Taking back power or taking the mickey? The activists ‘liberating’ food from big stores

A new UK civil resistance group has called for ‘mass shoplifting’ to focus attention on inequality, but recent stunts have led to arrests

Eve Middleton was sitting on a picnic blanket in a park, sharing out vegan biscuits with six fellow activists, when she saw a squad of police bearing down on them. About 30 officers, she said, surrounded the seven young people, and one officer told them: “Don’t run or you’ll be cuffed.”

Another officer focused on gathering evidence. “Whose Oreos are these?” they asked, seizing the biscuits.