OCCASIONALLY, just occasionally, there are weeks full of silver linings. The one that saw Britain’s first nationwide schools “climate” strikes was definitely one of them.

When Greta Thunberg began her lone climate protest outside the Swedish Parliament last August she was not to know that within six months there would be 70,000 pupils a week, across 270 towns and cities worldwide, who would be joining her. Their message was simple: “Wake up! There’s a climate emergency.” If you had followed the week’s debates in Britain’s Parliament you wouldn’t have guessed.

Politicians had been given plenty of notice that pupils would be walking out of lessons, demanding recognition of the looming climate crisis. But barely a mention of the climate protests emerged within Westminster.

It didn’t seem to matter whether Rome (or California, or South Australia) was burning, Brexit continued to fill the parliamentary corridors: 52 per cent of voters have become a binding obligation, whereas 98 per cent of climate scientists remain a matter of opinion. No wonder the kids are saying politicians are unfit to lead – because we aren’t. And as Thunberg bravely told world leaders, “When adults behave like children, children must step up and behave like adults.”