Given the next government could source a mosaic of policies from more than one party, it is important to consider in what manner smaller parties would seek to influence any future coalition or minority government.

UKIP certainly has some bold statements in its manifesto – all focused on improving our international efficiency. They cite coal as a potential route forward and refer to foreign nation’s fuel sources as evidence for their policy position.

Last year, China’s coal consumption and production fell for the first time in fourteen years according to data released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. The move away from coal has been so significant that senior analysts commenting on the industry have described the trend as a ‘sea change in the global coal market.’ At the same time, China increased its investment in clean technologies by 32 percent across 2013/14. It now accounts for 29 percent of global renewable energy investment.

Coal demand in the USA is declining (the US Energy Information Administration predicts a fall in coal consumption in the electric power sector of 6% in 2015) and India’s Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley has recently doubled taxes on the black stuff to fund sustainable energy development.

All this seems to have gone past the United Kingdom Independence Party as the first line of their manifesto states that: ‘whilst our major global competitors – China, the USA and India are switching to fossil fuel technologies, we are forced to close perfectly good coal fired power stations.’

A further blast is aimed at solar and wind energies which they say represents a threat to the growth of the entire renewable industry. It is of note that green electricity capacity was up 24.2 GW at the end of 2014 in the UK, a 23 per cent increase (4.5 GW) on the previous year. More critically, many commentators argue that UKIPs policies could compromise the United Kingdom’s ability to reduce carbon emissions (which fell 8.4 percent in 2014, partly due to green energies according to DECC).