Today’s youngsters are the most cosseted ever yet all they want to do is protest
'Protest is fashionable; and that means Just Stop Oil T-shirts, Palestinian-style keffiyehs and overblown hysteria on the streets,' says James Whale.
Do we need yet another “protest” organisation telling us all we’re a terrible nation, monsters, killers, ruiners of the Earth and oppressors of other nations…? Not in my book, and neither, I suspect, in yours. But make no mistake, protest is fashionable.
It’s this decade’s way of signalling virtue, at least amid the affluent chattering classes.
Forget the latest trainers, the trendy rucksack or the faddish jeans, it’s all about luxury beliefs these days. Right now that means Just Stop Oil T-shirts, Palestinian-style keffiyehs and overblown hysteria on the streets. It’s not only the young. I’ve seen plenty of grandparents among the shouters and screamers thronging our cities every weekend and ruining life for everyone else.
But there is a certain yoof element. My theory is that the current 20-something generation is the most cosseted and deluded yet.
They grew up in peace and comfort, many with wealthy parents, with little to rebel or protest against. Now they’re taking it out on the rest of us – preaching on everything from militant trans rights to Palestine to fossil fuels. It’s totally exhausting.
The latest organisation to arrive, calling itself Youth Demand, has hit the headlines after vandalising the Labour party headquarters and the Ministry of Defence with paint – as well as staging a protest outside Keir Starmer’s home. Rows of children’s shoes were laid at the Labour leader’s front door in Kentish Town, North London, last week.
A banner, surrounded by red handprints, was hung outside the house he shares with his wife and children, bearing the words: “Starmer stop the killing.”
I had a spokesperson from Youth Demand on my Saturday TalkTV and Radio show recently and, boy, was I disappointed, though perhaps not surprised. It’s obvious that their demands go little further than shallow sloganeering. Take it from me, there’s no reasoning with them.
They don’t appear to understand debate nor the idea that it’s okay to disagree but democracy means we generally follow the path of the majority.
My demand is that they sling their hook!
