[2ndDivisionVet]

Not one mention of Chinese coal miners. Why not?

[al baby]

Be nice if Branson succumbed on his first space ship ride

[SecondAmendment]

' ...and coal mining disappeared in Britain many decades ago ..."

Along with the U.K.'s manufacturing, defense, middle-class, immigration controls, and sovereignty.

[jospehm20]

Branson should stick to things he knows like doing homo stuff with Dorkbama on his yacht.

[RoosterRedux]

Since when is CO2 a pollutant.

The trees and plants disagree.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

This is the typical, "Screw you, I got mine" elitist, snob prick mindset spewed forth by billionaire leftists like Branson and Zuckerberg. Has it ever occurred to Branson that people like their coal-mining jobs and just want to be where they're at? Not everyone wants to have private jets or yachts and drink champagne everyday.

This also explains why the Left hates the middle-class. The middle-class doesn't need anything from government and they sure as hell don't want to be poor so they can then depend on government some more. They can't be controlled, which frustrates social planners like Branson.

[forgotten man]

What about the coal miners? Branson does not mention them because he does not give a crap about them? Good for whose world?

[RightGeek]

Wikipedia says they were priced out by imports: “Following the limitations to the National Union of Mineworkers’ power, British coal-dependent industries have turned to cheaper imported coal.[27] In 2001, production was exceeded by imports for the first time. In 2014, coal imported was three times the coal mined, despite large resources in the country.[28] In 2009, companies were licensed to extract 125 million tonnes of coal in operating underground mines and 42 million tonnes at opencast locations.[3]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining_in_the_United_Kingdom

[Regulator]

In 2015, 338 TWh of electricity was produced in the UK (DECC data). This comprised 70 TWh (21%) nuclear, 100 TWh (29.5%) from gas, 76 TWh (23%) from coal, 2 TWh from oil, and 25% from renewables: 40 TWh (12%) from wind, 7.5 TWh from solar, 9 TWh hydro and pumped storage, 29 TWh from biofuels and 4 TWh from wastes. Net electricity imports – mostly nuclear – were 21 TWh, comprising 13.8 TWh from France, 8.0 TWh from the Netherlands, and 0.9 TWh net was exported to Ireland.

Gee, Richard...looks like you're still burning that coal.

Buying it from...who?

Guess not Welsh coal miners. Nothing like externalizing your problems.

How California of you.

[Steely Tom]

Not one mention of Chinese coal miners. Why not?

I had the same thought. China's been building dozens of coal-fired power plants a year for the last couple decades.

I'm guessing they get a pass because he knows they'll retaliate against his business empire in some way if he criticizes them, and we won't.

[SkyDancer]

What’s his problem? That coal is washed.

[marron]

I doubt that there’s one coal miner that looks back thinking, ‘God, I wish I was down in a coal mine

He doesn't get out much. Yes, there are people who want to mine coal.

They are paid a living wage to do it. They like doing it. We are energy independent thanks to coal and natural gas. Wind and solar may be fine things, but they can't make us any more energy independent than we already are.

[ChildOfThe60s]

Britain is not the US. Coal mining and usage here is a very different animal than the old Britain to which he refers.

And the energy produced by coal in the US is clean. It’s a lie that coal plants in the US are polluters.

He, like Prince Charles, should STFU about how we run our country and worry more about Londonistan and the Muzzie craphole they are turning their country into.

[Viking2002]

Hey, Branson, you prep school, upper crust snotbag, recount for us the time when you ever - ever - so much as got a paper cut in the course of trying to support yourself and your family? Any one of those coal miners you look down your nose at are ten times the man you'll ever be. See, folks, this is why these limp wrists are buying private islands and multi-million dollar boltholes in New Zealand and Belize. If the SHTF, their instinctive sense of self-preservation is about two rungs lower than a tree squirrel. And they know it.

[Rastus]

This from a guy who spelunks in very smelly crevices.

[TigersEye]

Does this mean that blowhard is hiring?

[Eagles6]

Try flying your private jet on wind and solar moron.

[Ingtar]

Britain has depleted most of their major coal mines. If they had any heavy industry remaining, they would have to import it, so what is “gained” here?

[dforest]

Hey Branson, we have rejected the New World Order. Mind your own damn business. Britain is a mess.

[Reverend Wright]

Not one mention of Chinese coal miners. Why not?

Maybe that's because the Paris Accord allows china to increase it's carbon emissions until 2030, while the USA has to reduce it's emissions by 26 percent by 2025.

If we get into another major war, the USA and its allies will need every hydrocarbon energy source we can get: oil, coal, ethanol... everything.

Of course, if douches like Branson though about future wars at all, their strategy is the same as their strategy for moslems - surrender !

[x]

“Coal mining is not the nicest of jobs, and coal mining disappeared in Britain many decades ago, and pretty much every single one of those coal miners went into jobs which were far more pleasant, far less dangerous, far better for their health, and I doubt that there’s one coal miner that looks back thinking, ‘God, I wish I was down in a coal mine,’”

There certainly wasn't any great rush by employers to hire ex-miners.

Many of them became long-term unemployed.

And of course, it's condescending to assume nobody enjoyed being a coal miner.

There was camaraderie, working with friends and neighbors.

There was the satisfaction of an honest day's pay for an honest day's work.

Apparently the money wasn't absolutely awful either:

The median salary for a bus driver in the southern part of West Virginia is $30,837. The average coal miner there makes $84,959. “I do enjoy being a bus driver,” says Junior, but he’d go back to the mines if he could. Source