It almost seems Boris Johnson was performing a parody set piece of himself this week. He showed up to a Thatcher biography book launch and described Extinction Rebellion as “uncooperative crusties” who should stop blocking the streets of the capital with their “heaving hemp-smelling bivouacs”. Boris’s father Stanley promptly and proudly declared himself an “uncooperative crustie” as he showed up to join protests.

The insult inevitably captured the headlines, but in his remarks the Prime Minister also acknowledged that Thatcher was ahead of her time in acknowledging the impact of “greenhouse gases”. In 1989 she gave a speech to the United Nations warning of the impending crisis around carbon emissions:

At first glance, Thatcher and Extinction Rebellion have little in common. There is a strong showing of dreadlocks and drum circles on the blockades this week, which can make the movement superficially easy to write off. But behind these front line volunteers, hardened and committed enough to camp in the rain and get arrested, are myriad others, parents and grandparents, lawyers and accountants, business owners and farmers. People who love the indigenous species of this little green island, who fear for the unmanaged change our emissions will bring and seek to conserve all that is good and ancient about our habitat.