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."

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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.

 

[BrightonAndHoveAlbion]

Interestingly I haven't seen anything about this new Act on Tattle Life - the meaner version of Mumsnet. Since they are the middle ground between Mumsnet and KF, I would have thought that they would definitely been stung by this. Anyone who uses it more often than me know of anything behind the scenes ?

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

While it still lasts Mumsnet flagged up the very sane and rational reaction of the Vice Chancellor at the University of Sussex to being told they oppressed free speech.

https://archive.ph/ZT9KC

The Office for Students' so-called investigation into the University I represent was flawed and politically motivated. The implications for the higher education sector could be dire.
How can universities protect academic freedom and freedom of speech on matters of fierce disagreement? The Office for Students will tomorrow (Wednesday, 26 March) give its answer: fining the University of Sussex for two historic breaches of ‘conditions of registration’.
Sussex is far from the only university to face challenges navigating contested issues, but has been the sole focus of attention from the higher education regulator and is explicitly and deliberately being made an example to other universities. The fine, £585,000, is 15 times larger than any other sanction it has imposed.
The OfS opened an investigation on 22 October 2021, around the time of Professor Kathleen Stock’s resignation from the University in response to protests against her work on gender critical theory. The University has never wavered from its position that her beliefs are lawful and that her academic freedom and freedom of speech should be protected. We have consistently and publicly defended her right to pursue her academic work and express her lawful beliefs and deeply regretted her decision to leave. 

On 21 March 2024, after two and a half years, the OfS made a wide range of provisional findings against Sussex. In the final decision, the OfS abandoned, without any explanation, most of its provisional findings, reduced its original penalty by nearly half, and dropped additional regulatory requirements on the University.
The OfS has not investigated the circumstances that led to Professor Stock’s resignation; it does not have the powers to do this. It insists it was ‘impartial and view-point-neutral', but it has not talked to anyone apart from Professor Stock. The investigation was otherwise entirely desk-based — trawling hundreds of university documents and webpages, reviewing policies, statements, guidance, and minutes to find potential breaches of the conditions of registration to which higher education providers must adhere. 
The OfS repeatedly refused to hold any substantive meeting with the University. The only such meeting ever scheduled was unilaterally cancelled by the OfS. We repeatedly asked for feedback to ensure compliance without response.



Eventually, the OfS has found two historic breaches. One relates to a two-page statement intended to protect the welfare of transgender staff and students, and the second to the University’s way of approving a small number of documents.
We will strongly contest these findings and have grave concerns about the implications of its decisions for students and staff, especially those from minoritised groups.
More immediately, we must speak out about the OfS’s conduct. The regulator warned the University not to speak publicly during the investigation, meaning I was unable to testify to the Lords’ Industry and Regulators Committee Inquiry into the OfS.
Now I am free to say I recognise its findings that this regulator has failed to win the sector’s trust or free itself of the culture wars agenda of the previous government.  
Our experience reflects closely the committee’s observations that it “gives the impression that it is seeking to punish rather than support providers towards compliance, while taking little note of their views.” The OfS has indeed shown itself to be “arbitrary, overly controlling and unnecessarily combative”, to be failing to deliver value for money and is not focusing on the urgent problem of the financial sustainability of the sector.
The suspicion must be that this was a partisan scapegoating. The sadness is that this might have had a very different conclusion. Sussex will not be the last to face the challenge of a debate on gender, sex and identity that has become toxic. Universities across England are grappling with claims and counterclaims about academic freedom and freedom of speech regarding issues of equality, identity and inclusion. As the protests against the war in Gaza have shown, universities will continue to be a frontline for society’s most contentious issues.
 A supportive and thoughtful regulator might collaborate to identify and understand shared challenges and develop good practice on academic freedom, freedom of speech and institutional culture in relation to equalities issues. Sussex stands ready to help deliver that support, drawing on our experience over recent years.  
Levying a wholly disproportionate fine after a flawed, politically motivated, and wasteful investigation — when the higher education sector is in financial crisis — serves no one. 

Professor Sasha Roseneil is Vice Chancellor of the University of Sussex.

I'm especially impressed by her attempt to drag "Free Palestine!" into the conversation as though it relates in any way to to the topic.

 

[Not A Cat Person]

"The University has never wavered from its position that her beliefs are lawful and that her academic freedom and freedom of speech should be protected. We have consistently and publicly defended her right to pursue her academic work and express her lawful beliefs and deeply regretted her decision to leave."

I have some doubts about that.

 

[Mister Fister]

I do wonder if eventually the UK will just be like China in it's own, some how even worse and gayer, little bubble. Cut off from the rest of the internet because Andrew Tate exists and our elite hate that.

Worse than China, China at least cares for Chinese.

 

[pangolins]

Interestingly I haven't seen anything about this new Act on Tattle Life - the meaner version of Mumsnet. Since they are the middle ground between Mumsnet and KF, I would have thought that they would definitely been stung by this. Anyone who uses it more often than me know of anything behind the scenes ?

I'm not extremely in the loop, but they have previously had some issues with ignoring letters about cookies back in September but can't find anything from after that. Based on that it wouldn't suprise me if they are in the habit of ignoring things until they can't get away with it. They were apparently in the top 100 websites in the UK according to the ICO.

 

[Coolio55]

What other Tor sites do you recommend now that everyone is using it?
I like the comic site: http://nv3x2jozywh63fkohn5mwp2d73vasusjixn3im3ueof52fmbjsigw6ad.onion/

 

[Overdrive]

Just a reminder if you already have a Proton mail account you can use their free tier of Proton vpn with the same login details. Just download to whatever device you have and log in.

Also fuck every member of the govt from '45 onwards I hope those that aren't dead join those that are asap.

 

[Joe_Welch]

I just want to laugh at cows and call prince Harry a nigger, but I mustn't be allowed to do that because it would offend some histrionic, delusional, Guardian reader's delicate fucking sensibilities.

I hate this country so fucking much it's unreal.

 

[Kier Starmer]

I suspect the banning of sites with seep in slowly cascading. I think they will go for X but it will have massive blowback.

To the screeching Guardian reader who is shrilling victory - NIGGER!

 

[6MillionCoofs]

By restricting the site's reach to those with a VPN or TOR,

If you are in the UK you get a splash page telling you to download an app - because Tor has one - and put in a web address.

And majority uses phones anyway.

If you can’t download an app or paste a web url how were you even browsing the farms in the first place?

 

[Big Judge Cock]

Who in the UK would come here without a VPN? You're asking for a visit from plod otherwise. Got a licence for your opinions?

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Phone posting on the farms with no VPN or TOR?
Fucks Given : None.

Seriously, get a VPN you tight bastards. You can pirate for free and legally with a VPN.

 

[6MillionCoofs]

I suspect the banning of sites with seep in slowly cascading. I think they will go for X but it will have massive blowback.

To the screeching Guardian reader who is shrilling victory - NIGGER!

Good luck with that. X is the most used news source on the planet and the majority of UK buissnesses have customer support and help routed through it at a minimum

Going after X would cripple a lot of things.

 

[Kier Starmer]

Exactly that craven bitch Yvette is itching to but it is political and social suicide.

 

[Coolio55]

Good luck with that. X is the most used news source on the planet and the majority of UK buissnesses have customer support and help routed through it at a minimum

Going after X would cripple a lot of things.

Future vision of the UK Govt setting up their own X but with reasonable restrictions and duty of care and it's just a shitty fedi instance that gets instantly flooded with crap because they're all rubbish.

 

[6MillionCoofs]

Exactly that craven bitch Yvette is itching to but it is political and social suicide.

And that’s before you even get to Musk doing apnything in response…

Picking a fight with the dude that probably controls your net and satalities as a side quest or feasablely could with his connections is a very bad idea. To put it nicely.

And that is only step 1.

Future vision of the UK Govt setting up their own X but with reasonable restrictions and duty of care and it's just a shitty fedi instance that gets instantly flooded with crap because they're all rubbish.

That’s exactly what will happen. The UK does not haove the stuff to pull it off because the Gov is still running old tech.

This is what happens if you rely on another country, the second you want to fuck with it it becomes impossible without you taking damage because you have not built yourself up.

 

[>IMPLYING]

Ofcom:

TV Licence.

 

[Mister Fister]

Future vision of the UK Govt setting up their own X but with reasonable restrictions and duty of care and it's just a shitty fedi instance that gets instantly trolled by Americans

fixed for you

 

[Plastic Bag]

If I was living in the lead up to Soviet Union or North Korea I would attempt to escape before it got worse, that's how I feel right now.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Who do you think retard? I think you're taking him far too seriously with the whole "i fucking hate british people" shit. Like, I'm sure he doesn't like us but not to the extent where it's like "don't even come to my fucking website in fact how about i give your government your data? " level of disliking.

Nah, I'm pretty sure he does hate us. The English invented Cheddar, after all.

We went from "lul, fuck the uk govt, they can't do shit to the farms" to "you need a vpn to access the farms", in about 1 hour.

I think he's doing that for our own protection more than anything. The government can get ISPs to tell them what sites you're accessing on clearnet, even if the content itself is protected with TLS, so anyone accessing KF without some form of tunneling is painting a target on his back. I'm sure he'll re-assess this in a few months and loosen restrictions again, but it's generally a good idea to avoid accessing controversial sites on clearnet regardless.

I've finally figured out mullvad and wireguard (in a slightly convoluted way) so I'm quids in.

Ofcom:
View attachment 7140069

TV Licence.
View attachment 7140070

I wanted to point out the similarity to him, but I think it might fall on deaf ears.