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.

View image on Twitter


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."

View image on Twitter


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.

 

[Geoff Capes Vapes Apes]

Ange (who sounds like an absolute mong when speaking) can take those plans, roll them up and shove them up her ginger growler.

My part of Norfshire has absolutely fuck all to do with Manchester or Liverpool and I'll be damned if we're going to be run by them. Just an excuse to ship migrants out to/build shitty plasterboard new builds in places that have been spared them to date by the local council.

 

[FedPostalService]

She's creating more "combined regional authorities" and transferring more power from local councils to those combined authorities. The end goal is presumably "devolved" regional governments based on the ITL2 administrative regions of the UK, as illustrated in this convenient map:

View attachment 6758002

These regions were originally drawn out for Blair's "devolution" plans, and were designed to slot into an EU-wide re-organisation of governance into regional authorities that were divorced from previous national and local systems of government. They would have had a partially elected unicameral governing body, headed by a governing council, and would take on all of the responsibilities currently handled by local government, as well as - at the time - having a direct descent of authority from the EU's central government, bypassing Westminster. Blair (who was then mapping out his campaign to be appointed as EU president) sold it as "power to the people", with the claim that it was bringing control over government closer to the electorate. The measures were soundly rejected by everyone at the time, much to his chagrin.

They've never gone away, though. The regions still have the unelected advisory councils lurking over them, which shape regional policy to a great extent, and the statistical regions are in general use by the government for most policy-making anyway. The combined authorities established in the last 15 years mostly fit inside the borders of these larger regions.

They’re doing it as old people in the Norf tend to go out and vote Labour in local elections because they’re zombies.

Gawd bless the NHS, I might be paying too much council tax and they’re moving Somalis next door, but I don’t want people to think I’m a Tory.

It’s why they pushed Scottish devolution. The thought they’d be in power forever and it would be more jobs for their boys only to have it backfire spectacularly when Labour self immolated.

Personally I can’t wait wait to see a bunch of Reform Mega Councils when it backfires this time.

Ange (who sounds like an absolute mong when speaking) can take those plans, roll them up and shove them up her ginger growler.

I wish she’d speak in her real voice. You’re from fucking Cheadle, love. I hate it when Labour women Northern it up. I bet they speak like regular women when they’re talking to a bank manager.

My part of Norfshire has absolutely fuck all to do with Manchester or Liverpool and I'll be damned if we're going to be run by them. Just an excuse to ship migrants out to/build shitty plasterboard new builds in places that have been spared them to date by the local council.

Double post (because fuck it) but they tried to make a massive Merseyside council years ago and absolutely no one wanted it because of what a corrupt bunch of gangsters and communists that practically set money on fire at the corrupt hell hole that is Liverpool City Council.

 

[-Jack-]

So will this change how we vote or what share of votes are? Isn't this called gerrymandering? I know fuck all about politics.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Lucy Letby autism

Lucy Letby's lawyers have said they will be asking the Court of Appeal to immediately review all of her convictions because an expert witness "has now changed his mind on the cause of death of three babies".


He said: "Remarkably, Dr Evans has now changed his mind on the cause of death of three of the babies: Baby C, Baby I and Baby P."


He said Dr Evans had "revised his opinion in relation to Baby C" and had written a new report which he had given to police months ago.

But, he said "despite numerous requests" the prosecution had "yet to give this report to the defence".

"The defence will argue that Dr Evans is not a reliable expert, and all the convictions are not safe," Mr McDonald said.

LL is a scapegoat.

 

[isalaide]

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

Sounds like these afflicted individuals should gouge their eyeballs out with a spoon in order to avoid the hateful sensory input.

They should also pour lye in their ears in case they are still able to hear distressing inputs.

Honestly why the fuck are we even pretending to humour these people.

 

[Geoff Capes Vapes Apes]

Lucy Letby autism



LL is a scapegoat.

I can fix her! (probably have a vasectomy though just in case)

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

I can fix her! (probably have a vasectomy though just in case)

They used evidence that the expert had withdrawn months before the trial, yet still went ahead with it. How is this miscarriage of justice allowed?
Even if LL killed some kids, something really fucking fishy happened in that hospital.

 

[Geoff Capes Vapes Apes]

They used evidence that the expert had withdrawn months before the trial, yet still went ahead with it. How is this miscarriage of justice allowed?
Even if LL killed some kids, something really fucking fishy happened in that hospital.

I take it as given that all NHS hospitals are covering up massive numbers of unnecessary deaths, it's just in this case it was allegedly a blonde lass killing cute babies rather than a third worlder with a "degree" from the University of Bom'click'click'ganda giving grandma a years supply of insulin in one hit.

 

[Wonderland foster child]

I'm over Greggs at the moment, we have a Wenzel's which is similar to Greggs but they do really nice "fresh" sandwiches which are decent.

Sadly we don't have Wenzel's here but I'll check them out when I'm next in Englandshire. We do have Baynes, which do macaroni pies, which Greggs stopped doing ages ago because they're racist against Scots or summat, but Greggs pushed out lots of the little bakers so we probably don't have as many as we used to. I swear some roads have four Greggs on them because the brickies need their sausage rolls.

 

[Mound Dweller]

Absolute fucking traitor.
Hope you can view this too.
View attachment 6757685

I really hate councils, there is no reservoir of development more arrested than local government, just check out one of their youtube channels and see the stodgy gits warble they're straight up soap opera caricatures and they don't even know it. Nevermind the grift (expensive expenses and incredibly bent planning permission) they're outright pointless. They're "responsible" ie;charge you for fixing some of the roads and some of the waste collection and maybe they do taxi licensing and add a smooth 30% to your rent because of landlord selective loicensing (that's a another con they love) but that's about it.
Abolish them all, but not to be replaced by Fr*nch style regions, All Power To The Parishes! Deputize the actually useful geriatrics.

 

[Chunky Salsa]

some of the waste collection

Bins being picked up every two weeks is a fucking joke, and if the situation does not change by the new year, I will begin fly tipping my waste in paki communities.

 

[Bloom Worm Cross Field]

The name "council" should be officially redesignated with a new term that accurately reflects reality, something like AFASCAS - Authority For Adult Social Care and Ancillary Services. Hammer the point home until normal people check and see that bins are like 2% of their AFASCAS bill.

 

[A-Logato]

I'm over Greggs at the moment, we have a Wenzel's which is similar to Greggs but they do really nice "fresh" sandwiches which are decent.

Greg's is the only white dominated shop in my whole local area (for now). It almost acts as the last bastion of the white race in the dirty shit hole of the country I currently reside in.

Though I can see within the next 5 years they move over to red coloured Turkey or something of the like for the sausage rolls to not offend the local mudslimes as we are only simple Kafir.

 

[teriyakiburns]

There used to be a chain called Burney's around where I lived as a kid. They were better than Greggs; better pasties, better sausage roll, and proper custards. Sad day when it closed up, but it was inevitable due to how retarded Sayers (the parent company) was at the time.

It’d depend on which recessives they carried. If it was twenty completely different ones yes, and if there was overlap then no. And of course all those masked recessives go to the next generation so they can pop up later, and not all ‘silent’ recessives are actually silent. You very often hear that CF carriers have a history of respiratory issues, and things like the haemophilia b mentioned earlier - at least one of the princesses nearly bled to death after a minor op.

Coming back to this inbreeding thing, as I was reading about something that ended up being somewhat related. One of the interesting things about inbreeding is that, over a long enough period, as long as a genetic line survives, an isolated population will eventually purge out most deleterious mutations by the simple fact that they tend to be selected against. The example sometimes cited are the Chillingham Cattle, a herd of "wild" white cattle in Northumberland that has remained genetically isolated for possibly up to 700 years, but certainly for more than 300. They have nearly no genetic issues despite their isolation, and despite the fact the herd was reduced to around a dozen animals in the 40s.

This genetic purging would explain why tribal inbreeding didn't result in endless potato babies roaming a post-apocalyptic hindu kush and why inbreeding is becoming such a terminal issue among "immigrant communities" these days (and in pakistan proper, where it's starting to cause alls orts of problem). We have modern healthcare now; potato babies can live long, useless lives under the care of the state, even to the point of being able to breed and pass on their genes. Cultures that practice close-relative breeding will become more and more genetically deranged over time.

I almost wonder if this should be encouraged. It might work in the same way that releasing sterilised male mosquitos works to control population. Eventually, the genetic overload will become so great that they die out entirely. The only question is whether the inbreeding takes them out before they take us out.

e: missed this

Bins being picked up every two weeks is a fucking joke, and if the situation does not change by the new year, I will begin fly tipping my waste in paki communities.

Would they even notice?

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Another news roundup.

You can't say Nigeria's corrupt!

https://archive.ph/8POwG

Kemi Badenoch has stood by her past comments about Nigeria, after the vice-president of the West African country accused her of denigrating it.
The Conservative Party leader, who was born in the UK but mostly raised in Nigeria, has repeatedly described growing up in fear and insecurity in a country plagued by corruption.
On Monday, Nigerian Vice-President Kashim Shettima suggested Badenoch could "remove the Kemi from her name" if she was not proud of her "nation of origin".
Asked about Shettima's comments, Badenoch's spokesman said she "stands by what she says" and "is not the PR for Nigeria".
https://archive.ph/o/8POwG/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgze55vrx6o
"She is the leader of the opposition and she is very proud of her leadership of the opposition in this country," he told reporters.
"She tells the truth. She tells it like it is. She is not going to couch her words."

During a speech on migration in Nigerian capital Abuja, Shettima said his government was "proud" of Badenoch "in spite of her efforts at denigrating her nation of origin."
Shettima was met with applause when he said: "She is entitled to her own opinions; she has even every right to remove the Kemi from her name but that does not underscore the fact that the greatest black nation on earth is the nation called Nigeria."
He compared Badenoch's approach to that of her predecessor, Rishi Sunak - the UK's first prime minister of Indian heritage - as "a brilliant young man" who "never denigrated his nation of ancestry".
It is unclear which comments Shettima was referring to, but Badenoch has frequently mentioned her Nigerian upbringing in speeches and interviews.
Born Olukemi Adegoke in Wimbledon in 1980, she grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the United States where her physiology professor mother lectured.
She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a friend of her mother because of the worsening political and economic situation in Nigeria, and to study for her A-levels.
After marrying Scottish banker Hamish Badenoch, she took her husband's surname.
At the Conservative Party conference this year, Badenoch contrasted the freedoms she experienced in the UK to her childhood in Lagos "where fear was everywhere".
She vividly described the city as lawless, recalling hearing "neighbours scream as they are being burgled and beaten - and wondering if your home will be next".
Last week during a tour of the US, she described her home city as "a place where almost everything seemed broken".
Her experiences helped shape her conservative ideals and set her against socialism, she said.

Met planning to go on strike again

https://archive.ph/TWsUG

Metropolitan police staff have voted to go on strike in a row over plans to cut back on the time they can work from home.
The Public and Commercial Services union said there was “overwhelming support for the action”. It would be the first time Scotland Yard employees, which is believed could include 999 call handlers and child protection officers, have ever voted for a walkout.

PCS said 85% of its members backed industrial action after being told they would need to return to the office in the new year and 91% voted for action short of a strike. A vote was taken after managers reversed an existing agreement on blended working, which allowed people to work from home for part of the week, the union said.
About 2,400 civilian workers who support the day-to-day operations of police officers would be affected by the policy shift, which disproportionately impacts women, part-time workers and those with disabilities, the PCS adds.
The union’s general secretary, Fran Heathcote, said: “Our members are not bobbies on the beat. They are desk-based civilians who work from home just as productively as if they were in the office, but without the stress and cost of a daily commute.
“It’s time politicians and the rightwing media stopped their obsession with telling people where they have to work and started listening to the evidence of academics, employers and employees that shows working from home is a perfectly viable option for many people.”
The Metropolitan police have been contacted for a response.

A most London of headlines

Ian Hislop injured after e-bike crashed into him while crossing the road

https://archive.ph/49uAB

Ian Hislop, the Private Eye editor, was left with head injuries after an electric bike crashed into him while he was crossing the road.
The 64-year-old was seen with a bandage covering the back of his head while he was out with his wife in central London on Thursday evening.
A spokesman for Private Eye magazine confirmed that he was hit by one of the battery-powered vehicles “whilst crossing the road” on Wednesday afternoon and was “okay” after receiving medical treatment for his injuries.
Mr Hislop, who is also a team captain on the BBC’s quiz panel show Have I Got News For You, is the latest to be on the receiving end of an e-bike collision in recent years.

Experts fear that the rising number of pedestrians being killed or seriously injured in crashes with cyclists may be being fuelled by the growing popularity of e-bikes.

It also comes months after the window of a taxi that Mr Hislop was travelling in was shattered by what was initially believed to be a gunshot before the Met Police later confirmed that it was more likely caused by a mechanical failure instead.
In the past seven years, 19 pedestrians have been killed in accidents with cyclists and another 1,015 have suffered serious injuries, according to official data obtained under a Freedom of Information request.
Last year’s tally of 189 serious crashes involving bikes and pedestrians was the highest total ever recorded and means that there are 15 life-changing crashes every month.
Steve Cole, the policy director of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, previously said that while electric-powered bikes can help reduce road traffic their size “could increase the severity of injuries, in comparison to pedal-only cargo bikes”.

Duncan Dollimore, the head of campaigns at Cycling UK, also warned: “There are irresponsible people on our roads, including some who speed on e-motorbikes that far exceed the limit of legal e-bikes, which by law must cut out at 15.5mph.
“These may look like e-cycles, but in the eyes of the law they have no place on our streets or in our cycle lanes and threaten the safety of people who walk and cycle.”

Kier's new relationship with the EU going well. No doubt this will be the start of him giving them additional concessions.

https://archive.ph/VnlhE

The European Commission is taking the British government to court over alleged violations of the rights of EU citizens in the UK, a decision that casts a cloud over Keir Starmer’s attempted post-Brexit reset.
The commission announced on Monday that it was referring the government to the European court of justice for alleged failure to protect the rights of EU citizens in the UK at the end of 2020 – after Britain’s formal exit from the union.

The commission said there were “several shortcomings” in the UK’s implementation of European law that continued to affect EU nationals in the UK with rights under the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
Although similar complaints around EU citizens’ rights date back to 2011, the latest legal action began in May 2020 with a request to the UK to provide more information. It came amid intense scrutiny in Brussels over protecting the post-Brexit rights of at least 3.5 million EU citizens in the UK after Brexit.
A growing number of cases have come to light of EU citizens denied entry at the UK border or subject to deportation orders, after they return from holidays or family visits abroad.
https://archive.ph/o/VnlhE/https://...t-free-movement-to-access-single-market-uk-eu
The UK’s Independent Monitoring Authority last month wrote to the Home Office raising concerns about the “certificate of application”, which is intended to give EU citizens evidence to show employers, landlords and the NHS that they are entitled to be in the country while their post-Brexit status is pending.
Responding to the commission decision, a government spokesperson said: “These cases relate to issues from when the UK was an EU member state and during the transition period. We are not going to comment further on legal proceedings.”

While officials sought to downplay the EU legal action, the case could cause friction. The EU has said it will only move ahead with new agreements once the UK has shown “full and faithful implementation” of existing ones.
Starmer is attempting to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU after years of tensions over Brexit. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the foreign secretary, David Lammy, are among the ministers that have had well-received meetings with their EU counterparts, although detailed talks on new agreements are yet to begin.
Despite warm words on both sides, the EU has not moved beyond the red lines intended to protect the single market that were conceived at the start of the Brexit negotiations. A “significant further reduction of trade frictions” would be in the EU’s interest, but would require the UK to join the single market and/or customs union, according to an internal EU document seen by the Guardian.

The UK government has ruled out joining the single market and customs union.
The document, a summary of diplomatic discussions in Brussels on EU-UK relations over the autumn, also reveals that EU countries are insisting on a fisheries deal, before agreements in other areas. The EU-UK fisheries deal – agreed as part of the wider trade talks in December 2020 – has to be renewed by June 2026. A reset between the union and the UK “is only credible if it is based on an early understanding” on fisheries, states the EU document.
The two sides are also on a collision course over a youth mobility scheme, which the EU sees as essential to any successful rapprochement. The EU would like to create “a youth experience scheme” that allows young people aged 18 to 30 to work, travel and study anywhere in the UK and 27 member states for a few years.
The British government is opposed to any scheme that may increase inward migration without being targeted at specialist skills.

Bonus Guardian "muh Trump" from above

How the Guardian will stand up to four more years of Donald Trump​

Throughout the tumultuous years of the first Trump presidency we never minimised or normalised the threat of his authoritarianism, and we treated his lies as a genuine danger to democracy, a threat that found its expression on 6 January 2021.
With Trump weeks away from taking office again – with dramatic implications for Ukraine and the Middle East, US democracy, reproductive rights, inequality and our collective environmental future – it’s time for us to redouble our efforts to hold the president-elect and those who surround him to account.
It’s going to be an enormous challenge. And we need your help.
Trump is a direct threat to the freedom of the press. He has, for years, stirred up hatred against reporters, calling them an “enemy of the people”. He has referred to legitimate journalism as “fake news” and joked about members of the media being shot. Project 2025, the blueprint for a second Trump presidency, includes plans to make it easier to seize journalists’ emails and phone records.
We will stand up to these threats, but it will take brave, well-funded independent journalism. It will take reporting that can’t be leaned upon by a billionaire owner terrified of retribution from the White House.
If you can, please consider supporting us just once, or better yet, support us every month with a little more. Thank you.

 

[Otterly]

an isolated population will eventually purge out most deleterious mutations by the simple fact that they tend to be selected against

I think there’s even some human populations where this seems to have happened. Aren’t the Samaritans like this to a degree? Modern Pakistan has a huge population so they’re on the opposite of a sweet spot - lots of inbreeding and too big a population to get through it.
There’s evidence of significant bottlenecks happening in a few creatures - cheetahs are really inbred. But they do say that humans were reduced to a few tens of thousand at one point as well.

 

[FedPostalService]

I think there’s even some human populations where this seems to have happened. Aren’t the Samaritans like this to a degree? Modern Pakistan has a huge population so they’re on the opposite of a sweet spot - lots of inbreeding and too big a population to get through it.
There’s evidence of significant bottlenecks happening in a few creatures - cheetahs are really inbred. But they do say that humans were reduced to a few tens of thousand at one point as well.

You get incredibly high rates of mental health problems and other health issues in isolated northern Scottish towns and it’s publicly attributed to “socioeconomic factors” but boomer medical professionals when no journalists are around to destroy them and still believe in honest conversations will tell you it’s down to inbreeding.

 

[Otterly]

You get incredibly high rates of mental health problems and other health issues in isolated northern Scottish towns and it’s publicly attributed to “socioeconomic factors” but boomer medical professionals when no journalists are around to destroy them and still believe in honest conversations will tell you it’s down to inbreeding.

Bethesda in wales. There’s a government paper on it somewhere.

 

[FedPostalService]

Bethesda in wales. There’s a government paper on it somewhere.

Given their recent output I’d put money on the game publisher Bethesda too being full on inbreds.

 

[-Jack-]

Not to derail again because this is technically for news, but another good bakery in my region is Simmons, everything is handmade and fresh then delivered in the early mornings to all the bakeries.