My night with Youth Demand

‘Won’t you take me to… Funkytown!’ At around 10 p.m., in a bar under a railway arch in south London, members of a group called Youth Demand are doing the conga to 1970s disco music. They are celebrating a week of good protesting. ‘I’m sooo ketty!’ shouts a girl on the dance floor. (‘I’ve taken a drug called ketamine,’ is what she means.) Youth Demand want Britain to stop selling weapons to Israel. Earlier this month they put toddlers’ shoes outside Keir Starmer’s house, and a day later threw red paint on the Ministry of Defence. Their actions got lots of press coverage, so they’re having a party.

Youth Demand copy the shock tactics used by groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, who in the past few years have blocked roads, chucked soup at the Mona Lisa and glued themselves to the Speaker’s chair in the House of Commons.