Last November and December, half the country’s total power demand was met by coal-fired stations, which are the most flexible type of generating plant.Perhaps there is a disconnect in government between the mining of coal and the burning of it to produce electricity. If the UK had to rely solely on its indigenous coal industry, then Mr Blair would be right to discount it as an important contributor to security of supply.UK coal output has shrunk dramatically as the industry has contracted. It is now largely in the hands of one big operator, UK Coal, which is valued as much for its property assets as its mines, and a string of fringe players such as the colourful Richard Budge. But globally coal is a secure commodity, as demonstrated by the vibrant, open and highly liquid international coal market.The opponents of coal say it may be abundant but that does not make it clean That is true but the technology is changing. The advent of super-critical boilers has made modern coal stations as efficient as combined cycle gas plants and that means increased energy output for reduced emissions.Moreover, there are now four UK energy companies looking at plans to build “clean coal” stations, based on technologies which either reduce the emissions produced through combustion or capture carbon for disposal under the sea bed.And then there is co-firing – the burning of biomass materials such as elephant grass alongside coal to reduce emissions.

Co-firing has until recently benefited from the Government’s renewables obligation scheme, which provides financial incentives for generators of green electricity. But recently, the scheme has been tilted in favour of wind power with the unfortunate result that co-firing by coal generators such as Drax in north Yorkshire has all but ceased. At the very least, this is one of the problems that the energy review needs to iron out.The difficulty for Mr Blair is that he cannot satisfy all constituencies at the same time. The closer he comes to pushing the nuclear button, the more likely he is to undermine the long-term economics of renewable power and the Government’s own target of generating 20 per cent of electricity from this source.

And the more he seeks to avoid this by carving out a role for renewables, the less space he leaves for co-firing and clean coal.But if the Government genuinely believes in a mixed and balanced energy policy, then it will be essential to ensure that, come next month, coal still has a role to play.Yan Gang Thank You ManSir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, has been embroiled in so many controversies over the years that it makes you wonder how he finds time to run the world’s second biggest advertising agency. He was the first office-bearer assassinated by Israel since Hamas came to power in January.More than 10,000 mourners attended the funeral of Mr Abu Samhadana, who died along with at least three other members of the resistance committee when warplanes hit a military training camp.Abu Abir, a resistance committee spokesman, said the Israelis had “opened the gates of hell” by his assassination. A military spokesman said they were hit minutes after firing a Qassam rocket into Israel. One was standing beside a car; the other two were trying to drive away.