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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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


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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.
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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.
 
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Chunky Salsa said:
But no for real, he's legit a sociopath, or a psychopath or however you want to say 'shark in a people suit'. There's genuinely nothing in that man, the interview he did where he casually admitted that he's never really felt fear, that he has no hobbies, doesn't have a favourite anything, and his interaction with his children is a transactional information seeking thing showed that. He's a husk.
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He's a middle manager. That's what the country makes now. Beady eyed middle managers. They run everything and no one wants to shove them in a bin and tell them to fuck off.
 
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Kofi Drinka said:
He's a middle manager. That's what the country makes now. Beady eyed middle managers. They run everything and no one wants to shove them in a bin and tell them to fuck off.
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Yeah, it's grim hearing my friends talk about their job. I was lucky, I have a job in the sciences, I do research, I only really deal with engineers or scientists and the odd HR nightmare. Hearing about the passive aggressive dead eyed retardation that goes on every day at seemingly every other job is wild to me..
 
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the printer is outo fink said:
Non governmental organisations should never get a penny of state funding. Their name states they are not part of government, which is blatant bullshit if they are financed largely by the state.
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Including and especially media, even from advertising.

It had been setting my alarm bells even pre COVID but during and after the amount of media advertising being done by random government bodies, departments, ministries etc seems to have shot through the fucking roof.

I'm fully convinced it's part of the consent manufacturing machinery that there's so much government money buying ad space for inane "remember next month is national random appreciation day for X day" and "remember to turn off the cooker before going to bed" PSA style messages, it simply has to be colouring the editorial room, even if not explicitly buying it.

If it's that damn important, send out a text message or pay the mail to put a flyer in the door

Edit: words
 
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Made In Wales said:
It's amazing that Kiwi Farms has some genuinely VERY smart and sharp minds resident, and no I'm not just saying that for effect - there's some great people and great discussions here.
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If everyone of the smart minds on here joined their local branch of Reform or local parties, they'd probably become the most competent MP in their district for generations, the only issue is that we would see our houses targeted, our lives destroyed, the people we know and love abandon us etc.

Made In Wales said:
Whilst @Chunky Salsa is right in that there's nothing I can do directly, I'm part of the 'Far Right' - I mock the opposition, I comment upon their stupidity, I do more than my fair share of Whatiffery and try to look three moves ahead. What I don't do is threaten the lives of MP's (as some on the Far Left are doing and may well sadly do, because it's their way or the highway) or threaten to bring air travel to a halt, derail trains or whatever other crass plans they have in mind.
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Granted that Labour are going to cling to power kicking and screaming for the next four years, here's what you can do to ensure you're safe while actively protesting the government:

1) Legally avoid paying as much tax as possible: Whether that involves putting as much as you can into an ISA or salary sacrificing into a SIPP. The funny thing is you could probably even do illegal tax evasion at this point as there's probably two HMRC folk in your county, but to ensure you're able to keep your vote it's not a wise decision to save a few grand.

2) Find a way of expressing your views with anonymity: You're doing that right now by KF requiring a VPN or Tor to fucking access this site. They hate you and will do anything they can to destroy you, but they will only ever go after soft targets.

3) Get educated on the legal frameworks of this country and use it against them, I sent a few strongly worded letters to my local MP about a potential asylum hotel, citing that it disregards the basic principle of safeguarding, something that would get a teacher or any government official into serious trouble if they just simply let something slip. Obviously it went straight into the junk mail folder but make them aware that there are people who oppose their way of thinking and have the knowledge to back it up. These receipts will come in handy in the future if the Overton window goes any further, as you will be able to destroy their lives by showing that they knew the risks of what they did.

4) Loosely related to 1, put a small amount of money into crypto, not as an investment but to pay for things that you don't want traced back to you. Donate to political parties, use it to buy VPNs, use it to buy seedboxes to ensure that you don't have any direct filesharing content being traced back to your IP. If they believe you're a bad person they will throw literally any charges at you to ensure you're fucked for thoughtcrime.

5) Most importantly, don't go to prison. If you go to prison you cannot vote. I know it's tempting to throw a brick through a window or go to a march or PL in public, but this is a government who not only actively hates you, but wants you to fucking die. They warned people last Summer that if they didn't plead guilty they'd be in cells with Muslims and violent offenders, then turned around, gave them zero leniency and still imprisoned them.
 
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Clem Fandango said:
Fucking yes, man. Bookmarking this post for later. And again, for the avoidance of doubt, I want to be wrong. So I hope I am wearing this avi at some point.
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I could put my guy in a pasty or something.
Greggsa.webp
I don't know what the fuck it did with his face. Makes him look more annoyed though, which might be more appropriate considering the context it'll be worn in.

My percentage for a GE taking place before 2029 is, like, 10% and even then the offset is by a year or something (2028 ). I'm torn on whether it'd be better for people to get angrier and angrier or whether getting Labour out ASAP is desired. So long as somebody new comes to power, the better IMO. If you set the precedent that you don't need be Labour or Conservative to lead the government, people might be more willing to give new parties a chance if they look more determined to solve the people's more pressing issue.

1. My main fear with Reform winning a majority in 2029 is Tory MPs just abandoning their party to join Reform having seen the Conservatives as definitively sunk, assuming either Badenoch has been replaced by this point. If they lose with Badenoch, they may attribute their loss to her perhaps and go further right-wing, which can't hurt. If they lost with Jenrick they might consider the party dead and flee. Assuming Reform achieve a majority, barely, the Tories left who join might outnumber the actual hardliners on immigration and Islam within Reform, and effectively just convert the party into the Tories with a fresh coat of paint I.E. doing exactly what Farage wants. But so far the precedent for that hasn't really happened since every Tory MP who joined Reform has been alright with their rhetoric (even Lowe was formerly a Tory if you recall) so it could go either way.

2. My main fear with an early GE however is people not being quite there yet to vote them in despite their polling and performance in local elections. Even if they're just shy of a majority and/or built up to a higher figure from their lowly five, Labour might have an avenue to coalition with the Lib Dems, SNP, Greens, or all 3. Furthermore, one analysis of Badenoch offering to vote on the welfare bill with Starmer I didn't consider is the Conservatives opening a route for the dreaded Labour-Tory coalition, which has foreign precedent, like in Germany with the CDU/SPD. It could be a double-edged sword however, because like Germany, a bolstered Reform lets people see they're actually viable like the AFD. Consequently, they have to suffer through more inaction until the next GE which'll probably be sometime after 2030, which might allow for the rhetoric to heat up in double time but also gives time for the government to be even more draconian.

3. Another fear I have is Labour somehow doing enough to calm people down by 2029 so Reform will drop down into being fringe again, or something to that effect and people will just put their hopes back in the Conservatives. They're also being helped by the likes of Laurence Fox who want to go back to the Conservatives wholesale because Farage is shit (people need to stop viewing our politics through American lenses, prime ministers are not the executive who have ultimate say, they don't even dictate the general politics of their party like they do in America) and because they fail to take account of internal party factions who want one thing in opposition to the other. There are Conservatives who want mass immigration for the supposed economical benefits it brings (like Mogg, R.I.P) and still earnestly believe that's the case, and think a cap on the numbers will hurt the UK economy — mirage that it currently is. But I digress. We cannot return to the Labour v Tory paradigm again regardless.

4. Another, very less likely fear but still possible is Farage leaving the party before a GE where they could become a majority, which may come as the result of non-Halal MPs outnumbering him and his faction considerably in a successful but not victorious early GE by Labour, and then him doing the whole "It's not the party I created" schtick and abandoning it like UKIP and then shitting on it to push people away. It may kill party momentum and, assuming a majority of Reform's voters are operating on "Our Nige" + "Pakis out" logic, removing Farage might give them less assurance and go back to Labour or the Tories. Only when Reform have won a majority do I think Farage can comfortably leave it.

5. My final big fear is that Reform are currently at their peak and so without an early GE, the chance of them winning decreases every year closer we get to the election date. The right-wing will be split between Conservatives and Reform, who optimistically will coalition if Labour are short enough of seats (party with the most seats is usually the primary candidate to decide the creation of a coalition, not the fastest to make one beforehand) but then if they squabble and do nothing to fix things, then faith in both will decline and then Labour will just win again and then we're rather buggered. I think it's the scenario I see the bleakest outlook with, but there does remain the isolate possibility that this coalition would do a good job and enough private members bills (the bills MPs can propose beside ministers - recent example is the assisted dying bill and abortions up to birth bill) will be proposed and passed that things will get better.

Smaller things that may negatively affect things and less likely but not outright impossible things.:
1. JD Vance being more openly critical of the UK's free speech (or lack thereof), making any parties professing political kinship with America suffer as a consequence (mostly based on Canadian election outcome)
2. Anti-immigrant sentiments dying out somehow prior to 2029. I can only imagine this occurring as the result of drastic action by Labour, but instead of taking us out of the cauldron entirely we're just back to slow boiling in it.
3. Reform MPs turning up the rhetoric so hot that Farage kicks them out, fully cementing his new party status quo of pre-2008 liberal with some economically conservative overtures that makes their victory ultimately hollow if achieved (assuming new MPs don't just overturn that sentiment right away) or impossible to achieve to begin with.
4. Reform winning majority, having a majority if based MPs with a sufficiently cowed Farage, who then go on to do absolutely nothing.
5. Starmer gets gets involved in a death-war (war larger than bombing some sand people in the Middle East) that warrants a postponing of the election entirely, or the election goes ahead anyway but people vote for Labour for reasons of stability.

If there's an early GE before 2027 or 2028, I'll don the savoury pastry suit.
 
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Chunky Salsa said:
Yeah, it's grim hearing my friends talk about their job. I was lucky, I have a job in the sciences, I do research, I only really deal with engineers or scientists and the odd HR nightmare. Hearing about the passive aggressive dead eyed retardation that goes on every day at seemingly every other job is wild to me..
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You mean you can't imagine being given orders by some middle aged suck up in a suit ?
This runs through my head pretty much every day at work....


It's not the meek that have inherited the Earth, it's the arse licking yes man. Virtually every person at this level has no real intelligence or ability, but just an unrelenting acquiescence to any humiliating demand the corporate beast makes. That's why they raise obviously forced supportive comments at Gay / Black / Women's Day or whatever minority cause it is that we're forced to listen to. They call it playing the game. I call it sucking corporate cock. It's a shame for them that I'm so much better at calculating and explaining complex financial returns than they are.
 
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Chunky Salsa said:
But no for real, he's legit a sociopath, or a psychopath or however you want to say 'shark in a people suit'. There's genuinely nothing in that man, the interview he did where he casually admitted that he's never really felt fear, that he has no hobbies, doesn't have a favourite anything, and his interaction with his children is a transactional information seeking thing showed that. He's a husk.
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The banality of evil at its blandest
 
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>IMPLYING said:
My percentage for a GE taking place before 2029 is, like, 10% and even then the offset is by a year or something (2028 ). I'm torn on whether it'd be better for people to get angrier and angrier or whether getting Labour out ASAP is desired. So long as somebody new comes to power, the better IMO. If you set the precedent that you don't need be Labour or Conservative to lead the government, people might be more willing to give new parties a chance if they look more determined to solve the people's more pressing issue.
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Yeah at most they might boot Starmer as appeasement but Labour back benchers actually having a vote of no confidence and kicking their leader basically never happens due to the fact they all famously have no testicles, never mind ever getting another general election.

Labour has the super majority in parliament and there's no way in hell they will ever risk losing it. if anything they know how unpopular they are right now, what will happen come 2029 so they are going to push through as much swill as they can because they know Reform and certainly the Tories wont or will barely undo any of it. For that reason I think we should have Labour until 2029. Let everyone learn just why Labour had such a piss poor reputation after Blair so that this party is never voted in ever again, even better when the Tories go crashing and burning along with them.
 
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The only thing which would force Starmer out would be something coming out about how much and often he has actively fought to keep absolute vermin in this country. And even then it's a stretch.

And even if he was booted Labour are going nowhere. They've been gagging for ages to get back in, they've got their orders from Davos and they'll sell their kids, their parents and anything they hold dear to remain in Government.

And regarding Government advertising on media: there's a whole Army unit set up to do exactly that.
 
Some latest tidbits from GB News:

Ford forced to recall 1.3 million cars for serious issues including urgent 'do not drive' warning:

Archive: https://archive.ph/wip/5wWx1

Three is DOWN: Millions unable to make phone calls or send texts, as firm says 'working hard to fix this':

Archive: https://archive.ph/wip/9oRwr

Christian shut down by police for preaching gospel in London fears surge of two-tier religion with 'heavy persecution' on the rise in Britain: 'They’re NOT going for Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists':

Archive: https://archive.ph/4V2NU

McDonald's chemical attack: Six people injured after four men spray mystery substance at staff and customers:

Archive: https://archive.ph/T4kMh
 
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Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
I just want Labour to last the full 5 years so people who go "Well the Tories had 14 years so how do you expect Labour to..." can shut the fuck up, as if absolutely nothing is fixed withing FIVE WHOLE YEARS there's no point in them getting any more time.
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Unfortunately, those blinkered people will never change their point of view.

They are pretty much lolcow doomsday cultists at this point - only they are right and can ever be right.

I wrote a parody about them a while back called 'The Great Brain Robbery' (which, shameless plug, is over on the Music thread somewhere). Like you, I wish they'd shut up, but they never will.

Some good news though (potentially) as the Chagos Islands saga takes another turn:


Oh and the Labour MP rebels aren't going to back down (130 at least) and the only thing now which can save Starmer's blushes is Lindsay Hoyle refusing to put it forward.

Way to checkmate yourself, Keef!
 
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Tom Nook's Gloryhole said:
3) Get educated on the legal frameworks of this country and use it against them, I sent a few strongly worded letters to my local MP about a potential asylum hotel, citing that it disregards the basic principle of safeguarding, something that would get a teacher or any government official into serious trouble if they just simply let something slip. Obviously it went straight into the junk mail folder but make them aware that there are people who oppose their way of thinking and have the knowledge to back it up. These receipts will come in handy in the future if the Overton window goes any further, as you will be able to destroy their lives by showing that they knew the risks of what they did.
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The right and especially far right need to do lawfare. A lot of the laws protecting illegals are illegal themselves and so is a lot of the anti-discrimination stuff. We've started to see it in American and we should see it here. Get a few right wing lawyer types willing to band together and throw law suits at everything. It only takes a couple of lawyers to force all the diversity stuff to justify it's self and a lot of it will fall on racism grounds.
 
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teriyakiburns said:
Guess we'll be getting belted and roaded before long. In fact I'm not sure we aren't already...
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My schizo optimism is that this is China asking us to to invest in them. When Trump implemented his tariffs he forced the immediate transfer of some manufacturing out of China into India. The big one is Apple, not sure of others, but it is happening. Meanwhile the chat tat producers can't sell to America anymore whilst making an easy profit because tariffs have closed that window.
Reuters corroborates the point I'm getting at: China's factories slow, consumers unexpectedly perk up

This isn't a "China's collapsing" thing, it's more a "China is probably gonna go through the West's late 70s and 80s". I think domestic manufacturers are going to sell at reduced prices to the domestic market to keep up their revenues as rich foreign companies relocate elsewhere to escape high tariffs. Similar to what we went through when our industries left for China, they're likely to see a rise in unemployment and reduced consumer spending that'll impact them severely. Even though their goods go all over the place, America was still the primary market for their manufacturing output and now exports to America have dropped 35-40%. The only reason this hasn't hit us all that hard is America has exemptions on stuff like electronics and computers (consoles got hit because they weren't in the list of exclusions - I think Trump hates vidya anyway) and most of the stuff we actually import from China is exactly that:
1750874685296.webp

An optimistic outcome if China loses a ton of jobs to India and their neighbours is that they'll be left in the rather uncomfortable position most of the West has been for decades: begging for foreign investment and conceding more to international corporations (tax, regulation to kill local competition) at the expense of the people to have them stay and provide jobs, all the while their economy tanks as they try to implement neoliberal economic practices in a fascistic-communist system and massively expand their equivalent of welfare and benefits to keep the mass unemployed from initiating strikes or protests. It took 40 to 45 years for the West to finally get revenge on Deng! Unlikely, but a man can dream.

Kofi Drinka said:
The right and especially far right need to do lawfare. A lot of the laws protecting illegals are illegal themselves and so is a lot of the anti-discrimination stuff. We've started to see it in American and we should see it here. Get a few right wing lawyer types willing to band together and throw law suits at everything. It only takes a couple of lawyers to force all the diversity stuff to justify it's self and a lot of it will fall on racism grounds.
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I complained about this here.
There are straight up groups in this country whose sole intent is to undermine our borders and help illegals to stay. The easiest way to do this is just by having the illegal renounce their citizenship and effectively, as a result of laws passed under Blair, our hands are tied legally. That law is the Human Rights Act 1998, which basically absorbed the European Court of Human Rights' laws into our own. It’s a fucked backstop — even if we left the ECHR, their laws are still a part of ours. It's how lawyers can enforce the ECHR in British courts and it needs excising immediately.

The law in that regard fucks us up a ton and until that one specifically is removed lawfare can't fix it. Essentially if someone is considered a security risk, has their citizenship revoked, but appeals, they're treated as having never lost it until after the appeal, the window of which they can just renounce their home country's citizenship become stateless and then stay in perpetuity.

Fortunately, in the post I linked to, a bill was introduced this month to try and close that loophole; someone can't just stay as a British citizen until the end of their appeal, they'll have to be deported first and make their case abroad.
 
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Some late night updates:

'Monstrosity' mosque sparks local row as protesters take action over £2.5million development

Archive: https://archive.ph/SV5h5

'Wild West' council plots charging £70 for residents to park outside own homes in Bournemouth

Archive: https://archive.ph/wip/APxsb

Keir Starmer's socialist past EXPOSED as left-wing pamphlet backs 'capitalist' UK giving up nuclear weapons

Archive: https://archive.ph/wip/ib63k
 
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Kofi Drinka said:
2.5 million so 40-50 "doctors" can pray some where sounds like bullshit.

What are knights Templar flags and how do I get one on a motor bike jacket?
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It is BS but the idiots who are funding it are 'converts' doing it to piss people off (they've more or less admitted it on X).

They've already been told 'it'll be bombed to shit' on day one.

Oh, is this a shift in the tide...

Archive: https://archive.ph/wip/YCoqs

'Vote for Reform UK
We're gonna send them back!
Get all the migrants on boats;
Send them all home!
We'll send them all home
We'll send them all home!
Let's tell them 'fuck off!'
Let's send them all home!'
 
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