Posh Activists Plan Mass Shoplifting in Waitrose

From The Daily Sceptic

By Toby Young

A posh pressure group that threw custard at the crown jewels is planning mass thefts from Waitrose. The Telegraph has more.

Take Back Power (TBP), viewed as the successor to Just Stop Oil (JSO), has vowed to shoplift from the high-end supermarket in the coming months.

The group suggested it would redistribute the stolen food to the needy, in a protest at economic inequality.

However, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said TBP was “trying to dress up criminality with some kind of moral purpose”.

The newly formed activist group, which describes itself as a non-violent civil resistance group, announced itself with two stunts in December.

Four people smeared crumble and custard on a case containing the State Crown at the Tower of London before unveiling a sign reading: “Democracy has crumbled – tax the rich.” [Do they mean their parents?]

Members of TBP also emptied bags of manure under a 25ft indoor Christmas tree at the Ritz Hotel in central London in protest at wealth inequality.

At the group’s formal launch at Limehouse Town Hall, east London, on Saturday, founder members set out a three-pronged strategy for further disruption this spring. Reporters from the Telegraph attended the meeting.

Arthur Clifton [Latymer Upper], co-founder of TBP and a former prominent JSO activist, said the first approach would be a series of “take-backs”.

He told an audience of around 200: “We have seen that food is locked behind skyrocketing prices. Less and less people can afford less and less food.

“So what we do is actually pretty obvious – we go in there, we take it out and we redistribute it to the local community. This is what we are going to be doing in March.”

He added: “We’ll be coming down to London in April for a week of action – a massive take-back with 50 to 100 people just going in and clearing out a Waitrose.”

Mr Clifton, originally from Chiswick, West London, said the group was also planning “takeovers” of high-end stores in areas such as Oxford Circus.

“This is standard, bread-and-butter civil resistance occupation of high-end stores… the places that are getting more and more expensive on the same streets that people are starving,” he said.

The former English literature student at Exeter University said the group would also carry on performing eye-catching “stunts” such as its Ritz and Crown Jewels interventions.

He compared the group to the Suffragettes and led the crowd in a chant of “revolution”.

Mr Clifton was previously found guilty of causing criminal damage after spraying orange paint onto a building at University College London.

The group has set a target of mobilising 10,000 people to the streets in the year of the 2029 election.

Worth reading in full.

Arthur Clifton is the privately educated son of a mega yacht insurance executive. The Mail has more.