't be using it, especially when China is building coal-fired power stations like there is no tomorrow. The Greens will answer that there will be no tomorrow if we keep burning fossil fuels, however a couple of coal-fired power stations in Scotland is a drop in the ocean, especially if we invest in carbon capture. The real answer is to put money into improving our housing stock so that it takes less energy to heat it. That way, we all win.