UK British News Megathread - aka CWCissey's news thread

https://news.sky.com/story/row-over-new-greggs-vegan-sausage-rolls-heats-up-11597679

A heated row has broken out over a move by Britain's largest bakery chain to launch a vegan sausage roll.

The pastry, which is filled with a meat substitute and encased in 96 pastry layers, is available in 950 Greggs stores across the country.

It was promised after 20,000 people signed a petition calling for the snack to be launched to accommodate plant-based diet eaters.


But the vegan sausage roll's launch has been greeted by a mixed reaction: Some consumers welcomed it, while others voiced their objections.

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spread happiness@p4leandp1nk
https://twitter.com/p4leandp1nk/status/1080767496569974785

#VEGANsausageroll thanks Greggs

7
10:07 AM - Jan 3, 2019

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Cook and food poverty campaigner Jack Monroe declared she was "frantically googling to see what time my nearest opens tomorrow morning because I will be outside".

While TV writer Brydie Lee-Kennedy called herself "very pro the Greggs vegan sausage roll because anything that wrenches veganism back from the 'clean eating' wellness folk is a good thing".

One Twitter user wrote that finding vegan sausage rolls missing from a store in Corby had "ruined my morning".

Another said: "My son is allergic to dairy products which means I can't really go to Greggs when he's with me. Now I can. Thank you vegans."

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pg often@pgofton
https://twitter.com/pgofton/status/1080772793774624768

The hype got me like #Greggs #Veganuary


42
10:28 AM - Jan 3, 2019

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TV presenter Piers Morgan led the charge of those outraged by the new roll.

"Nobody was waiting for a vegan bloody sausage, you PC-ravaged clowns," he wrote on Twitter.

Mr Morgan later complained at receiving "howling abuse from vegans", adding: "I get it, you're all hangry. I would be too if I only ate plants and gruel."

Another Twitter user said: "I really struggle to believe that 20,000 vegans are that desperate to eat in a Greggs."

"You don't paint a mustach (sic) on the Mona Lisa and you don't mess with the perfect sausage roll," one quipped.

Journalist Nooruddean Choudry suggested Greggs introduce a halal steak bake to "crank the fume levels right up to 11".

The bakery chain told concerned customers that "change is good" and that there would "always be a classic sausage roll".

It comes on the same day McDonald's launched its first vegetarian "Happy Meal", designed for children.

The new dish comes with a "veggie wrap", instead of the usual chicken or beef option.

It should be noted that Piers Morgan and Greggs share the same PR firm, so I'm thinking this is some serious faux outrage and South Park KKK gambiting here.

 

[STARS158]

UK

 

[Overly Serious]

Who knows what the future holds but everything looks pretty good for GCAP right now. That rumour was started by the media deliberately taking a quote out of context for a misleading headline. Basically the UK is still writing a strategic defence review and a minister refused to add comment before it was out. He did say that the programme was very important and that the UK would be meeting with Japanese and Italian counterparts to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Interesting, unlike the Eurofighter/Typhoon, this multinational consortium is really driving the speed of the programme. The Japs want a suitably 6th gen by 2035 and have zero tolerance for significant delays. They have all but said that if the deadline can't be hit then they are dropping out of GCAP and going it alone.

The tech demonstrator, Tempest, while fundamentally part of the GCAP is a RAF/BAE project right now. The Conservatives already committed £12 billion to to the project with the whole thing looking to create something stupid like 20,000 jobs in total. BAE is deep in bed with Labour so I'd be shocked if they don't get pressure from them too.

View attachment 6233869

The thing is going to be fucking massive.

She's a fighter, yes? And "stealth" as they all are? I'm not surprised because these things have a momentum all of their own but my impression from the Ukraine war is that manned fighters aren't going to have so much utility going forward. Air-defence technology seems to be outpacing planes' survivability, improvements in missile range accuracy reducing the need for them. And we're getting closer and closer to the point where the human is the weak link. I could well be wrong - I'm not a military expert. But it seems to me something like this is going to be too expensive to risk if you don't have air superiority and not needed if you do. It's not meant to dogfight, right? Because I don't think that happens anymore.

 

[Fools Idol]

She's a fighter, yes? And "stealth" as they all are? I'm not surprised because these things have a momentum all of their own but my impression from the Ukraine war is that manned fighters aren't going to have so much utility going forward

Yes, part of the 6th gen requirements is stealth. There's a lot of lessons to learn from the war but I'd caution reading too much in to it. Both Russia and Ukraine have been pretty incompetent.

Manned jets are still going to have a place simply because the asset needs to react to a very dynamic situation in real time. We just don't have automated systems that can do that kind of work yet.

Air-defence technology seems to be outpacing planes' survivability, improvements in missile range accuracy reducing the need for them. And we're getting closer and closer to the point where the human is the weak link.

The Mod came to the same conclusion back in the 50s and it killed the UK's aerospace industry. It also needs to be said that the aircraft it's self is an important part of the air defences.

The GCAP is a system of systems, part of that is the option for an unmanned version.

I could well be wrong - I'm not a military expert. But it seems to me something like this is going to be too expensive to risk if you don't have air superiority and not needed if you do. It's not meant to dogfight, right? Because I don't think that happens anymore.

No they don't dog fight anymore. It's mostly BVH combat these days. It's going to be used along side semi autonomous drones. That combined with improved stealth will help it survive.

There's a paradox to air combat, you can only be safe with air superiority but you can only get it by first winning the sky.

 

[Overly Serious]

The Mod came to the same conclusion back in the 50s and it killed the UK's aerospace industry. It also needs to be said that the aircraft it's self is an important part of the air defences.

I thought that was because the yanks nicked all our designs. I don't know where it's got to but I had a (fairly short) book on the subject of British history of military plane development and discovery. Can't remember the title but began with an account of the Farnborough airshow disaster. Might have a rummage through old boxes and see if I can find it. In any case, it had quite a lot to say about the "inspiration" American companies took from British research.

Thanks for the reply - good info.

 

[Coelacanth]

Has anyone noticed that the majority of kids are either fat/obese or autistic? 0-8 ish years old (I've no idea how old people are) are autistic, or seem to be. They make weird noises and scream at random shit - not tantrum screaming, more like a little Britain "ahhh". Then 8-16 seems to be chubbos.

There's a lot to unpack here. Something I have noticed as a kid who was brought up by parents with old fashioned morals is just how fucking loud kids are. It isn't necessarily that they're autistic, it's that they've been brought up to express their emotions in a way that is absolutely grating. By the time parents realise how grating it is the kids have learned how to walk all over them and will maybe try a meek or feeble request for their child to tone it down before giving in.

This actually leads into the fat comments. A lot of the time the only way to get British kids to be quiet is to give them something to eat. So of course parents will go for things like sugar or crisps to get ten or fifteen minutes of peace and before they know it their kids are landwhales that don't have the proper nutrition needed to develop a functioning brain.

 

[Vesperus]

Has anyone noticed that the majority of kids are either fat/obese or autistic? 0-8 ish years old (I've no idea how old people are) are autistic, or seem to be. They make weird noises and scream at random shit - not tantrum screaming, more like a little Britain "ahhh". Then 8-16 seems to be chubbos.

When I overhear parents talking about kids, it's always how they're autistic but high-functioning. Is this the result of being raised on Screens and/or COVID, or are kids always a little weird cause they're kids and the parents are trying to gain some IRL updoots?

When I was a lad all this was fields I went outside to play. Falling out of trees was a given, but we weren't fat.
And this isn't just me being GenX going on boomer, because my daughter has also gone splat a few times.
But more and more kids live in cities full of rapefugees so you couldn't let them out even if there was a tree to climb (and optionally scrump apples from).
So the kids stay inside eating goyslop and watching retard screens.
It's no wonder they're all fucked in mind and body.

 

[Rusty Metal Skull Gun]

Asians as in Pakistani not East Asian I'm assuming

Yeah, obviously, but the idea that ~7% of the population was claiming 75% of the benefits was obviously absurd

 

[FedPostalService]

There's a lot to unpack here. Something I have noticed as a kid who was brought up by parents with old fashioned morals is just how fucking loud kids are. It isn't necessarily that they're autistic, it's that they've been brought up to express their emotions in a way that is absolutely grating. By the time parents realise how grating it is the kids have learned how to walk all over them and will maybe try a meek or feeble request for their child to tone it down before giving in.

This actually leads into the fat comments. A lot of the time the only way to get British kids to be quiet is to give them something to eat. So of course parents will go for things like sugar or crisps to get ten or fifteen minutes of peace and before they know it their kids are landwhales that don't have the proper nutrition needed to develop a functioning brain.

Thinking about my friend‘s kids, all the “strict”, or what was once considered “normal”, parents have intelligent and polite kids. Even if they are actual diagnosed with some form of neurodivergency they are great kids who are just overly interest in one or two topics.

The ones who treated kids like their friends and didn’t set proper boundaries or discipline all have kids with “autism” with REALLY low reading ability. They’ve got there kids in the system already to be benefits monkeys. These are middle class parents too. I speak to those people less and less.

I think there’s is an expectation for a frighteningly large number of people to solely rely on the school system to educate and social their kids. It’s really fucking sad and we need twenty years of the harshest old school Tory rule to break this cycle.

TL;DR raise your own kids and don’t rely on the state to do it. Read with them and help them learn and grow.

 

[Otterly]

Has anyone noticed that the majority of kids are either fat/obese or autistic? 0-8 ish years old (I've no idea how old people are) are autistic, or seem to be. They make weird noises and scream at random shit - not tantrum screaming, more like a little Britain "ahhh". Then 8-16 seems to be chubbos.

When I overhear parents talking about kids, it's always how they're autistic but high-functioning. Is this the result of being raised on Screens and/or COVID, or are kids always a little weird cause they're kids and the parents are trying to gain some IRL updoots?

It’s that, and it’s also the fact that there’s an entire industry trying to pin diagnoses on kids and also unless you’ve a ‘statement’ and a diagnosis there’s no help for kids who genuinely need it and no benefits either.
Keeping it as vague as I can, the industry around labelling kids is very keen to get its claws in them.
I’ve seen totally normal kids get diagnosed because the mother wants the attention, and I’ve seen academics who diagnose these things harass a mother over multiple gatherings to hand her kid over for ‘sessions’ and diagnosis when there was nothing at all wrong with the kid (very smart child, but eccentric but totally healthy, future farmer methinks…) to the point the mother had to get a bit arsey with them to back off.
It’s a lot of things. The need for a diagnosis for benefits, attention, poor parenting, some genuine need of course, and certainly a sector that wants access to as many kids as it can.

Thinking about my friend‘s kids, all the “strict”, or what was once considered “normal”, parents have intelligent and polite kids

I think I’m a fairly lax parent, going on how I was raised, but going on how my kids mates are raised I appear to be really strict. All the small (and mid sized these days…) otterlies are good, just nice kids and well behaved. It does take a lot of work though, constant reminders, constant effort.
During Covid I had more than one colleague worried their kid was autistic when what had actually happened was they’d had to leave nursery and stop socialising with family and friends and been shoved in front of the tv because both parents still had to work ten hours a day.

 

[Howslans]

On a different note, how much better was the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony than France’s abysmal attempt yesterday?

 

[Overly Serious]

On a different note, how much better was the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony than France’s abysmal attempt yesterday?

I mean it wasn't exactly amazing though I don't recall any drag queens.


It's not like the British hosted Olympics lacked embarrassment, though.


Frankly, the Chinese opening ceremony knocked everyone else's into a cocked hat.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Nothing to see here, just one of the few decent things the Tories managed to shit out being torn up. With a side order of insinuating that the taxpayer should be expected to bail out failing universities.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv2gj1x11nmo

Controversial new powers for universities and student unions to be fined for failing to uphold freedom of speech have been put on hold by the government.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said that would allow time to consider whether the law, which was due to come into force next week, would be repealed.
In the statement to parliament, Ms Phillipson also said the regulator, the Office for Students (OfS) should be “more sharply focused” on the financial stability of universities.
A review of the OfS, also released on Friday, says the government and regulator should offer support and guidance to universities struggling financially.
The Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, which was passed last year, said universities had a duty to "secure" and "promote the importance of" freedom of speech and academic expression.
It would have allowed the OfS to fine or give sanctions to higher education providers and student unions in England from next week.
It also included a new complaints scheme for students, staff and visiting speakers, who could seek compensation if they suffer from a breach of a university's free- speech obligations.
But a government source told the BBC the legislation would have opened the way for Holocaust deniers to be allowed on campus, and was an “anti-semite charter”.
Under pre-existing legislation, universities will still have a legal duty to uphold freedom of speech.
Bridget Phillipson told the BBC on Monday that culture wars on university campuses “end here”.

Protests on campus have taken place over the last few years, including at Oxford before a talk by gender-critical academic Kathleen Stock.
Protesters said they were not opposed to Prof Stock's right to freedom of speech, but the use of the Oxford Union platform to express "anti-trans views".
Then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the protests "shut down discussion".
When the legislation was originally introduced, the then Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said it would allow speakers to “articulate views which others may disagree with as long as they don't meet the threshold of hate speech or inciting violence”.
There were concerns that the law would leave universities with a legal obligation to protect Holocaust deniers from being ‘no-platformed’ on campuses, causing severe distress amongst students, according to the National Union of Students.
“Many of us were truly dreading the impact this Act would have, serving to further divide our campuses and put marginalised student communities further at risk,” vice-president Saranya Thambirajah added.
"There are already duties on universities to ensure free speech, but what this is doing is removing a set of really burdensome restrictions ... that were going to be potentially very disruptive", Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union said.
Ms Grady believes a focus on financial stability is "incredibly important" and is a change from the focus on the "culture war" she has seen over recent years.
In the independent review of the OfS, Sir David Behan noted the regulator's role had widened in recent years, and that for the "the fourth education revolution" it needed to reduce its objectives, and focus on "monitoring financial sustainability, ensuring quality, protecting public money, and regulating in the interests of students".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv22y7zl18po
The review said in the future, the sector should anticipate the continued impact of digital technology and artificial intelligence on teaching, as well as a push for shorter courses.
It found the number of universities who are in deficit and are announcing redundancies is likely to “increase markedly” and this is a key challenge for the regulator, the government and the sector.
Earlier this week, Ms Phillipson said there are expectations that universities should “manage their budgets” following calls for bailouts for universities struggling financially.
The review recommended the government undertake policy work to “clarify its position” and whether “the non-interventionist positioning is still the most appropriate”.
Universities UK welcomed the findings, and the need for a focus on the financial sustainability of the sector.
Sir David has been announced as interim chairman of the OfS, following the resignation of the conservative peer Lord Wharton last week.
Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the OfS, said they are “very much looking forward” to working with Sir David, and that his review highlights a range of important areas that they will continue to prioritise.

 

[Coelacanth]

Thinking about my friend‘s kids, all the “strict”, or what was once considered “normal”, parents have intelligent and polite kids. Even if they are actual diagnosed with some form of neurodivergency they are great kids who are just overly interest in one or two topics.

You'd be amazed at how many times I overheard other parents gossiping about how "controlling" and "abusive" my parents were for, in their words, "not letting me be a kid" when I was young. The mere idea that a child could find quietly reading alone in a library or at a desk in the corner of a room away from other kids fun was alien to them.

Guess that says a lot about how bad our country's gotten.

Just FYI regardless of how you see Tommy Robinson the Patriot Protest he's hosting is today and from the looks of it London's going to resemble as it was before becoming enriched by diversity.



I wouldn't normally take notice of any of this but the first one he did received very little coverage from the MSM and caught the attention of normies. Not even the BBC acted like their usual pearl-grabbing selves and paint the June 1st protest as an alt right demonstration which says a lot to me. I'm going to poke my head in and see what happens. It could be interesting to watch.

 

[AssignedEva]

Just FYI regardless of how you see Tommy Robinson the Patriot Protest he's hosting is today and from the looks of it London's going to resemble as it was before becoming enriched by diversity.

I'm not sure if Tommy did it on purpose, but today is also London Trans+ Pride. They were also supposed to be meeting in Trafalgar Square, but they changed location. I would anticipate quite a few clueless trans pride marchers accidentally walking into Tommy Robinson's crowd.
Additionally Stand Up To Racism is marching from Russell Square to Trafalgar Square specifically to protest the Tommy Robinson one. I can anticipate a lot of clashes!

 

[Coelacanth]

I'm not sure if Tommy did it on purpose, but today is also London Trans+ Pride. They were also supposed to be meeting in Trafalgar Square, but they changed location.

Lol. Lmao even. Never saw anything from Tommy about this groomer meetup but wouldn't be surprised if he did.

Additionally Stand Up To Racism is marching from Russell Square to Trafalgar Square specifically to protest the Tommy Robinson one. I can anticipate a lot of clashes!

If they play it smart the Patriot protesters will do what they did last time and be as civil as possible. If you look at the footage of the last one literally nobody acted like the typical Gaza or LGBTQANOMAPWTFOMGBBQ+ protesters.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the size of this potential gathering makes Stand Up to Racism think twice about their march. I think last time they were going to march too but then just stuck to their safe space/meetup area instead.

 

[Coelacanth]

Forgive the double post but the march is starting and I was able to screencap the moment the moment the livestream reveals how many people have come to protest.



This is without a doubt the whitest London has looked in over a decade. The sea of people marching goes beyond the green light near the top middle. Still no word from most media outlets though.

 

[Shinkai]

I'm not sure if Tommy did it on purpose, but today is also London Trans+ Pride. They were also supposed to be meeting in Trafalgar Square, but they changed location. I would anticipate quite a few clueless trans pride marchers accidentally walking into Tommy Robinson's crowd.
Additionally Stand Up To Racism is marching from Russell Square to Trafalgar Square specifically to protest the Tommy Robinson one. I can anticipate a lot of clashes!

Fucking lol London is just a mess of different retards gathering together and marching in different directions nowadays

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

speaking of London

Spoiler: baboon boobs

 

[Necrosan]

Does a protest really matter if the government can just wait it out? I always thought a protest was a way to say "Fix this shit or else" but if there is no "or else" then why should anyone listen to them?

speaking of London

Spoiler: baboon boobs

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I've seen way too many videos of fat sheboons naked in public for it to be a coincidence. Something in their DNA makes them expose themselves in public for some reason.

 

[Otterly]

but today is also London Trans+ Pride

We just had an entire fucking pride month. Can they not shut the fuck up for two minutes?