Most people accept that, although lockdowns badly harm our economy, they are sadly necessary – and mean less economic harm in the long run.

But when it comes to schools, the orthodoxy is that school closures badly harm our children, so they must be opened on the earliest date plucked from the Prime Minister’s head.

The same tests – of safety and risk of greater damage to education and well-being in the long run – are not applied. This may be due to the myth that Covid doesn’t affect kids. It does.

Kids consistently have the most infections (highest prevalence). Of course, they tend to get milder bouts of the disease, and not to wind up in hospital or in the ground. But a whopping 12-15% get Long Covid.

And of course all kids live among adults, to whom they spread the virus.

The discussion about kids is just a version of the overall lockdown debate, and the same rules ought to apply: reopen when prevalence is low; in phases; with partial occupancy, masks and ventilation.

But the same rules will not apply. Because genuine concern for our kids’ well-being issues has been hijacked by the “take it on the chin” headbangers of the right; they have made it heretical even to raise the questions of safety for the kids, staff, or the wider population.

But we should not be cowed. We should have the courage to question, and ask for evidence, and insist on real action, not empty words, on safety. Don’t forget: until now, these people didn’t give a toss about schoolkids, and had to be shamed by a footballer into feeding them.

Their concern for your kids is not real.

Remember that, when you see your youngsters off to school next week. I know I will.

Their concern for your kids is not real.