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.

 

[Chunky Salsa]

M40 is so packed right now, that I can talk about how packed it is while driving. All because someone crashed, people need to pay more attention to the road.

 

[A-Logato]

Another day, another bunch of immigrants die in channel. I still feel as if the establishment wants us to feel sorry for them but the consensus I get from family, friends and co workers (namely after I get a few drinks in them) is that no one really cares any more, if anything some think they deserve it.

 

[K!w!Fartz]

Another day, another bunch of immigrants die in channel. I still feel as if the establishment wants us to feel sorry for them but the consensus I get from family, friends and co workers (namely after I get a few drinks in them) is that no one really cares any more, if anything some think they deserve it.

Fish need to eat as well...
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[Otterly]

Foggiest I've seen it for years. Last time it was this foggy, we had days of blizzards a week later.

I’ve heard that too - really bad fog is always followed by heavy rain or blizzards. It is forecast for colder next week so let’s see.

Kintusugi

That’s a great idea for a project/pastime. Have fun!

 

[FedPostalService]

Another day, another bunch of immigrants die in channel. I still feel as if the establishment wants us to feel sorry for them but the consensus I get from family, friends and co workers (namely after I get a few drinks in them) is that no one really cares any more, if anything some think they deserve it.

My “don’t be racist as it’s not nice” (but weirdly really antisemitic) mum is now loudly saying “what are these people doing in the country?” a lot when the news is on.

There seems to be a massive seas change in the normies.

Next election will be a bloodbath for Labour.

 

[Otterly]

Next election will be a bloodbath for Labour.

It’s almost five years away. We need things to start getting better well before that or we won’t just be headed towards that cliff, we will be a nasty mess on the rocks below. We can’t afford another five years of this.

 

[FedPostalService]

It’s almost five years away. We need things to start getting better well before that or we won’t just be headed towards that cliff, we will be a nasty mess on the rocks below. We can’t afford another five years of this.

I don’t see things getting better. The PM and the chancellor are writing to regulators, the people who earn a living from red tape, for ideas as they seem confused that you can’t tax your way to prosperity.

I can see things getting Harold Wilson levels of bad. They’re too dumb and stubborn to fix things.

I’m just really glad I spent the last few years making myself an important part of the company I work for as I’ve been waiting for shit to hit the fan for a while. I should be safe when the economy tanks but it’s not looking good, bros.

 

[A-Logato]

I don’t see things getting better. The PM and the chancellor are writing to regulators, the people who earn a living from red tape, for ideas as they seem confused that you can’t tax your way to prosperity.

I can see things getting Harold Wilson levels of bad. They’re too dumb and stubborn to fix things.

I’m just really glad I spent the last few years making myself an important part of the company I work for as I’ve been waiting for shit to hit the fan for a while. I should be safe when the economy tanks but it’s not looking good, bros.

Were having an almost exact repeat of Blair from the late 90's but some how even worse. Labour will tax you into oblivion so they can fund other countries and their own pet projects, tax payer be damned. The only difference being is that Starmer is no Blair. Blair at least knew when to back down and throw out red meat, as well he was a lot more personable and was actually able to talk to people whilst Starmer comes off like an android and has basically burnt every bridge he has besides with the civil service which I predict in a moment of trying to appease the public he'll ruin his relationship with as well.

The conservatives are death by a thousands cuts, Labour is death by shotgun blast to the face.

 

[FedPostalService]

The conservatives are death by a thousands cuts, Labour is death by shotgun blast to the face.

The Tories are an utter fucking mess. They should be golden but they’re trying to be diet Labour.

For some reason they’re obsessed with being liked by people who will never vote for them.

Just keep taxes low and foreigners out and you’ll win. They function much better when they go full Millwall and have a “ no one likes us and we don’t care” attitude.

 

[A-Logato]

The Tories are an utter fucking mess. They should be golden but they’re trying to be diet Labour.

For some reason they’re obsessed with being liked by people who will never vote for them.

Just keep taxes low and foreigners out and you’ll win. They function much better when they go full Millwall and have a “ no one likes us and we don’t care” attitude.

Reform is the same. I got into an argument with them at a rally in a pub once I basically attacked them for "not being right wing enough" after kicking out a bunch of people and some suspicious comments that were being made before the election. Basically got told that "no were not a right wing party, were a centrist party." Quickly after told them that they are not going to buy over any lefties to their side and all you'll do is put off more actual right wingers and just turn into the conservatives which in the long run I was completely correct.

Neo cons are obsessed with being liked and will take any and all advice from far leftists on "how to win over the left" and all it's ever achieved is push the Overton window leftwards and utterly destroy any right wing party here and in the rest of Europe.

 

[BongoMongo]

I have an idea for Keir. Join your recently deceased brother in the afterlife. Nobody will miss you except for possibly lord alis penis

 

[FedPostalService]

Reform is the same. I got into an argument with them at a rally in a pub once I basically attacked them for "not being right wing enough" after kicking out a bunch of people and some suspicious comments that were being made before the election. Basically got told that "no were not a right wing party, were a centrist party." Quickly after told them that they are not going to buy over any lefties to their side and all you'll do is put off more actual right wingers and just turn into the conservatives which in the long run I was completely correct.

Neo cons are obsessed with being liked and will take any and all advice from far leftists on "how to win over the left" and all it's ever achieved is push the Overton window leftwards and utterly destroy any right wing party here and in the rest of Europe.

They’re not even a real party. They only exist to try and nudge the Tories to the right. Even their name admits it.

We’re going to end up with the Lib Dem’s accidentally being in power as that’s the only party everyone can give their protest vote to with a clean conscience despite them all being weird sex pests.

 

[A-Logato]

They’re not even a real party. They only exist to try and nudge the Tories to the right. Even their name admits it.

We’re going to end up with the Lib Dem’s accidentally being in power as that’s the only party everyone can give their protest vote to with a clean conscience despite them all being weird sex pests.

England is not allowed to have a true right party by design and were eternally stuck in the neo liberal system.

If the lib dems won then at least we'd have something funny to watch as the country reverts into Bulgaria.

 

[-Jack-]

If the lib dems won then at least we'd have something funny to watch as the country reverts into Bulgaria.

Is that the true sentiment about the UK? If London disappears then we would turn out like some poor eastern/Balkan European country? I know capital cities in most European countries are the powerhouse for most of the country but I feel like if you took Berlin out of Germany it would still be okay? Thoughts?

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Visit Eastern Europe. Find a country that you think sounds like a third world, rundown, poor, amenity-deprived shithole and pay it a visit, even for a weekend.
You'll be shocked just how shit our supposed uber-rich, first-world, brownoid-magnet of a country is in comparison.
That's not to mention how cheap everything is, how nice and fresh the food is, how clear the air and roads are...

 

[BongoMongo]

Visit Eastern Europe. Find a country that you think sounds like a third world, rundown, poor, amenity-deprived shithole and pay it a visit, even for a weekend.
You'll be shocked just how shit our supposed uber-rich, first-world, brownoid-magnet of a country is in comparison.
That's not to mention how cheap everything is, how nice and fresh the food is, how clear the air and roads are...

Hungary. totally recommended the place. Loved it there.

Also they're fabulously racist, hate non whites and despise the homos and troons.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

The women are mint, too.

 

[BongoMongo]

The women are mint, too.

Omg and the food. I ate so well there.and it's good quality stuff.

 

[FedPostalService]

I really want to visit eastern Europe but I know the day I do will be the day Putin loses the last of his marbles, sends tanks into Moldova, and I’m somehow conscripted into an army whose language I don’t speak.

 

[isalaide]

Visit Eastern Europe. Find a country that you think sounds like a third world, rundown, poor, amenity-deprived shithole and pay it a visit, even for a weekend.
You'll be shocked just how shit our supposed uber-rich, first-world, brownoid-magnet of a country is in comparison.
That's not to mention how cheap everything is, how nice and fresh the food is, how clear the air and roads are...

This. This. This.

The UK is no longer a first world country. What is happening now, politically, is just the gap between the first shoe dropping - the arse falling out of our economy and our living standards - and the second shoe dropping, which is the general public finally grasping this country is cooked and shit. See this report in full: https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/reports/ending-stagnation/ - no one regardless of where they sit on a narrow political spectrum is seriously disagreeing that we are frogs in slowly boiling water right now. This is an increasingly shitty and impoverished place to live.

The problems we have are structural, and not fixable in a time frame of less than decades. It is not merely immigration that has fucked it, our economy is structurally fucked. The decision was taken in the 1970s to transition the UK from a manufacturing economy to a services economy. Most people now are employed to sell stuff to other people. This worked fine in fairly benign economic conditions - and yes, even if you do remember the nineties, those were fairly benign compared to the headwind we are now tacking into - but the combination of the observed effects of Brexit (and no, the "future" or "potential" benefits don't matter a fuck for this purpose, we are talking about the effects we have experienced to date) and the Covid economic bumming we have taken has fucked over our service industries in a very real way. When restaurants, salons, high street stores, car dealerships start closing because they can't make money, those are real people's jobs being lost. And they aren't coming back. Reopening a major high street chain is a fucking major undertaking and it will not happen on a whim.

We have a good base in highly technical, highly specialised scientific and medical industries - see our very own @Otterly - but let's also be clear: those are niche industries that are never going to employ that many people. Not many people are fucking capable to get a biomedical sciences doctorate; certainly not enough to keep a country the size of the UK afloat. We propped up a lot of our tax take via financial services. Some of that has and of course will survive Brexit, but it has encouraged our giant predatory international megacorps to look elsewhere for additional bases.

The current effect of our leaving the customs union is to have broken the back of many SMEs who relied on EU trade and suppliers. However that shakes out in the future, right now it is costing jobs and sending small businesses to fold. We need to decide whether this is a necessary economic realignment and we will just need to take the pain, or whether something needs to be done to protect that sector of the economy.

Our education system is bullshit, and producing worse real term outcomes than it has for many decades in terms of people actually getting stable work at a living wage. No one is going to be willing to take the necessary reform on, because the necessary reform at this stage requires a total policy rethink on 'getting it right for every child' and mainstreaming. The current figures have one in every three or one in every four kids in mainstream needing SEN support. You cannot educate the educationally normal, let alone push along the bright, in a class that is one third speds. About one school in three needs to be changed to a sped school and mainstreaming should be a vanishingly rare exception to the rule that speds go with speds. Mainstream needs to mean no learning support in class whatsoever. You will see the working class and lower middle class explosion in diagnoses and diagnosis-seeking dry up like piss on hot coals once the parents clock their Brodie and Amelia are being sent to be warehoused with the nappy-wearers if they don't teach them to fucking behave in class. (ADHD kids can absolutely be taught to fucking control themselves, don't be fucking gaslighted otherwise.) This is a structural issue and will not be addressed. We cannot realign ourselves to a skills and technical based economy when one kid in every eight or nine leaves primary school unable to read.

The policy to prop up house prices at all costs has been devastating. It has transitioned most families into families where everyone needs as much paid work outside the home as possible, with all the knock on effects on educational performance that involves. One of the major industries of this country is wee lassies being paid to bring up kids most of the time they are awake, and that service to cost pretty much all the money their actual mother can earn to pay for it. All that increases is the tax take. It is devastating to quality of life.

No mainstream politician is going to address this problem in the UK for at least thirty years or so. This is your future if you stay here.