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.

 

[>IMPLYING]

More good news for Reform UK:

https://www.gbnews.com/politics/nigel-farage-david-jones-reform-uk-kemi-badenoch-conservatives

Archive: https://archive.ph/wip/1U4JS

A turncoat Tory who's also a freemason former-solicitor.
Wonderful.
Lmao.
I'm not worried wholly about a handful of Tory MPs joining Reform to dilute it (every Tory defector thus far has been alright if unfortunately quiet regarding Lowe) but I hope this doesn't arrest Reform's development from the bottom up regarding rhetoric.

 

[Made In Wales]

A turncoat Tory who's also a freemason former-solicitor.
Wonderful.
Lmao.
I'm not worried wholly about a handful of Tory MPs joining Reform to dilute it (every Tory defector thus far has been alright if unfortunately quiet regarding Lowe) but I hope this doesn't arrest Reform's development from the bottom up regarding rhetoric.

I don't believe that it will, though we do need younger people (Jenrick types) to join us.

@Geoff Capes Vapes Apes Well said, and this needs to be the mantra with Reform UK. A lot of the Tories know this, but dare not say it for fear of losing their seats.

As Summer progresses, I think we'll see more cross-overs into Reform UK as they are the Government-in-Waiting and whenever the call comes they will have to be ready.

We're getting to the point where most people will at least be able to reason that Reform UK will be more beneficial for them than Labour, and in many aspects we are ahead of our time here as nobody expected Labour to be this bad.

 

[Geoff Capes Vapes Apes]

I'll hold my nose and vote Reform in the absence of a more robust choice, but what's needed is Operation Communion Shoes, not civ-nat multi-cultural poofery

 

[Made In Wales]

I'll hold my nose and vote Reform in the absence of a more robust choice, but what's needed is Operation Communion Shoes, not civ-nat multi-cultural poofery

I agree, and I'm hopeful that once elected Reform UK will do this.

I can understand getting experienced heads in, but we need more young strong leaders in the ranks.

Our numbers are good, for now, and going into the recess that is going to panic Starmer (as well as a lot of other things) because at no point in recent political history has a 'minor' party outflanked and bettered the sitting Government.

Didn't happen with Churchill, Attlee, Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Wilson, Heath, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, Two Weeks Liz or Sunak, but has with Starmer.

Oh, and switch off your phones just before 3pm if you're in the UK on September 7th:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/exact-date-time-emergency-siren-32008002

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

 

[Mr Bunny]

Do you think they intentionally don't record the ethnicity of terrorists so they can deny it's a mostly brown problem?

Depends how far back they stopped recording those details, the Irish only just stopped bombing Britain 30 years ago. Besides it's only a Muslim problem now, because western governments have let them in on mass and set up shop.

Do you think the IRA would have been successful in their bombing run if Ireland was on the other side of the world rather than a 2 hour boat ride away?

 

[Made In Wales]

Depends how far back they stopped recording those details, the Irish only just stopped bombing Britain 30 years ago. Besides it's only a Muslim problem now, because western governments have let them in on mass and set up shop.

Do you think the IRA would have been successful in their bombing run if Ireland was on the other side of the world rather than a 2 hour boat ride away?

The MRCA (Muslim Republic and Caliphate Army) and their backers will very sadly be next.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

I'll hold my nose and vote Reform in the absence of a more robust choice, but what's needed is Operation Communion Shoes, not civ-nat multi-cultural poofery

It's funny because on paper it's exactly the same political situation as the last election but with the popularity of the top three parties all massively switched about:

Nobody is going to vote for the Tories for the next 10 years, and if they place third they might legitimately enter a death spiral.

Labour don't have any hardline policies other than "We're not the Tories"

Reform have some interesting ideas but a huge chunk of their policies are total fucking dogshit.

So I'm probably holding my nose and voting Reform, if only so the overton window is pushed hard enough for a further right party to come into the frame. We know for a fact that if Reform get in they're not going to listen to a single thing from Rupert Lowe's think tank (which is proposing the DEATH PENALTY of all things) out of spite, but if Farage is replaced after one term then Reform could truly go all in.

 

[teriyakiburns]

This is the ratchet effect I was talking about a few pages back. Now all government has to do is stop the '50k illegals' while waving on millions of 'legals'.

The thing is, a ratchet effect can work in both directions. Consider that we've gone from any criticism of any form of immigration being career suicide, to the BBC openly, uncritically discussing the idea of immigration limits and every party having to take a position on some form of repatriation, even if that position is "no". We're rapidly moving towards the possibility of adopting a similar policy position as Sweden on the matter. The movement will only gain momentum from there.

 

[HairyBadger]

The party that takes the bull by the horns, ignores the cries of racism and sexism and anti-transgenderism is the party that wins the next UK election.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

The thing is, a ratchet effect can work in both directions. Consider that we've gone from any criticism of any form of immigration being career suicide, to the BBC openly, uncritically discussing the idea of immigration limits and every party having to take a position on some form of repatriation, even if that position is "no". We're rapidly moving towards the possibility of adopting a similar policy position as Sweden on the matter. The movement will only gain momentum from there.

I believe that You've fallen into the ratchet effect trap. What we couldn't talk about 10+ years ago was legal migration. What we're not talking about today is legal migration.
Back then, it wasn't mentioned because it was racist. Today it's not mentioned because it's racist. We will only talk about illegal migration. Once that's dealt with, the subject of migration is put to bed, never to be revisited. Which politician is talking about deporting legals? We can't even deport fresh 'legals' who commit crimes.

Saville was used to cover up the paki rape gangs, which were gaining big traction around the time his crimes were unveiled to the public. (2012 is when it started, the same year tommy robinson started talking about paki rape gangs)

How many politicians are saying "The anti-gay crowd were right, allowing gay marriage has resulted in degeneracy and open pedophillia"? None. It's a done deal. Ironically, the only time this will be revisited is when the 'legal' migrants are running the show overtly, not covertly.

Look at the trans issue. We're not talking about how trannies are deranged and need mental health. Nope, we've declared the obvious that men are men and women are women and now the trans issue is done and dusted.

Remember the traffic light system on food to indicate what is healthy and isn't? Some great work was done in the early 2000's to push for this. Now it's never mentioned, our food isn't inspected. Now we are told "don't be fatphobic, all bodies are beautiful". The subject that our food is bad is done and dusted.

GM food, violent video games, smoking ban (because it's bad for you), 24 hour pubs (will cause societal decline and binge drinking), and on, and on, and on. Welcome to the ratchet effect fren.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Did anyone else know they were running an inquiry into the southport stabbings? And "wider issues", which of course means they're going to spend most of their time crying about internet nazis. I'm sure it'll be a whitewash, but maybe something will come out.

What we couldn't talk about 10+ years ago was legal migration.

No, discussing any immigration was all but forbidden. The only generally permitted way to mention illegals was to talk about how terrible it was for them and how the government needed to do more to help asylum seekers. Talk of sending them back was taboo. If someone with any level of public visibility stepped on that landmine, they were nuked from orbit. Careers were destroyed over it.

Besides, as I said in a roundabout way, what's being discussed now is legal migration, not just illegal. There's an obvious obsession with the boats as a proxy among many people, but when parties and the media are openly having to position themselves on not merely limits to legal migration, but on whether or not to have a policy on repatriation, that means there's been a definite shift. I know the media-political class want to shut it down and get people back to being afraid of talking about sending back illegals, but all the pressure they're applying is only hardening opinions in the opposite direction.

 

[Le b0wski]

We will only talk about illegal migration. Once that's dealt with, the subject of migration is put to bed, never to be revisited. Which politician is talking about deporting legals? We can't even deport fresh 'legals' who commit crimes.

Faked student visa and then vanish into gig economy work and overstay vastly out numbers small boat crossings. I'm sure a close 2nd is those already here buying/selling/faking paperwork/details to claim random people are extended family.

I'm sure politically it's a nightmare as to fix it they would have to essentially declare all ID documents coming out of problem countries as invalid for immigration.

 

[BongoMongo]

Student visas for undergraduate degrees need to go. Same for Masters degrees. Perhaps PhD students so long as it's an exceptional candidate from a country with like values, and a rigorous academic subject but even then that's a stretch.

It's a gateway to illegal immigration and needs stopped.

Also the university sector is grossly overinflated. Needs cutting back significantly. Degrees like music tech, fashion, journalism, have no place at all pretending to be serious academic subjects.

I don't especially care if it will affect people's jobs. Like it sucks and I'm sorry but we cannot continue as we are.

 

[Kofi Drinka]

Also the university sector is grossly overinflated. Needs cutting back significantly. Degrees like music tech, fashion, journalism, have no place at all pretending to be serious academic subjects.

I don't especially care if it will affect people's jobs. Like it sucks and I'm sorry but we cannot continue as we are.

Most of those are getting hit by AI any way.

Reforms biggest problem is they're a protest vote. People don't want a reform government, they want to use reform as a battering ram for their issues to enter the major parties. Which is silly because common sense will tell you that the major parties will pay lip service and bury the issue. It's all they have done and all they will do. They're too busy fighting over the brown vote to take any actions. I hope the general public doesn't falter at the final hurdle because they don't want Reform in power and think they have scared the conservatives into acting more like Reform. It would be the worst result possible and like Brexit all over again.

 

[Le b0wski]

Student visas for undergraduate degrees need to go. Same for Masters degrees. Perhaps PhD students so long as it's an exceptional candidate from a country with like values, and a rigorous academic subject but even then that's a stretch.

It's a gateway to illegal immigration and needs stopped.

Also the university sector is grossly overinflated. Needs cutting back significantly. Degrees like music tech, fashion, journalism, have no place at all pretending to be serious academic subjects.

I don't especially care if it will affect people's jobs. Like it sucks and I'm sorry but we cannot continue as we are.

I don't see any way it's stopped outside just entirely stopping the visas. Even with the idea of an exceptional candidate or very specific skills/requirements they just fake whatever qualifications are needed to submit the paperwork and then vanish once the plane lands.

Most of those are getting hit by AI any way.

The degree sector is grossly inflated as it's a way of bumping the unemployment stats by 5+ years. They aren't getting hit by AI as a split degree in renaissance art history and business studies or whatever from a university nobody has ever heard of wasn't getting anyone a job. I do wonder if it's a sign of the bigger picture of shrinking numbers of skilled opportunities, blind leading the blind middle management being replaced by algorithms.

 

[the printer is outo fink]

Student visas for undergraduate degrees need to go. Same for Masters degrees. Perhaps PhD students so long as it's an exceptional candidate from a country with like values, and a rigorous academic subject but even then that's a stretch.

It's a gateway to illegal immigration and needs stopped.

It will be a very long time before this happens. Foreign students generally pay more than twice the fees of domestic students, on top of which they guarantee uptake of university housing. Universities in the west are all financially unviable without foreign students, mostly from India and China. It's nothing to do with academia and all to do with money.

There is no actual reason it should be a gateway to permanent immigration though. The Home Office could just be really strict. You get a 1-4 year visa depending on your course and that's it. After that, you take your qualification and you go home. It should be harder to get a working visa following on from a student visa. Getting past the ID hurdle is an issue, but yes, ensure ID is valid, if that means saying IDs from a particular country are dodgy, so be it. There is no reason that a proper ID scheme with both India and China, can't be worked out. Just those two along with students from other western countries would be more than enough to keep universities running.

The other issue with foreign students and the one that is just as serious as immigration. Is the issue of grade deflation. Increasingly, even on hug boxes like reddit, you see native students (particularly in fields like Engineering or Sciences) discussing how their courses are becoming too easy to pass. The pointlessness of lectures and labs that are adapted to class where a significant number of the students do not have fluent English, and learning is absolutely stymied. It makes their degrees worthless and they know it. They came to learn and prove they learned, but they know they are graduating with vast gaps in their knowledge and employers know it too.

 

[The Crack Spiders Bitch]

Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but the establishment political parties will never "fix" the university visa loophole.
It's not broken - it's designed that way.

They know that the "students" paying for these university degrees are only doing this to get residency visas.
They're okay with this because they know that they're getting a slave class out of it, that increases the property prices, and needs to buy things like clothes, food, or home appliances.
They're fine with having these brown slaves come and be extra taxpayers.

You can't tell me that the UK, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand governments are at a total loss of what to do about the numbers of people coming in on student visas.
We have the most international students in the world and remittance is the 4th largest Australian export:

But they're looking at taxing pensions funds now instead of taxing remittance.

 

[Kofi Drinka]

Stop all foreign education. Focus on educating our own. We need lots of highly educated people in many jobs and the only way to do it at the best quality is to stop foreigners ballooning class sizes.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

No, discussing any immigration was all but forbidden. The only generally permitted way to mention illegals was to talk about how terrible it was for them and how the government needed to do more to help asylum seekers. Talk of sending them back was taboo. If someone with any level of public visibility stepped on that landmine, they were nuked from orbit. Careers were destroyed over it.

Maybe we're using different definitions for what level of tolerance was acceptable when discussing migration, because I remember Cameron running on a platform of lowering the number of migrants coming into the country.
2005ish, and maybe before, there was an outcry over Polish migrants because dey tuk arr jerbs. Here's an article from 2007 discussing deporting 1000 illegals.

Here's Michael Howard in 2005 calling for a migration cap.
(What's a kick in the nuts is looking how far back all of this was discussed, how everything is now worse and how little old discussion of introducing caps and off-shore processing centres there is. Those topics would see the end of a political career in today's age.)

And here's a comparison of the tories and labour from 2024 and their stances on various forms of migration. Labour say "welcome everyone" and the tories say "illegal migration bad. normal migration good"

I'm sure if I scoured old episodes of Mock the Week and HIGNFY, there would episodes discussing the high rate of migration at 100,000 a year.

The conversation of introducing caps and reducing legal migration in general - without the caveats of; if they have a family, a visa, earn certain money or come from certain countries, has all bust disappeared, the amount of migration that is occuring, regardless of said caveats, has increased to the point where migration levels in 2005 seem almost laughably incorrect. In the article above, Howard says that 8,000 of the 40,000 applications a year(!!!) that are received are falsified.
Let that sink in. 20 years ago we were complaining about 40,000 legal applications a year.

TL;DR I have to disagree that previous discussions of reducing legal migration were career enders, when they were main platforms that political parties run on. In 2024 both main parties discussed, and focused on, illegal migration, while hand-waving 'legal' migration away by "referring to industry bodies" and "it's within X guidelines". The only policy they stuck to was reducing net migration, because 500,000 Brits a year have fucked off abroad, skewing the numbers to make it look like fewer people entered the country. The replacement theory is real.

TL;DR the TL;DR - We have too many niggers, wogs and pakis and the governments do not want to change it.

 

[>IMPLYING]

Student visas for undergraduate degrees need to go. Same for Masters degrees. Perhaps PhD students so long as it's an exceptional candidate from a country with like values, and a rigorous academic subject but even then that's a stretch.

It's a gateway to illegal immigration and needs stopped.

Also the university sector is grossly overinflated. Needs cutting back significantly. Degrees like music tech, fashion, journalism, have no place at all pretending to be serious academic subjects.

I don't especially care if it will affect people's jobs. Like it sucks and I'm sorry but we cannot continue as we are.

Limit what degrees the state will provide loans for. That's probably the most "safe" way to do that, akin to how banning non-stun slaughter is an implicit way to attack Muslims and Jews. Restrict finance to STEM degrees or something, and that should cull a great deal of courses and students from the system. A lot of universities are publicly owned anyway, and publicly owned bodies ought to have sensible spending practices.

You could also make them all private, in theory, forcing them to make sensible choices when it comes to the courses they have on offer to not fuck their budget, but I'd be semi-worried that we could risk becoming like America where the faculty and leadership entrench and enable ideological subversion — more so than they're doing currently anyway. Or they'd find some way to meet their expenditures through subversives or something since foreigners who come here are flush with cash and inexplicably leftist.

I'd posit students, both domestic and abroad, are probably the most over-influential bloc in the country and they need their numbers reducing, which mirrors the same sentiments I've got for non-natives in general.

Another thing we could do, which also counts as a "safe"/implicit-attack, is redefine what constitutes "skilled labour" to qualify for a work visa. Right now it's just if you make over 30-39k a year. However this can easily be fudged by a malicious actor: Paki getting his cousin a 5-year stay in the country by having him work in his takeaway in a "manager" role for 30k+ on the books, whilst he double-dips into Deliveroo/uber to make up the difference of minimum wage (assuming he's even being paid that). Make the qualifications more specific to ensure "we're getting the best value for our money" or something, tighten it up to a prohibitive degree and that's one "legal" avenue for immigration sorted.

I'd personally opt for a moratorium on handing out any new visas for 5 to 20 years until we've been sorted out. Immigrants were basically a crutch anyway to not properly address the issues that arose following the contraction of our economy in the 80s. I'd love to see the timeline where our borders were kept narrow to see the differences. I imagine a market-set £4.50 hourly wage, the average house price being 56k, and tolerable taxes. I think we would've become like some Eastern European country, not too wealthy but also not destitute, but still steadily rising.

Fuck Blair, fuck Thatcher, fuck Callaghan, fuck Reagan, and fuck Deng.