Coal mining has breathed its last but working life can still be the pits

The closure of the Kellingley colliery highlights the many facets of our warped economy, as the revelations at Sports Direct show

And then there were none. On Friday, the last remaining colliery - Kellingley in Yorkshire - will close. With some poignancy, the end will come just days after the signing of a legally binding climate change deal.

Those who say the two weeks of talks in Paris mark the end of the fossil fuel era are being a tad premature. Coal is plentiful and cheap, which is the reason Kellingley will shortly be part of a closed chapter in economic history. Deep-mined coal was central to the Industrial Revolution and when production peaked just before the first world war, more than a million men were employed in Britain's pits.