The National:

BRITISH politics is fraught with division; Yes and No, Leave and Remain, the Tories and common sense.

Nevertheless, the Jouker likes to think that there are always some issues on which everyone can agree.

The destruction of the environment as we know it, for instance, you’d imagine would illicit a unified response from people across the political spectrum.

Children, too, a rational observer would conclude, are generally considered to be important, with opinions worth listening to.

Yet, on what is an unseasonably warm day, the Jouker is being heated up yet further by the hot takes of right-wing politicians and commentators, who have once again succeeded in defying logic.

For they have been presented not merely with the prospect of action against global warming, but by that message been passionately promoted by the nation’s youth.

Thousands of school children across the UK have taken to the streets to join a global movement calling on governments to declare a climate emergency after a UN report warned that limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels requires unprecedented action.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon backs school children's global warming strike 

Children campaigning against the slow cooking of our planet – what’s not to like? From a right-wing perspective, it turns out there’s rather a lot.

First up is up the Prime Minister. She took the fight to the pesky kids with their immature dreams of preventing the ice caps from melting.

"Everybody wants young people to be engaged in the issues that affect them most so that we can build a brighter future for all of us," Theresa May's official spokesperson said before getting to the real point.

"But it is important to emphasise that disruption increases teacher's workloads and wastes lesson time that teachers have carefully prepared for.

"That time is crucial for young people precisely so that they can develop into the top scientists, engineers and advocates that we need to help tackle this problem."

Back in your box children, leave it to those who helped get the planet in this mess in the first place.

Writing in the Spectator, Toby Young took issue with teenager Greta Thunberg, who inspired the protests with weekly demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament.

Her “crude propaganda” about global warming, the consequences of which have been laid bare in the UN report, has “taken in” unsuspecting youngsters according to Jones.

In their zombified state, it seems thousands have been duped into demanding action to halt an irreversible change to the Earth’s temperature. If only they could see the light – which has presumably been blotted out by thick clouds of polluted air.

Daily Telegraph assistant editor, Christopher Hope, poked fun at naïve teens hoping to ensure areas around the equator remain inhabitable.

“Around 2000 sixth formers who bunked off school have been protesting in Parliament Square have now wrecked the newly planted grass,” he tweeted. “And they are worried about climate change? What about the lawn?”

In an attempt to criticise the youngsters, Education Secretary Damian Hinds claimed the demonstrations would “do nothing” for their cause. He encouraged them instead to lay down their banners and er … do nothing.

He said: "I want young people to be engaged in key issues affecting them and involving themselves in causes they care about.

"But let me be clear, missing class won't do a thing to help the environment; all they will do is create extra work for teachers."

Predictably, politicians north of the Border showed the rest how it’s done.