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.
 
News roundup. First off easy A&N bait.
A woman in her 60s has been arrested for allegedly using an "array of wigs" and other disguises to pose as at least 14 other people to help them pass UK citizenship tests.

The 61-year-old, who has not been named, helped men and women "gain an unfair advantage" in the Life in the UK Test, the Home Office said.

She is accused of wearing various wigs and disguises to pass herself off as the true applicants, in an attempt to dishonestly obtain them leave to remain in the UK.

Anyone seeking to stay in the country indefinitely or naturalisation as a British citizen must take the test.

She was arrested at an address in Enfield, north London on Monday where "several false documents and an array of wigs alleged to have been used in the fraudulent scheme" were seized.

It is alleged that between June 2022 and August the following year, the woman went to multiple UK test centres, disguising herself and doctoring ID documents to evade detection.

Fraudsters completing the test for others could "lead to people wrongly being granted the right to remain in the country without the proper due diligence", the Home Office said.

Immigration enforcement criminal and financial investigation inspector Phillip Parr said a "complex investigation" had "put a stop to this dangerous scheme".

"This individual is believed to have orchestrated a pre-meditated plan to avoid detection, meticulously selecting disguises and test centre locations across the country to evade the authorities.

The Home Office said the woman remains in custody.

The Life in the UK Test consists of 24 questions aimed at "proving the applicant has sufficient knowledge of British values, history, and society", the Home Office said.
Photo showing some of her alleged disguises.
1738445748520.png

Scotland now has teachers striking because the students are unteachable
Teachers at a school in East Dunbartonshire are to take industrial action after claiming pupils face "no consequences" for abuse and violent behaviour.
Staff at Kirkintilloch High School said they had repeatedly raised concerns but claimed they had been "gaslit" by management, including being told their lessons were not exciting enough.
From 5 February teachers will refuse to cover classes, and will not take trips or activities, although the action will stop short of a strike.
East Dunbartonshire Council said it was in discussions with teaching unions over the concerns.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scotland/glasgow_and_west
According to the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) union, staff believe pupils face "no serious consequences" for their behaviour and that restorative approaches are overused.
Mike Corbett, a Scotland national official for the NASUWT, said: "Members feel blamed and gaslit by management for the poor behaviour of pupils.
"They report being told at debriefing meetings that their lessons are 'not fun or engaging enough'.
"A culture where there are no consequences for poor behaviour is not setting up pupils well for adult life and fails the employers' duty of care towards its staff."

Teachers at Bannerman High School in Glasgow took industrial action in 2022 because of violence in classrooms.
Rod McCready, the NASUWT national executive member for East Dunbartonshire, added: "In a school where there is a culture of abuse and violence from pupils, our members are not willing at the present time to put themselves at further risk by taking such classes."
Ann Davie, the chief executive of East Dunbartonshire Council, said the local authority was aware of the proposed action.
She said: "We have fully engaged with the school management regarding NASUWT staff concerns and we are currently in discussions with the union to try to resolve the issues they have brought forward."
Teachers in Scotland previously reported growing concerns over violent behaviour by pupils.
Last year a survey by the EIS union found almost half the teachers in Aberdeen had reported violent pupil behaviour in school every day, and more than a third said they had been physically assaulted.
Multiple Labour MPs associating with an organisation with a history of supporting Hamas. Nothing new.
A minister has been spoken to for attending a Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) event, despite a government ban on engagement with the group.
Labour's leadership "reminded" Sir Stephen Timms of his "duty to uphold collective responsibility" after he attended an MCB annual leadership dinner last week.
Sir Stephen was one of four Labour MPs to attend alongside backbenchers Afzal Khan, Naz Shah and Abtisam Mohamed.
In 2009, the Labour government severed ties with the MCB after a senior figure reportedly backed Hamas. Links resumed in 2010 when the MCB condemned violence, but recent Conservative and Labour governments have refused any official engagement.
Sir Stephen has been approached for comment.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58972716
Sir Stephen's appearance at the event prompted questions from Conservative MP Nick Timothy about the government's stance on the group.
Timothy said the government's policy on the MCB was "a complete mess".
On Tuesday, the prime minister's official spokesman said the government's policy on the group "has not changed".
He said: "The minister has been reminded of his duty to uphold collective responsibility."
Under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, Sir Stephen acted as Labour's faith envoy, responsible for the party's engagement with a range of faith groups, and he continues to work closely with such organisations.
In 2010, he was stabbed twice during a constituency surgery by a 21-year-old Islamist radical.
"Maybe criticising Trump was an error," says yet another moron
The UK's choice for the next ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson, has described his previous criticism of Donald Trump as "ill-judged and wrong".
Speaking in an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, he said the new US president had won "fresh respect" from him, adding he was "quite confident" Trump would approve of his appointment.
As part of the process Lord Mandelson's credentials have to be presented to Trump, which the president is reportedly expected to agree to.
In previous years, Lord Mandelson has described Trump as "reckless" and "a bully".

In an interview with an Italian journalist in 2019, he described Trump as "reckless and a danger to the world".
This followed a 2018 interview with the Evening Standard where he described Trump as "a bully".
But he told Fox News: "I made those remarks six years ago in 2019, led rather along this by an Italian journalist... it was a time in Britain by the way with very fraught politics and there was high emotion about many things in Britain at that time.
"I consider my remarks about President Trump as ill-judged and wrong.
"And I think that time and attitudes towards the president has changed since then."
Acknowledging Trump's "extraordinary" second mandate, Lord Mandelson said Trump had won "fresh respect" from him and said he had heard nothing from the White House that suggested there was going to be any difficulty about his appointment.
"I think that President Trump will look at my credentials and consider what's best for the relationship going forward, " he said.
"The president is a nice person, is a fair-minded person, and that's why I feel quite confident that, when as I say he does look at my credentials he'll think 'right, I think this guy could work well for both our countries and our special relationship'."
He added Trump could be "one of the most consequential" US presidents.

The government is much less concerned than previously about the possibility that Lord Mandelson's appointment could be blocked by Trump.
Some of the president's allies had suggested that the president could take the extraordinary step of blocking him from taking up the role.
Trump's co-presidential campaign manager Chris LaCivita last month warned Lord Mandelson to "stay home" and called him "an absolute moron" over his past comments on Trump.
But Lord Mandelson is understood to have now received his "agrément" from the US government – a formal step confirming their willingness to accept him as a diplomat in their country.
The final hurdle will come when Lord Mandelson presents his "letter of credence" to Trump.
It is understood that he is likely to fly to Washington DC to carry out the final formalities next week.
The Foreign Office and US State Department have been contacted for comment.
Mandelson's comments go further than others in government in recanting previous criticism of Trump.
Others in government such as the Foreign Secretary David Lammy have typically sought to deflect questions about their attacks on Trump by pointing out that many senior Republican politicians have previously criticised him too.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had his first phone call with Trump since the inauguration, but its is thought Lord Mandelson's appointment was not discussed.
Lord Mandelson is a well-known figure in British politics, having served in multiple ministerial roles under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before taking up a life peerage in the Lords.
Turns out race is irrelevant to pupil exclusions. Admitted after years of claiming differently of course.
Poverty and special educational needs, rather than ethnicity alone, are the key influences on individual children’s school exclusions and attainment in England, according to analysis.

The findings, by a multi-ethnic team of academics from Durham and Birmingham universities, challenge widely held views that children in some ethnic groups are disproportionately affected by exclusions and suspensions.


But campaigners for race and equality argue that the research downplays the complex intersection of ethnicity and class that deprives many children of fair access to educational opportunities, and overlooks other methods of exclusion and measures deployed against disadvantaged groups.
https://www.theguardian.com/educati...means-minority-ethnic-pupils-england-miss-out
The research found that once adjusted by free school meal eligibility or special educational needs status, there were no significant differences between ethnic groups in rates of exclusion or academic attainment at primary or secondary school.

Prof Stephen Gorard, the lead author and professor of education and public policy at the University of Durham, said the findings had uncovered a correlation rather than a “causal model” linking special needs and poverty with exclusions.

“But if you were trying to predict or explain who is going to be excluded at an individual level, then if you include poverty and special needs, knowing the ethnicity of a child doesn’t help a prediction. That’s equivalent to saying: this is not driving exclusions,” Gorard said.

“You could argue that black children, for example, are more likely to be labelled with special needs because they are more likely to be considered for some other reasons. And that is possible. But assuming we accept that the special needs label has validity, then after taking it into account, ethnicity doesn’t matter for patterns of exclusions.”

Dr Shabna Begum, the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust, said the educational experiences of minority ethnic groups were the result of “a tangled matrix of race and class” that was difficult to measure.

Begum said: “This should not lead us to conclude that racism is not a factor in attainment or exclusion experiences but that there is no single, linear relationship.

“For instance, we have to interrogate the reasons for why some minority ethnic pupils are more likely to be in the free school meals (FSM) category, which is used as the imperfect proxy for working-class status.

“By focusing on FSM status as some kind of fixed category, we risk ignoring the structural racism in labour markets and the wider housing system that explain why many black African, black Caribbean and Traveller children are more likely to experience those wider economic conditions in the first place, and how race and racism is constitutive of their class and therefore their poverty experiences – not incidental to it.”

Dr Kulvinder Nagre, a research and policy coordinator for Race on the Agenda, said “informal exclusions” such as off-rolling – where families were persuaded or put under pressure to remove a child from school – were often missing from official data.

“Our research has found that black and global majority children, and especially those from our Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, are disproportionately subject to informal exclusion, and this practice is not captured in the models used by the authors to draw their conclusions,” Nagre said.

Nagre also cautioned policymakers against overlooking ethnicity as a critical factor in a child’s potential.

“Research has shown time and time again that cultural awareness is hugely important for educational interventions – that which may improve the attainment of a white, working-class pupil from the rural north-east [of England] is unlikely to be as effective for a working-class child from a first-generation migrant family in Tower Hamlets, and vice versa,” he said.

The research, published in the journal Education Sciences, used official records from the Department for Education’s national pupil database from 2019, for all pupils at state schools in England.

It concluded that “prior attainment and special needs/disability status are the main drivers of attainment at both [key stage 2 at primary school] and [key stage 4 at secondary school]. Individual pupil ethnicity did not help to explain either attainment or exclusions, over and above these other factors”.
https://www.theguardian.com/educati...all-disadvantaged-students-university-england
But Gorard said the data did reveal that schools with high concentrations of pupils with particular special needs, disadvantage or ethnicity were more likely to exclude pupils – and that the government should change national admissions policies to tackle such segregation.

“There is a lot of evidence that, in heavily disadvantaged settings, children are punished differently from how the same individual and the same offence and characteristics might be treated in a low segregation setting. It’s one of the dangers of having highly segregated schools,” Gorard said.

Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Schools and colleges work incredibly hard to support these young people but we do need to see more government action to offset the risk of exclusions and improve attainment.”

Di’Iasio added: “It is a stark reality that an obdurate attainment gap persists between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers, and that this feeds through into a cycle of generational disadvantage that we must break if we are to create a fairer and more productive society.”
And now for the two sides of the Guardian's Gaza coverage
The freed British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari spoke to Keir Starmer on Friday and told the prime minister Hamas held her in facilities belonging to the UN refugee agency Unrwa, her mother, Mandy, has said.
Damari, 28, who was released 12 days ago, after more than 15 months in captivity in Gaza, with two fingers missing, also told Starmer that Hamas had denied her access to medical treatment after shooting her twice.

Unrwa said claims that hostages had been held in its premises were “very serious”.
Its spokesperson Juliette Touma told the BBC the UN agency, which was set up to support the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees, and has brought in about 60% of the food aid that has reached Gaza since the war began, did not have access to several of its facilities for many months.

“The vast majority of our buildings were turned into shelter when the war started. There was also very, very little supplies and assistance that the agency could give them.”
She added: “We’ve been calling for the release of hostages for months on end … These claims that hostages have been held in Unrwa premises, even if they were vacated, are absolutely serious.
“We’ve repeatedly called for independent investigations into these claims, including the misuse and disregard of Unrwa premises by Palestinian armed groups. That also includes Hamas.”
An Israeli law banning the activities of Unrwa in Israel came into force on Thursday and international staff were forced to leave, a decision the agency predicted would “sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition” and critics say will jeopardise urgent humanitarian aid efforts in the region.
The Israeli government has accused Unrwa, which enjoys widespread international support and has more than 30,000 staff, of employing 190 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, and 12 people who took part in the 7 October 2023 attacks. The agency fired nine employees after an investigation but denied knowingly aiding armed groups.
Damari and her mother gave the prime minister an update on Damari’s condition on Friday, and the conditions she lived under while she was held hostage, and then urged Starmer to ensure the Red Cross has access to people still being held captive in Gaza.
“It’s a miracle that she survived, and we need to get aid to remaining hostages now,” her mother posted on X, along with a photograph of her holding the phone for her daughter to speak into.
Damari was taken from her home in the Kfar Aza kibbutz on 7 October and shot in the hand, then “blindfolded and forced into her own car with two other friends”, her family said previously.
Both Damari and her mother thanked Starmer for the government’s help bringing about her release on 19 January, and her mother said the prime minister invited Damari to visit Downing Street when she had recovered.
The Met police is facing growing questions over its handling of a pro-Palestine protest in central London at which more than 70 people were arrested.
On Friday, trade union leaders became the latest group to write to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, demanding an independent inquiry into “repressive and heavy-handed policing” at the 18 January demonstration.

Their letter followed others by legal experts, MPs and peers and the British Palestinian Committee, to Cooper making the same demand and also calling for a review of legislation limiting protest, brought in by the Conservative government.
Amnesty International has also expressed concerns about the policing, while the Green party London Assembly member Zoë Garbett told the assembly’s police and crime committee meeting that she had been contacted by more than 150 people who described incidents of kettling and police violence towards children, pregnant women and older people.

In a statement after the demonstration, commander Adam Slonecki, who led the policing operation, said there was “a deliberate effort, including by protest organisers, to breach conditions and attempt to march out of Whitehall”. He described it as “a serious escalation in criminality”.
Previous marches, which have taken place since Israel launched its assault on Gaza after the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas, have passed largely without incident and relations between police and the organisers, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), had been considered cordial.
But restrictions placed on the route of the latest rally preventing a march to the BBC’s headquarters, along with the number of arrests – including of the rally’s chief steward, Chris Nineham of the Stop the War coalition – have soured relations.
Nineham has been charged with a public order offence, as has the PSC director, Ben Jamal, while 60 of the 77 people arrested were said to have breached the conditions imposed, which the Met said was to protect a synagogue near to the BBC offices.
The force said the 60 people broke through police lines, but protesters, including the Green party deputy leader, Zack Polanski, have said the arrests were made without warning for inadvertently being outside the ill-defined permitted area.
Polanski told the Guardian columnist Owen Jones that he intervened when police tried to prevent a woman in her late 60s or early 70s from leaving the rally area to go to the toilet, while a Stop the War steward alleged they prevented officers arresting a 13-year-old girl with a placard for being in breach of the Public Order Act because she arrived before the allowed assembly time.
The various letters say the Met falsely accused protesters carrying flowers – including the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow chancellor, John McDonnell – of forcing their way through police lines when video footage shows they were initially waved through by officers.
The trade union leaders from, among others, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU), the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the University and College Union, and the transport unions RMT, TSSA and Aslef, say: “As trade unionists we are only too aware how heavy-handed policing, followed by the construction of false media narratives, have often served as a pretext to undermine our democratic rights to demonstrate and take industrial action.
“We are also conscious that the repressive powers used by the police on Saturday stem from efforts by the previous Conservative government to curb our freedom to strike as well as protest.”
The British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla, star of The Crown and The Day of the Jackal, said the policing was reminiscent of policing he had seen in Egypt.
With the next march announced for 15 February, the policing response – before and on the day – is certain to come under added scrutiny.
 
I'm happy to be completely wrong here and accept i'm a paranoid schitzo jumping at shadows that look like wogs.

Thoughts?
No this is definitely wog, let me break it down:

Talbot Green has one of the highest black populations in Wales (it's Cardiff so go figures) so it's already an increased chance of it being a none white. 2 police officers were inured in the scuffle quite badly and a 3rd with minor injuries. A Paki is incapable of winning fights on their own and must be double in numbers and their opponent be a women so it's certainly not a Paki. Arson and other fire related activities are a popular nig pass time.

I could write more but I am confident that this crime was committed by a quiet welsh choir boy.
 
No this is definitely wog, let me break it down:

Talbot Green has one of the highest black populations in Wales (it's Cardiff so go figures) so it's already an increased chance of it being a none white. 2 police officers were inured in the scuffle quite badly and a 3rd with minor injuries. A Paki is incapable of winning fights on their own and must be double in numbers and their opponent be a women so it's certainly not a Paki. Arson and other fire related activities are a popular nig pass time.

I could write more but I am confident that this crime was committed by a quiet welsh choir boy.
I looked up the ethnic make up of talbot and according to the 2021 census, it was 95% white. If those demographics have changed in 4 years, then that's a story on it's own. Not that I disagree with you, it most probably is a dindu.
 
Weaving subversive shit into an actually digestible and watchable show is beyond their capabilities.
If anything, they're expert at stealing properties everyone loved for decades and then shitting down the throat of its audience until they go away. Great jerb at propaganda when everyone hates your ridiculously bad media and watches something else instead.

Case in point: Doctor Who. Replace a national treasure with a shambling zombie of itself, act amazed nobody wants to watch it any more.
I could write more but I am confident that this crime was committed by a quiet welsh choir boy.
Y2FzZS5qcGc.png
The Welsh have really gone downhill from when their most notable trait was failing to pay off on bets.
I'll forgive him for ordering Gregg's on the app once.
But was he being racist?
 
Case in point: Doctor Who. Replace a national treasure with a shambling zombie of itself, act amazed nobody wants to watch it any more.
I haven't watched doctor who since matt smith i heard the new doctor is some gay black dude who hates white people, i'm really not suprised but i hate to think of my tax money going to produce that filth
 
I haven't watched doctor who since matt smith i heard the new doctor is some gay black dude who hates white people, i'm really not suprised but i hate to think of my tax money going to produce that filth
Well if labour stay the course you won't have a choice. They'll likely go down the route of a tax for the BBC not VAT on streaming apps. People can cancel apps. You can't cancel PAYE.
 
Had a conversation with an acquaintance who works in a nearby borough council today, in a department that is broadly responsible for youth education. Her section deals with the provision of education to undocumented and unaccompanied youth migrants. She just confirmed to me something that has been suspected for a while, but never actually proven as far as I'm aware: Official home office guidelines for these "kids" is that if they look like they're within a few years of 18, they should be treated as the age they say they are regardless of how old they actually look. No checks of any sort should be performed to ascertain their true age, as it would be considered a breach of safeguarding requirements for the treatment of children in care.
 
I haven't watched doctor who since matt smith i heard the new doctor is some gay black dude who hates white people, i'm really not suprised but i hate to think of my tax money going to produce that filth

The Doctor is black and gay, and his assistant was a troon who passes as well as any… aka not at all:

IMG_2652.jpeg

There’s also now a troon on the writing team - Juno Dawson, who once said this:

IMG_2651.jpeg
 
Someone needs to tell the dumb bastard gays kinda wanna fuck men...
I'm convinced that so many trannies are MtF because they've been brainwashed into false memories of thinking they always wanted to be a man. They all have the "I've always known I was a woman since X" story.

If you think it's far-fetched to be able to implant false memories in people, or, alter a real memory to recall something different, then I have some real shit to show you.
 
The Doctor is black and gay, and his assistant was a troon who passes as well as any… aka not at all:

View attachment 6933607

There’s also now a troon on the writing team - Juno Dawson, who once said this:

View attachment 6933589
I never thought I would say it but Russell T Davies and his common garden variety faggotry was the least awful thing on that show.
 
Those Gallagher brothers need to have their fucking balls removed for unleashing that shit to the country.
I doubt Noel could have ever thought that a song about reminiscing on a failed relationship would be turned into an anthem for “flood the country with the third world and let them kill and rape our kids” in fairness.
 
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