UK British News Megathread - aka CWCissey's news thread

https://news.sky.com/story/row-over-new-greggs-vegan-sausage-rolls-heats-up-11597679 (https://archive.ph/5Ba6o)

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.

 

[FedPostalService]

It's just soundbites put out there to try and see if there's any poll movement before they get rid of Starmer. Also an intentional distraction to try and make the days until the budget seem shorter and less bloody.

Would be quite funny if Streeting became PM through the back door. Oh, said the actor to the bishop.

View attachment 8176843

I'm repeating myself, but I really hope Streeting is the heir so absolutely ever fucker who has flirted with Islamists in order to win power has to back an absolute haram leader.

 

[Product Placement]

Streeting is the worst pick for the Labour PM replacement. Even if Labour manages to win the next election, he would not win his seat. Wes Streeting only won his seat by 528 votes this time. Next time, especially if he was a bigger target like being made PM would make him, he is going to lose with just tactical voting against him.

 

[BongoMongo]

Streeting is the worst pick for the Labour PM replacement. Even if Labour manages to win the next election, he would not win his seat. Wes Streeting only won his seat by 528 votes this time. Next time, especially if he was a bigger target like being made PM would make him, he is going to lose with just tactical voting against him.

The Friday club would never have him,ever. If they pick a faggot for PM then the mudslimes will defect en masse from Labour.

I think that Labour know this and would it intentionally to split the vote.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Can you imagine Rayner as the Prime Minister? UK will be the laughing stock of the world.

(Yes, yes, all you people replying "it already is". You're very smart).

I'm far too smart to say that.

Charity trying to become a landlord. I smell tax payer subsidies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0ex5r4q82qo

https://archive.ph/LavFO

The charity Crisis is to become a landlord for the first time in its history, saying it is now "nearly impossible" to find housing for homeless people.

Chief executive Matt Downie said the charity was planning to buy its own housing stock because the shortage of social housing and the cost of renting from private landlords meant this was the "only option left".

It comes as new research by Crisis found nearly 300,000 families and individuals in England are experiencing the worst forms of homelessness - a 21% increase since 2022.

The government says it is investing more than £1bn in homelessness services this year, while also promising "the biggest boost to social housebuilding in a generation".
Under the initiative, which was first reported by the Guardian newspaper, external, Crisis is hoping to buy 100 homes in London and Newcastle over the next three years to house people experiencing homelessness who are accessing the charity's services.

If the scheme is successful it could then be rolled out to other parts of the country, with an ambition to buy at least 1,000 homes over the next decade.

Mr Downie told the BBC the charity, which was founded in the 1960s, was hoping to start purchasing homes in the next few months, with the first tenants moving in next year.

"There's now a backlog for social housing with waiting lists of more than a million people," he said.

"Local councils just can't cope with that level of demand for their services."

He said there had been a "systematic sell-off of social housing", which began under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and had continued under every government since.

"Until we see a mass expansion of social housing again, we will be in this situation where [homelessness providers] have to do something extraordinary, which is outside of what we were normally set up to do, in order to make sure people have got somewhere to live," he added.

The government has committed £39bn over the next 10 years for its Social and Affordable Homes Programme, which it says will deliver around 300,000 homes across England, with at least 60% of these social housing.

Social housing, which is provided by not-for-profit housing associations or local councils, is more affordable as rents are linked to local incomes.

Mr Downie welcomed the funding but added: "Unless a big proportion of that is social housing and there are spades in the ground now then there's no hope any time soon of us having the housing that's needed as demand increases."

Crisis is also calling for housing benefit to reflect the true cost of private renting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrzgxj37d5o
It comes as new research by the charity found the number of homeless people in England is higher than official government data suggests.

Crisis says around 189,000 families and individuals who faced the worst forms of homelessness such as rough sleeping, sofa surfing and living in tents were not included in official statistics.

Official data is based on people declaring themselves as homeless to a local authority, which Crisis says often does not happen.

The charity says one of the drivers behind the figures is a large increase in the number of people housed in unsuitable temporary accommodation, such as unsafe B&Bs and properties far away from family and friends.

When someone declares as homeless to the local authority, they can be placed in temporary accommodation while they search for a permanent home.

The research from Crisis, which was produced by Herriot-Watt University, says the number of households placed in unsuitable temporary accommodation has jumped from 19,200 in 2020 to 46,700 in 2024.

They say an additional 18,600 households are living in "unconventional accommodation" such as cars, sheds and tents.

Isra, who came to the UK in 2009 aged six, says her family was housed in unsuitable temporary accommodation
Crisis says that many of the people included in their research do not meet the threshold set by government and councils to be eligible for homelessness support, such as those sleeping on friends' sofas.

Isra came to the UK in 2009 aged six, after her parents fled war in Iraq.

For most of her childhood, her family was housed in more than 10 different temporary accommodation locations around London, which she says were often unsuitable.

Isra says she and her siblings were sometimes sleeping four to a room and that the places they were housed in were often infested with rats.

She says she remembers her mother "sifting through bags of rice because there were so many rats, we'd found rat droppings in our food".

Isra says the conditions she and her family lived in made it difficult to make friends at school or focus on her studies.

Labour's election manifesto last year promised to implement a new cross-government homelessness strategy, which would work with mayors and councils across the country "to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness".

Some Labour figures have become concerned that no such strategy has yet been launched, but it is expected to happen before the end of the year.

A government spokesperson said: "Everyone deserves a safe place to call home, which is why we are investing more than £1bn in homelessness services and launching a homelessness strategy to tackle this issue.

"This is alongside accelerating efforts to tackle the root causes of homelessness by abolishing Section 21 'no fault' evictions, and expanding access to safe accommodation."

 

[teriyakiburns]

Charity trying to become a landlord. I smell tax payer subsidies.

Doing this right before the government starts a mass movement of asylum seekers into rented accommodation HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM?

 

[FedPostalService]

Doing this right before the government starts a mass movement of asylum seekers into rented accommodation HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM?

There was, or possibly is (I couldn't find an online presence, so no doubt it's been scrubbed for obvious reasons) a housing association which owned property across the UK rather than one area called Angel Housing. It specifically housed asylum seekers only and existed for a the sole purpose of saying "they're not taking council/housing association houses" just to skew the stats.

I think it may be defunct looking for them on the Charity Commission website but it wouldn't surprise me if there's a number if there's a number of other smaller organisations like this now to skew the numbers. Plus we know they are also trying to use the private sector.

By the way, if there are private landlords filling up a home near you with boat monkeys then it is very easy to find out were they live via the Land Registry and to maybe send them either a nice letter or even protest outside their home. Obviously none of us would do that as it would break forum rules.

 

[monk]

Recycling is going to be one of the next big scandals in a few years

Cue meme about everyone being forced into separating recyclables from regular trash, then them both being dumped into the same landfill, while you would get fined if you didn't separate your trash. Dumping plastic trash into open pits in the middle of the countryside is somehow even worse than not separating the trash at all and just dumping it all in the same landfill. At least the landfill is supposed to have a catch system, a liner that prevents water from running out of the trash pile into the ground water. Although I question the efficacy of these systems anyway, as there's no way to know their effectiveness after they are installed and the trash has been piled on top of them. Who knows if they have giant leaks or not.
In Slovenia there was a fire in a waste collection center a couple years ago that consumed almost 1000 tons of dangerous waste including chemicals, the water from the firefighting ran into fields and a stream, polluting them.
news 1 news 2 news 3

What i've never understood since my earliest chemistry lessons in primary school, is why we don't just burn the plastic, capture the fumes and using a cross between reverse osmosis and condensation, capture and then separate the chemicals in the fumes, ready to be sold on to industries that can re-use them.

The only sensible answer I ever received was "it's possible, but very expensive". Which is fine, but considering how much we pump into the 'green' scam and 'carbon footprint' seems to fall flat on its arse.

it doesn't make sense, the cost of processing the gases and smoke from the plastic incineration would be enormous. The only way plastic can be burned without it releasing toxic chemicals into the air is in a high temperature trash incinerator, one that runs off natural gas, which allows the flame to reach a high enough temperature to decompose all the toxic organic chemicals. Then the gases have to be filtered anyway to catch any ash and uncombustible materials. The filters have to be cleaned. Usually the heat from the gas is also partially recovered with heat exchangers that generate steam which can be used to heat other industrial processes, but these heat exchangers require cleaning, maintenance and have a finite life too. There are expenses at every step and there's no way to make it profitable. There's no way to make it "green" as it relies on combusting additional fuel.

Combusting plastic by itself doesn't produce enough heat to decompose all the toxic combustion products, so doing so is very bad, it will poison the air. Plastic combustion byproducts are incredibly toxic and carcinogenic. They'll literally turn the frogs gay and make your balls fall off, among other things.

Sure, third worlders burn trash in open fires all the time, but they're dumb and stupid, too stupid to know they're poisoning themselves, or too stupid to care about it.

 

[Duane Dibbley]

There are expenses at every step and there's no way to make it profitable. There's no way to make it "green" as it relies on combusting additional fuel.

I never said make it green or profitable, I said we can do it, but we don't because it's expensive. Build a nuclear powerplant and hit the shit with 10 million degree electrical arcs to vapourise it. run the gasses through stages of carbon and HEPA filters.
Wash the filters in solutions/water that separate the useful carbons.
Take those carbons and use them to make carbon brushes, or fire, or pencils or whatever.

We can do it, we just don't want to.

 

[PandaChai]

If history has taught us anything it's that getting rid of six million people is very achievable, even under less than ideal economic conditions.

Sure, but we'll never hear the bloody end of it

 

[SirCliveSinclairdabbing]

Combusting plastic by itself doesn't produce enough heat to decompose all the toxic combustion products, so doing so is very bad, it will poison the air.

We already convert plastic milk bottles back to basic hydrocarbons to reuse as oil. (It’s not efficient)

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Doing this right before the government starts a mass movement of asylum seekers into rented accommodation

And right after a bunch of changes strengthening renter's rights that saw private landlords getting out of the game.

 

[CryptoHermit]

I never said make it green or profitable, I said we can do it, but we don't because it's expensive. Build a nuclear powerplant and hit the shit with 10 million degree electrical arcs to vapourise it. run the gasses through stages of carbon and HEPA filters.
Wash the filters in solutions/water that separate the useful carbons.
Take those carbons and use them to make carbon brushes, or fire, or pencils or whatever.

We can do it, we just don't want to.

It should probably be done. Israel boobytrapping pagers to decapitate Hezbollah leadership shows that even normal light industry isn't beyond the scope of warfare. Corporate espionage usually just meant stealing IP and processes, now we have to worry about every supply chain not explicitly within your borders is potentially a hidden bomb or sabotaged. I think the idea of a Nation having a strategic reserve of chemicals like the country is one big Alchemist workshop is a kino image.

 

[>IMPLYING]

Why does everyone think the fly-tippers are foreign?

Because if a Brit throws their shit somewhere to make it someone else's problem, they're retroactively stricken of their right of being a native or ever having been called such; such people - scruffs and slags - are better suited amongst their own kind along the Ganges river in India, free to toss away their shit and refuse wherever and whenever they want. You don't have to create the experience of living in India or some other shithole, they already exist for you to take yourselves to, save yourself the hassle of creating a literal river of trash when trash-rivers already exist.

If history has taught us anything it's that getting rid of six million people is very achievable, even under less than ideal economic conditions.

We have the technology.

Sorry for double posting, but breaking news!
Rachel Reeves has solved the economy!

Rachel Reeves is expected to announce a tax on milkshakes in the Budget later this month as part of efforts to make the public healthier.
The Chancellor is preparing to confirm she will end the exemption that milk-based drinks currently have from taxes on sugary beverages.
At present, the Soft Drinks Industry Levy applies to drinks such as Coca-Cola and Irn Bru. Producers pay at least 18p per litre on soft drinks containing 5g or more of sugar per 100ml.
As well as ending the dairy exemption, the Chancellor is planning to cut the threshold to 4g per 100ml. The changes will take effect in April 2027 and raise between £50m and £100m under current Budget plans.
They are likely to trigger fury in the soft drinks industry, which claims that a higher levy will push up supermarket prices by five per cent and only reduce calorie intake by the equivalent of half a grape per person, per day.
The Chancellor is increasingly reliant on smaller tax measures after abandoning her plan to raise income tax, which would have broken an election manifesto promise.
It means more money needs to be raised from changes such as increasing taxes on expensive homes, electric vehicles, gambling and dividends.
Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said: “If these reports are true, Labour’s new milkshake tax moves the goalposts yet again for an industry that’s already cut sugar and made changes responsibly.
“It will see businesses that played by the rules punished, with products suddenly dragged into the tax net – all to save Rachel Reeves’s skin.”
A Treasury spokesman declined to comment on Budget speculation. Final decisions on smaller measures have yet to be locked in.
The Soft Drinks Industry Levy, widely described as “the sugar tax”, came into force under the Conservatives in 2018. It is set at 18p per litre or 24p per litre for higher-sugar drinks.

It was in effect a tax on sugary drinks and was an attempt to tackle obesity by driving down the sugar content in brands popular with children.
The Treasury published a consultation on changes to the levy in the spring, with final decisions scheduled for the Budget.
Milk-based drinks have been exempted from the levy to date over fears that adding them could stop children from getting enough calcium.
A Treasury spokesman rejected that argument when the consultation was announced, saying: “Whilst young people still do not consume the recommended level of calcium, milk-based drinks are not a significant contributor to intakes.
“Milk-based drinks only provide up to 3.5 per cent of calcium intakes for children aged 11 to 18 years, compared with 25 per cent from plain milk, and 38 per cent from cereal products, including fortified white bread.”

‘No meaningful health benefit’​

The decision to lower the point at which the levy kicks in comes after many companies reformulated their drinks to be just below the 5g threshold.
Gavin Partington, director general of the British Soft Drinks Association, criticised the changes, saying: “Tightening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy risks undermining years of investment in reformulation for little health gain.

“More than seven in 10 soft drinks sold in the UK are already low or no sugar, and most are now at the limits of what’s technically possible to reformulate.
“Moving the goalposts again, at a time when families are under immense financial pressure, would add £220m in costs and push up shelf prices by as much as five per cent – all for a calorie reduction equivalent to half a grape per person each day.
“No meaningful health benefit – just higher prices for shoppers and greater costs for British businesses. It simply isn’t worth it.”

 

[Made In Wales]

Reevestard is desperate to get her way - she and this lolcow Government are not going to last much longer.

Streeting has implied that he'd seek a mandate from the people to govern, therefore the beginning of the end is hopefully here - the 'new plan' seemingly being to crash the economy and make it impossible for Farage to be PM in there has to be an early than anticipated GE... they haven't thought that through as Reform UK have already intimated that the rule book gets torn up on day one.

Anyway, before I forget/get logged out again (seriously, this site is buggy today) some news:

* Former Deputy PM Angela Rayner yet to pay £40,000 stamp duty bill

* Keir Starmer in ANOTHER lobbying row as pressure mounts on PM to launch investigation into comms chief Tim Allan

* Rachel Reeves becomes most unpopular Chancellor in history as divisive Budget looms

* 'Load of rubbish!' Police and Crime Commissioner lashes out as she prepares to lose job thanks to Labour

* Not ONE dog was named Keir last year - but Nigel and Boris both surge in canine poll

* RAF base housing hundreds of migrants infested with rats and leaking sewage (no different from the shit holes they come from then..)

* Asylum seekers who refuse work to be stripped of benefits as AI to weed out migrants pretending to be children

* Reform fixing '630 potholes a day' in taxpayer waste crackdown

* Council in danger of bankruptcy after being projected to overspend by £47 MILLION

* Two men arrested over phone plot to play 'sex noises during PMQs'

* Low-income savers hit with £992 stealth tax bills as freeze pulls pensioners into the net

* MPs challenged over claims nature is blocking Britain's housing growth

* British Gas CEO warns Labour’s net zero policies could push energy bills even higher

and one from the Beeb:

Sky Sports axes 'sexist' TikTok channel Halo after three days

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrz8g7evyxo

https://archive.ph/WzAvm

 

[UselessRubberKeyboard]

There was, or possibly is (I couldn't find an online presence, so no doubt it's been scrubbed for obvious reasons) a housing association which owned property across the UK rather than one area called Angel Housing. It specifically housed asylum seekers only and existed for a the sole purpose of saying "they're not taking council/housing association houses" just to skew the stats.

I think it may be defunct looking for them on the Charity Commission website but it wouldn't surprise me if there's a number if there's a number of other smaller organisations like this now to skew the numbers. Plus we know they are also trying to use the private sector.

By the way, if there are private landlords filling up a home near you with boat monkeys then it is very easy to find out were they live via the Land Registry and to maybe send them either a nice letter or even protest outside their home. Obviously none of us would do that as it would break forum rules.

Semi-offtopic, but I’ve been reading the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire recently, and it’s actually horrifying just how many immigrants were housed in local authority housing. Yeah, some of the flats were bought and rented out, but the vast majority weren’t. There were far more immigrants in that tower than Brits. Why?

Not that that’s an excuse for the shit cladding and awful fire safety. But why are foreigners in our social housing? I don’t care if they’ve been here since 1990 or whatever, I don’t care if they’re old or sick or family members of family members etc, none of them should be getting public housing. You come to the U.K. from another country, you find (and pay for) your own home. Plenty of private landlords around. There’s no way Brits should be forced to pay insane private rents when the cheaper housing is right there. Fuck that.

There were a couple of witnesses who lied in their first witness statements, and later admitted to lying, because they didn’t want to be deported. As soon as an amnesty was announced, these people went back on their bullshit stories and finally told the truth.

A whole bunch of the other foreigners had no fucking clue about fire safety, about not using lifts in a fire, blames the emergency services for not getting them out, and whined how bad they and their families had it because no-one went up and held their hand down the stairs (common sense, dickheads - if there’s smoke, gtfo of dodge). There were even a couple of foreign families that hadn’t even lived in the tower but lived nearby, or knew someone who died in the tower, and they were given emergency housing and promised a new home and money etc etc.

Endless stories of idiots leaving front doors and stair doors open despite the fire and smoke, of trying to call the lift, of leaving their mobility gear piled up outside in the landing obstructing access (then whining how disrespectful the fire service was when the firemen were angry at having to move all the mobility shit to get anywhere). And the amount of absolute fucking dullards who really believed the fire service would send a helicopter with a long ladder dangling off it to rescue them, like in the films. Fucking retards, man.

Of course, it’s all whitey’s fault, despite white people having built and kept up and paid for with taxes all of the housing and benefits these people had,

I keep having to take breaks from reading the witness statements, because so many people are so, so fucking stupid. Yes, we all know the place was a death trap and everyone who was responsible for the cladding shit should be hoofed from work and even had up in court. But likewise, you have to help yourself. Don’t just sit there and go ‘there’s smoke outside, oh no, I can’t go down in that, I’ll call my sister and then my brother and then my mum’. Take some responsibility for your life, use some common sense (ie don’t run up the stairs, guaranteeing you’ll have even more smoke to breathe in and even further to get down!), and fucking don’t badmouth the emergency services, when they put their lives on the line to try to help you.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Looks like we're getting an old-fashioned arctic blast next week. Potentially lots of snow in the north and down the east coast. Getter get the hot water bottles and fingerless gloves ready, boys and girls.

Interesting Russian perspective on our weather, just for a change of pace:

* Keir Starmer in ANOTHER lobbying row as pressure mounts on PM to launch investigation into comms chief Tim Allan

AAEUH?!

 

[Made In Wales]

The problem is that Grenfell will not be the last such incident and lessons won't be learnt.

There's similar problems in and around Cardiff Bay with the 'pile them in' attitude of the council and landlords (mostly Asian, all certainly corrupt) with regards to non-whites whether or not they are born here or come in on the boats.

One block of flats in Cardiff Bay (an older block built in the 1970s/early 80s) houses virtually 100% Somalis who do not speak English or Welsh and do not understand what to do in the event of a fire.

Oopsy doodles...

To think that the racist Tories demolished the Cardiff Bay community houses and stuck the nignogs in one big segregated flat... oh wait it was Welsh Labour who did it!

 

[Geoff Capes Vapes Apes]

One block of flats in Cardiff Bay (an older block built in the 1970s/early 80s) houses virtually 100% Somalis who do not speak English or Welsh and do not understand what to do in the event of a fire.

When they try to cook on an open fire in the middle of the floor have a fridge suddenly and inexplicably burst into flames, it'll sort itself out

 

[Made In Wales]

When they try to cook on an open fire in the middle of the floor have a fridge suddenly and inexplicably burst into flames, it'll sort itself out

'Exploding Fridge'

Either a horse from The Day Today or the latest industrial punk outfit.

 

[Duane Dibbley]

And right after a bunch of changes strengthening renter's rights that saw private landlords getting out of the game.

In April, when landlords are forced to go rolling monthly contracts, the rents will go sky high, forcing brits out and allowing freeloading migrants to move in. Replacement is a conspiracy theory though.

she and this lolcow Government are not going to last much longer.

Doesn't matter who is in charge, the orders come from outside of our borders, Truss showed that. Anyone else is just a puppet for a foreign power.
Nigel will be no different.
Labours' MO is to tank the economy and then expect the next guys to fix it.