10.12, Monday 17 Apr 2000

£100 million for the coal industry? Stupid. I can understand it in terms of injecting money into the economy (Keynsian cycles), but what this is certainly not going to do is help the industry. When will the government learn that is you're going to put money into struggling businesses then you should put it in to sectors near the beginning of their cycle, not near the end? This would have been cash better spent on wind farms, which have a cost comparable with coal, don't make noise, and look beautiful.