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The economy is larger and more complex than a closed factory or a shut down coal mine, your 2 little fleshy eyeballs can only pick up a thin spectrum of light reflected off a small portion of the world at any one time. UK coal was more expensive for a reason, it needed more energy to mine deeper, keep pumping water out and to process the poor quality coal, this may have taken more energy than scooping up some surface coal from Eastern Europe and shipping it over. Higher coal prices and extra taxation for subsidies meant the rest of the economy suffered, it leads to higher electricity costs, industries dependent on cheap coal have to downsize and outsource to stay competitive. As for the environment, since we are going to burn away all our precious fossil fuels anyway, doesn't it make more sense to do so as efficiently as possible? The more needs and wants are satiated, the more wealth we are willing to spare for investment in research.
What we have here is a classic issue in economics, we are not experts in every field, it is more difficult to quantify the exact impact of a rise in coal prices than it is to quantify coal mining job losses. As a result we end up with a political situation where it looks better on paper to say "this policy will result in job losses" than it is to say "this policy will have a negative indirect effect on the rest of the economy", so often public opinion leans against it.
Luckily Margaret Thatcher existed and she succeeded in convincing the public to see sense, her master stroke as a politician was to educate the public and ensure they understood what exactly is happening, like Napoleon at the Siege of Toulon when he restored faith in leadership during the great terror of the revolution.
Not sure what all that "cultural corporate wasteland" stuff is about, if you want wholefoods and native arts and crafts from Papua New Guinea there is nothing stopping you from starting your own business in those sectors. As for manufacturing it's about comparative advantage, Britain is one of the best countries in the world at advancing technology, designing and branding products and services and utilizing commerce to negotiate deals, get sales and put them into practice, in order to focus on more manufacturing we'd have to divert resources away from technology which means that places like China and Nigeria would pick up the slack. Do you really want a world full of shoddy Chinese designs and Nigerian scams? Perhaps not.