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
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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.
 
There's something awfully funny about Brits arguing about which of their food is better. WW2 and it's consequences have been disastrous for British cuisine.
Rationing ended in the 1950s. Americans denigrating British food is hilarious given the slop you serve at Thanksgiving like Mac and Cheese out of box topped with marshmallows and crushed up Cheetos. Give me British beef wellington any day.
 
Food, probably, unlike everyone else on your island that indulges in man-made horrors beyond comprehension.
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It is not enough to catch the fish, one must punish it for daring to exist. True British cuisine is a statement of derision towards nature; a fist held up in the face of the demiurge. Same reason we turn sheep into meat sacks, and blend up pigs into meatballs then with a straight face call them faggots.

EDIT: People are being srs, so....

British food is fine, it's just a mix of French and German with a few twists tossed in there. The bad examples of it are largely from poor people being unable to cook anything. It is however, very calorie dense. You work an office job and eat an English Breakfast with black pudding, then some ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch; and then for dinner some Shepherds Pie, you're going to balloon. Those foods are meant for builders Steve, not you, you're an accountant. Have a salad, and a boiled egg.

EDIT2: Also I legit think that the obesity problem in the UK is massively being downplayed and needs to really have work put in to addressing it. Especially among the poors. You see teens enter sixth form, get a job and seemingly overnight blow up to chubsters. It's insane.
 
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I am so sorry that you had shitty family cooks growing up, denying you the joys of an actually decent Yorkshire pudding and other stuff.

The name always sounds like the noise I'd make after drinking it, just a retching 'huel' sound.
It's funny, despite having yorkshire pudding quite regularily growing up, I only just tried it with beef on it in my later years. Before that it was just gravy on it, served as a side.

Whoever thought to put meat on it made it a game changer.
 
Rationing ended in the 1950s. Americans denigrating British food is hilarious given the slop you serve at Thanksgiving like Mac and Cheese out of box topped with marshmallows and crushed up Cheetos. Give me British beef wellington any day.
It’s an argument I’ve had before. The First and Second World War fucked two generations of British cooking. Look at a Victorian cookbook and see all the tasty stuff with spice from all over the Empire, all that got much harder to find and much more expensive and a lot of dishes just disappeared.

So we save France twice, ruin the culinarily part of our culture, only to have the French look down on us for our food.

Also, Americans, shut up and consume your corn syrup, you have no right to criticise any other nations food. Thank you for hamburgers though.
 
It's funny, despite having yorkshire pudding quite regularily growing up, I only just tried it with beef on it in my later years. Before that it was just gravy on it, served as a side.

Whoever thought to put meat on it made it a game changer.
Toad In The Hole is great as well. Great some premium butcher sausages to roast with the batter and it's awesome.
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Bri'ish cuisine thread when?
With all due respect, you sound like a right miserable twat.
Yes.
Though I’m curious, what do you like to eat, day-to-day?
Everything I eat is either from a discount supermarket or the local markets (we actually still have those in most places check your local areas) or stuff I nicked off people, I enjoy grilled turkey breasts and whole chickens, I'm no chef but I know how to prepare things and everything I eat is what I've made in some way no ready-made/ping cuisine which is why my kitchen is full of jars of stuff.
As an example for breakfast today I had toasted bacon and poached egg baguette sandwiches (artisan bread not that shit you get from t*sco), for dinner I finished off some broth and for tea it was slav seasoning (from Lidl so fuck knows what was in it) flavoured chicken thighs with chips. I don't snack because I eat actual meals and feel no need to. I don't really eat takeaways because they're stupidly overpriced as well as shit in quality and I've never looked a soylent/huel bottle in my life.
Just because I don't like y*rkshire puddings doesn't make me a culinary Somali, just a bit fussy.
 
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Bri'ish cuisine thread when?

Yes.

Everything I eat is either from a discount supermarket or the local markets (we actually still have those in most places check your local areas) or stuff I nicked off people, I enjoy grilled turkey breasts and whole chickens, I'm no chef but I know how to prepare things and everything I eat is what I've made in some way no ready-made/ping cuisine which is why my kitchen is full of jars of stuff.
As an example for breakfast today I had toasted bacon and poached egg baguette sandwiches (artisan bread not that shit you get from t*sco), for dinner I finished off some broth and for tea it was slav seasoning (from Lidl so fuck knows what was in it) flavoured chicken thighs with chips. I don't snack because I eat actual meals and feel no need to. I don't really eat takeaways because they're stupidly overpriced as well as shit in quality and I've never looked a soylent/huel bottle in my life.
Just because I don't like y*rkshire puddings doesn't make me a culinary Somali, just a bit fussy.
That's fair, you're just a delusional snob, got it, lol.
 
Hence why I said delusional snob, Tesco has some good bread! Can't beat a yellow sticker :)
Do you not think you can taste the plastic wrapping amongst other things though? The reduction bays are good in most places (especially M&S) but I've seen too many fruit flies in too many instore bakeries to trust the baked goods.
Grilled turkey breast, Lidl seasoning and oven chips. In all seriousness, sounds more developmentally delayed/ actual honest to god autism than snobbish.
Bro I can make poached eggs that puts me in the top 10% of the population in terms of being able to feed myself surely.
 
I'll DM anyone who asks my dinner tomorrow if they like/dare, we'll see who is developmentally disabled then.
Feed yourself or rob off of other people you gypsy?
They don't want you to know this but those eggs in your mum's cabinet? You can take them home, I took 6 just yesterday,
If I were a gyppo I'd be dine and dashing wouldn't I get your racialism on straight.
 
Bri'ish cuisine thread when?

Yes.

Everything I eat is either from a discount supermarket or the local markets (we actually still have those in most places check your local areas) or stuff I nicked off people, I enjoy grilled turkey breasts and whole chickens, I'm no chef but I know how to prepare things and everything I eat is what I've made in some way no ready-made/ping cuisine which is why my kitchen is full of jars of stuff.
As an example for breakfast today I had toasted bacon and poached egg baguette sandwiches (artisan bread not that shit you get from t*sco), for dinner I finished off some broth and for tea it was slav seasoning (from Lidl so fuck knows what was in it) flavoured chicken thighs with chips. I don't snack because I eat actual meals and feel no need to. I don't really eat takeaways because they're stupidly overpriced as well as shit in quality and I've never looked a soylent/huel bottle in my life.
Just because I don't like y*rkshire puddings doesn't make me a culinary Somali, just a bit fussy.
Why are you stealing from people?
 
I'll DM anyone who asks my dinner tomorrow if they like/dare, we'll see who is developmentally disabled then.

They don't want you to know this but those eggs in your mum's cabinet? You can take them home, I took 6 just yesterday,
If I were a gyppo I'd be dine and dashing wouldn't I get your racialism on straight.
You can grill turkey breasts *and* poach eggs? Consider me corrected, I bet the staff at L'Enclume are shitting themselves with woe knowing culinary geniuses like you are out there.

Do you only shop at Lidl and the local market because that's where your care worker takes you?
 
Just to reassure everyone I'm not the only lunatic in your geographic area; is fidgeting a hate crime?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8ewl757d2ko/https://archive.is/4UXOk
"If I see someone tapping their fingers on a desk, my immediate thought is to chop their fingers off with a knife," an anonymous patient confides to a researcher.
Another shares: "When I see someone making really small repetitive movements, such as my husband bending his toes, I feel physically ill. I hold it back but I want to vomit."
Sound familiar? If so, perhaps you too have a condition called misokinesia - a diagnosable hatred of fidgeting.
Scientists are striving to understand more about the phenomenon that has no known cause, as yet.

For the latest research, featured in the journal PLoS One, experts carried out indepth interviews with 21 people belonging to a misokinesia support group.
Common triggers were leg, hand or foot movements - jiggling thighs, twitchy fingers and shuffling shoes.
Pen clicking and hair twiddling were also triggers, though not quite as frequently.
Often people reported some overlap with another more recognised condition called misophonia - an intense dislike of other people's noises, such as heavy breathing or loud eating.
It's impossible to know exactly how many people might be experiencing misokinesia. One recent Canadian study suggested perhaps one in three of us might be adversely affected by other people fidgeting, experiencing intense feelings of rage, torture and disgust.
I spoke with Dr Jane Gregory, a clinical psychologist at Oxford University in the UK, who has been studying and treating both misokinesia and misophonia.
She told BBC News: "The two go alongside each other very frequently. Often people have both at the same time."
Although there is no good data, Dr Gregory says the conditions are probably suprisingly common.
"Obviously, people have been experiencing it for a long time but just didn't have a name for it."
The severity of people's aversion to fidgeting varies, she tells me.
"Some people might get really annoyed by fidgeting or repetitive movements but it doesn't impact massively on day-to-day life," she says.
Others, however, may "get a really strong emotional reaction - anger, panic or distress - and just can't filter them out".
Through Dr Gregory's work, she tends to meet people with more extreme symptoms. Many are adults who have endured misokinesia for years, but some are in their early teens and experiencing it for the first time.

'It just explodes inside you'​

Andrea becomes distressed if she sees people picking at their nails
Andrea, 62 and from the UK, says she developed misophonia and misokinesia at 13 but that it wasn't recognised at the time.
One of her earliest memories of the condition is being distressed by a girl at school who was picking her nails.
"Most of misokinesia tends to focus around people's hands - what they are doing with their hands and what they are touching," she says.
Another trigger for her is when people partially cover their mouth with their hand while speaking - she struggles to watch and feels like her own mouth is becoming sore when she does.
Andrea says the anger she experiences is explosive and instantaneous.
"There's no thought process in it. There's no rationale. It just explodes inside you, which is why it is so distressing."
She tells me she has tried different strategies to manage her condition, but can't block it out.
Now she shields herself from society, living alone and working from home, and says her whole life is designed around avoiding the things that could distress her.
Andrea says she has lots of supportive friends who understand that she sometimes needs to modify how she interacts with them.
"It's easier to just withdraw. To try and survive it. You can't keep asking other people not to do things."
She explains that she doesn't blame people for their fidgeting and understands that most people's actions are unintentional and done out of habit.
Andrea says sharing her experiences with a Facebook support group has been a real help.

'I get so much anger'​

Jill says her misokinesia results in a 'fight or flight' response
Jill, who is 53 and from Kent, is another member of that group.
She says her misokinesia makes her heart race.
"Anything can trigger me, from leg bouncing to how someone looks and holds their fork.
"I get anger, so much anger.
"My heart starts beating too fast. It's like a fight for flight."

Ball of anxiety​

Julie, who is 54 and from Hull, says the main feeling she experiences with her misokinesia is angst.
"The other day, I was on the bus and there was a lady walking by and both her arms were swinging. I couldn't take my eyes off it. I was getting really anxious with it, not angry.
"It's silly things like someone is making me a cup of tea and they get the teabag and bounce it up and down, up and down, up and down. Why?

Julie says her misokinesia can cause anxiety that lasts for hours

"Or if someone is sat there wobbling their leg. I can't take my eyes off it. Or if I do look away, I have to look back to see if they are still doing it."
She tells the BBC the unpleasant feeling afterwards can eat away at her for hours.
"I'm not an angry person. It just makes me feel like there is a ball in my stomach that wants to explode. It's not anger, it's feeling really anxious inside."
Julie says she is not afraid to ask people to stop doing something that she is finding distressing, but tends to walk away instead.
Her misokinesia makes her unhappy, she tells me.
"It makes me internalise it. I don't like myself for feeling like this."

Hypervigilant inner meerkat​

Dr Gregory says the condition can be extremely debilitating and prevent people from focusing and doing normal things.
"Part of their brain is constantly thinking about this movement," she explains.
"Violent images might pop into their head. They want to grab the person and force them to stop... even though they are not angry in their normal lives."
In terms of why some people are triggered, Dr Gregory says it might be a heightened basic survival instinct - like a meerkat on the lookout for danger.

She likens the feeling to seeing "someone scurrying in the distance" or "tuning into footsteps behind you".
"For some people, you don't tune it out again. Your brain is continually monitoring."
In noisy, hectic modern life, it's not very useful, she says.
And if you keep getting triggered, the frustration and anger can build.
For some people, it's strangers' habits that are most irksome, while for others, it's loved ones.
One common way people try to manage the condition is by avoiding looking at fidgeting or by distracting themselves, Dr Gregory says.
Others may try to avoid people entirely, as much as they can.
If there is only one isolated visual trigger - such as hair twirling - the expert says it is sometimes possible to use reframing therapy to help the person view the situation in a more positive way.
"You might look at it deliberately and create a new backstory for why someone is doing that movement."
That can help reduce the anger and anxiety, she says.
"A lot of people feel really embarrased or ashamed that they get such strong reactions," Dr Gregory adds.
"That, itself, can be a problem because suppressing your emotions can intensify them and make them worse."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj30x3egvxvo/https://archive.ph/noR9Q
People living with perceived misokinesia - a diagnosable hatred of fidgeting - call it "life limiting" and say they're buoyed by it becoming recognised as a medical condition.
After the BBC's earlier reporting, many people got in touch to share their own lived experiences, including one woman who said she had "suffered in silence" since childhood.
Researchers have been looking into the annoyance of little habits some of us can't stand - like tapping a foot, picking fingernails or smoothing down hair.
People often report it overlaps with another more recognised condition called misophonia - an intense dislike of other people's noises, such as heavy breathing or loud eating.

'It can be life-limiting at times'​

For Annette Guest, 73 and from Worcester, everyday occurrences like someone jiggling their leg could be enough to prompt a reaction.
She said her symptoms began at the age of 13, and followed her into adult life including at work.
"I nearly left a job because someone kept sniffing…thank god they left before me," she said.
She described the condition as "life-limiting at times".
"When it's your close family that cause the triggers, and [it] creates the feelings of anxiety and fight or flight response," she said.

'We desperately want to find a cure'​

For Dawn Page, the biggest triggers come from close friends and family

Many people who contacted the BBC were buoyed by the fact misokinesia was becoming recognised as a condition, and research was being done to better understand it.
Dawn Page from Manchester said she "suffered in silence throughout my childhood", but has only in the past decade been able to talk about it.
She's now helping her daughter, who has misokinesia and misophonia.
"We both struggle on a daily basis, however because my daughter is still at school her stress levels are extremely high and she suffers with migraines which I believe is as a direct result of the stress," she said.
Her daughter has recently been given permission to use noise cancelling headphones to help her focus during exams.
Ms Page also paid for her daughter to get therapy from a leading expert on misophonia, but said it was "ineffective"
"We desperately want to find a cure," she added.

'What a load of nonsense, snap out of it'​

Dr Peter Holmes said his condition started suddenly, like "turning on a tap"

But managing the condition can be incredibly difficult, something experienced first-hand by Dr Peter Holmes, 72, from Lancaster.
He said he developed misophonia during puberty, and then several years later, misokinesia.
He was triggered by a close family member who would fidget and smooth their hair. That person was also dismissive of his condition, he said.
He recalled the attitude towards him was, "what a load of nonsense, snap out of it".
"I now understand that my conditions were like a reflex or an allergy, my response was hard-wired and no conscious choice was involved," he told the BBC.
"These things created a terrible anger in me."

'I get very frustrated when I see him do these things'​

Wendy Martin's deafness makes her focus more intensely on body language
The challenges of misokinesia can also be amplified by other conditions.
Wendy Martin, who is 68 and from Oxford, is "profoundly deaf" and uses a hearing aid.
She told the BBC about her thought process when around her husband.
"[He] taps his fingers, drives me mad. I get angry at him. Why does he do this?
"He grabs a corner of the top part of his jumper near his neck. I scream internally."
She said her deafness make her focus on body language and facial expressions more so than a hearing person does.
"I get very frustrated when I see him do these things."

'They are controlling people around them'​

Among the people that contacted the BBC were loved ones of those with misokinesia.
Sophie, not her real name, said being around her 32-year-old autistic son who has the condition was akin to "living on eggshells".
"I really have to watch what I'm doing with my hands. You have to be very still, you have to be really mindful about the way that I'm speaking.
"I have suffered. Even being in the room and breathing triggers him. It is life-limiting."
She said there needs to be "boundaries" around behavioural adjustments for people with the condition.
"They are controlling people around them," she said.
"I don't think we can just say it's because he's autistic or he's got misokinesia and we need to just allow for it".
She added: "You also have to take a position which is, 'I have to breathe, you might not like the sound of my breathing but I'd die without it.'"
Sophie said while research into the condition was a good thing, the focus should be on equipping those who have it with "coping strategies".
"Otherwise it's just going to be anarchy and chaos out there," she said.
"Can you imagine being at a restaurant where half the people have all got that condition, it'd really be kicking off wouldn't it."
Additional reporting by Amy Walker
Why are you stealing from people?
It's not theft if it's communism, they owe me anyway.
You can grill turkey breasts *and* poach eggs? Consider me corrected, I bet the staff at L'Enclume are shitting themselves with woe knowing culinary geniuses like you are out there.

Do you only shop at Lidl and the local market because that's where your care worker takes you?
I've also been known to pillage Aldi and Waitrose you've gotta diversify your slop origin.
 
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