UK British News Megathread - aka CWCissey's news thread

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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
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7
10:07 AM - Jan 3, 2019
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Cook and food poverty campaigner Jack Monroe declared she was "frantically googling to see what time my nearest opens tomorrow morning because I will be outside".

While TV writer Brydie Lee-Kennedy called herself "very pro the Greggs vegan sausage roll because anything that wrenches veganism back from the 'clean eating' wellness folk is a good thing".

One Twitter user wrote that finding vegan sausage rolls missing from a store in Corby had "ruined my morning".

Another said: "My son is allergic to dairy products which means I can't really go to Greggs when he's with me. Now I can. Thank you vegans."

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pg often@pgofton
https://twitter.com/pgofton/status/1080772793774624768

The hype got me like #Greggs #Veganuary

42
10:28 AM - Jan 3, 2019
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TV presenter Piers Morgan led the charge of those outraged by the new roll.

"Nobody was waiting for a vegan bloody sausage, you PC-ravaged clowns," he wrote on Twitter.

Mr Morgan later complained at receiving "howling abuse from vegans", adding: "I get it, you're all hangry. I would be too if I only ate plants and gruel."

Another Twitter user said: "I really struggle to believe that 20,000 vegans are that desperate to eat in a Greggs."

"You don't paint a mustach (sic) on the Mona Lisa and you don't mess with the perfect sausage roll," one quipped.

Journalist Nooruddean Choudry suggested Greggs introduce a halal steak bake to "crank the fume levels right up to 11".

The bakery chain told concerned customers that "change is good" and that there would "always be a classic sausage roll".

It comes on the same day McDonald's launched its first vegetarian "Happy Meal", designed for children.

The new dish comes with a "veggie wrap", instead of the usual chicken or beef option.

It should be noted that Piers Morgan and Greggs share the same PR firm, so I'm thinking this is some serious faux outrage and South Park KKK gambiting here.
 
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I'm sat in the Costco car park and all I see are swarthoids filling their boots with pallets and pallets of bottled water. Did no one tell them that the tap water is potable in this country? Why are they all buying so much bottled water?
I find it really funny when those US companies that sell water filters for taps try that shit here by pretending that any water that comes out of taps is brown and disgusting.

Like whenever they advertise on social media it's filled with Baz, 45 using his personal social media profile to say "fuck off yanks"
 
I find it really funny when those US companies that sell water filters for taps try that shit here by pretending that any water that comes out of taps is brown and disgusting.

Like whenever they advertise on social media it's filled with Baz, 45 using his personal social media profile to say "fuck off yanks"
I mean they're a good shout if you live somewhere with very hard water. Better get get one that fixes to your washer inlet if you do because then you add years of life to your washing machine. That calgon is good though but some places the water is really, really hard.
 
Accurate, I take the L
Soft water can be funny as well if I remember right (in fairness I lived there a long time back). Don't you have to use more soap? Or am I misremembering this?

Either way too much of anything is a bad thing and too little as well. But at least in a soft water region your washer won't look like a wookies gooch.
 
Soft water can be funny as well if I remember right (in fairness I lived there a long time back). Don't you have to use more soap? Or am I misremembering this?

Either way too much of anything is a bad thing and too little as well. But at least in a soft water region your washer won't look like a wookies gooch.
Other way around, you use less soap with soft water.
We don't have a Restore candidate here so looks like it's a Reform vote for May. The people here tend to vote for the same guy regardless so I'm not particularly hopeful.
 
I mean they're a good shout if you live somewhere with very hard water. Better get get one that fixes to your washer inlet if you do because then you add years of life to your washing machine. That calgon is good though but some places the water is really, really hard.
Those shower filters can be really good if you have eczema/sensitive skin or really fine hair as well. Or if you just don't like cleaning limescale off the glass every fucking week.
 
*laughs in soft Scottish water*
Everything is soft in Scotland. It's why the men wear skirts.

Some Reform councilor got in trouble for pointing out the government is full of diversity hire women who do nothing. Usual feminist whining about sexism. There's nothing more to the story, but it's funny. Same old ugly women no one wants saying "It's the current year!"
 
News time

First of all a story guaranteed to tug at your heart strings

I’m disabled – the DWP cut my work support funding by £50,000 with 17 days’ notice
Disabled people across the UK say they’re missing out on support needed to do their jobs as the government-funded Access to Work (ATW) scheme continues to battle with delays and tightening of eligibility.
ATW provides personalised support to those with disabilities and health issues, including access to support workers, specialist equipment and contributions towards transport costs associated with work.
However, research by the Disability Poverty Campaign Group revealed those who have access to the support are reporting long delays and difficulties accessing essential equipment.


The National Audit Office found demand for the scheme had risen “significantly” in recent years with the number of applications rising from 76,100 in 2018-19 to 157,000 in 2024-45.
And because of the greater demand, the scheme’s users say they are facing problems getting support, with some having their funding cut at short notice.
Becca Jiggens, from Plymouth, is one such case. She runs the Work Inclusion Project, which provides in-work support to disabled academics, professionals and entrepreneurs.
Becca has macular disease, which means her eyesight is deteriorating, as well as ADHD and autism and got her first support award in 2020.

Her award used to be £68,000 a year, which she used to cover the cost of using an agency who provided her with the bookkeeping and legal support, as her eyesight means she finds it hard to read documents.
The funding has now been reduced by £50,000 to £18,000, and she was given just 17 days’ notice of this.
She has a legal background, specialising in disability employment law, and she says she needs someone with some legal knowledge to summarise documents for her, but as part of the cuts, she has been told the scheme does not believe she needs to hire someone with specialised knowledge.
She said: “Access to Work have said I don’t need somebody who is legally qualified to summarise documents and help with the legal side because AI can do it for me, but AI in the legal sector is simply not good.”
She has also been told she should pay for someone to do the financial side of things out of her own pocket, rather than via the scheme’s money.
“The financial system isn’t wildly visually accessible and so having somebody who can look over it and make sure I’m not making any wild mistakes and help me navigate the process is something that I need,” she says.
She says the extra cost of this alone will come to around £6,000 a year.

She says the lack of notice of her changes to support have made it difficult to come up with solutions.
“Even if they could have given me two months’ notice to say my award was coming down, I would have had two months with my full support to make a new plan,” she said.
Becca felt the scheme had changed significantly since summer 2024 and was getting worse.
She said: “I can’t see any purpose in terms of getting more disabled people into work.”
She is not alone in her experience and has witnessed many of her clients see the “devastating impact” of their awards being cut.
She says the new awards mean they’re often left with a budget that requires them to hire highly experienced people on minimum wage salaries.
And she also says there is a lack of consistency in the awarding of money from the scheme.

“We can have two professors from the same university with the same disability on the same salary and one case manager will give them the full professional hourly rate so that they can get their support in place and the other one will get barely minimum wage and there is no reason we can see as to why,” Becca said.
The scheme is also currently tackling backlogs and delays in processing and paying out awards with the National Audit Office finding the average time taken to process applications rising from 28 days in 2020-21 to 109 in November 2025.
Becca said: “We probably spend about £120,000 a year on pro bono, unfunded work to support people when access to work is being slow or their award has been changed.”


A spokesperson for the DWP said: “Access to Work supports thousands of sick or disabled people to start or stay in work, and support provided by the scheme has nearly doubled in five years.
“But we understand that problems in the scheme we inherited are failing employees and employers.
“That’s why we’re working with disabled people and their organisations to improve it – ensuring people have the support, skills, and opportunities to move into good, secure jobs as part of our Plan for Change.”

Labour MPs demanding Keir pay Palestine reparations
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure from Labour MPs to pay reparations to Palestine and apologise for Britain’s part in “historic war crimes”.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, almost 20 back-bench Labour MPs demanded an apology for Britain’s decision to withdraw from Palestine in 1948, leading to the formation of Israel.
They claimed that British forces murdered and tortured Palestinians while the state was under their control between 1917 and 1948 and said Sir Keir should apologise “so we can move towards healing this open wound”.
The open letter by Britain Owes Palestine, the campaign group, said: “In 1947 Britain gave away Palestine, a land we had no right to give, even under the laws of the time.
“We withdrew, having encouraged partition whilst doing nothing to prevent the atrocities and mass expulsions that followed.
“The Government’s recognition of Palestine represents progress, but recognition alone is not enough. Britain must face its history and the role we played in creating this conflict.”
Campaigners present petition in 10 Downing Street
Britain Owes Palestine campaigners submitted a 400-page legal petition to the Government in September Credit: James Manning/PA
It added: “Britain unlawfully failed to recognise Arab self-determination. During occupation from 1917 to 1948, British forces committed war crimes including murder, torture, arbitrary detention and home demolitions.
“As inconvenient as the past may be, we do ourselves a disservice by pretending it never happened. An apology wouldn’t solve the conflict but is an initial first step to Britain making peace with its own past.
“Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should apologise so we can move towards healing this open wound.”
The letter, seen by The Telegraph, was signed by 18 Labour MPs and one Peer. They include serial rebels John McDonnell and Richard Burgon – both of whom served in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Cabinet – but also a number of MPs from the 2024 intake.
It comes at a time when the Prime Minister’s authority lies in tatters and is demonstrative of how emboldened members of the Left of his party feel.
A YouGov poll published this week saw the Green Party overtake Labour for the first time, after its Gorton and Denton by-election victory.

Labour’s support slumped to 16 per cent, five points behind the Greens and seven behind Reform UK. The pollster said it had never recorded a lower score for Labour in its 26-year history.
It led to calls from within the party to move further to the Left. Angela Rayner, who has reportedly amassed a £1m “war chest” to fund a leadership plot, said the party needed to “listen and reflect” after the by-election defeat.
Britain Owes Palestine was launched last year and calls for Britain to acknowledge wrongdoing, apologise and pay reparations for a “century of oppression”.
The group submitted a 400-page legal petition to the Government in September in which it claimed there was “incontrovertible evidence” that the UK breached international law when it controlled Palestine under the British Mandate.
ragout-top

The Government has not yet responded to the legal petition and could face judicial review proceedings at the High Court if it continues its refusal to engage.
Sir Keir recognised the Palestinian state in September in an attempt to put pressure on Israel to commit to a ceasefire in Gaza.
A ceasefire followed in October, but Sir Keir was criticised by the Conservatives for giving Hamas a “reward for terrorism”.
Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, said recognition would have “no impact whatsoever” in bringing about a two-state solution.
The Government was approached for comment.

Rather than tackle crimes the Met are now whining that phone companies need to do more after devices are taken.
The Metropolitan Police commissioner has given phone manufacturers a 1 June deadline to take action over stolen phones - or face being forced to do so by law.

Phone companies are leaving customers at risk until they take action to make stolen devices "unusable bricks", Sir Mark Rowley said.

The capital's police force has some of the highest rates per thousand people of personal robbery and theft from the person in England and Wales, among which phones are a "significant" problem.

Apple and Samsung, whose phones dominate the UK market, said they take device theft seriously and are both rolling out features to help thwart the black market for mobiles.
Sir Mark told delegates at the International Mobile Phone Crime Conference in central London he does not understand why the telecoms giants have not done more.

He said the Met would call on the Home Secretary to change laws to force phone companies to take action if necessary, and would encourage international law enforcement to do the same.


"I'm setting a clear public marker, if by 1 June, the industry has not come to the table in a genuinely serious and solution-focused way, with concrete commitments on stolen mobile phones... the Met will formally write to the Home Secretary to ask that she legislates," Sir Mark said.

The force wants to make resetting phones more difficult, with requirements for multi-factor authentication and time delays; moves to stop parts being sold without device matching serial numbers, and the ability to block devices globally in real time.

"For nearly three years we have sought meaningful engagement with phone manufacturers and their response to date does not match the scale of harm and risk to their customers."

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said there is "no reason" why in a year's time there should not be fully accessible serial numbers for officials and "kill switches" for stolen phones.

The international trade in stolen phones is worth millions of dollars, with a device stolen in London worth more in countries like China because it has none of the government restrictions put in place by authorities there.

In the UK, the Met had seen adverts on Snapchat offering children as much as £380 to steal a single iPhone, with a bonus of £100 for stealing 10.

Sir Mark said this exploitation of children was an "entry point into organised crime".

"Children recruited to snatch phones for quick cash are being groomed into criminal networks, normalised into offending behaviour and pushed further into exploitation."

"What begins as one device on a street corner becomes a pathway into debt, coercion, violence and deeper criminality."

The Met wants anti-theft protection switched on by default, stolen phones to be rendered unusable, and better access to IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) data to make it easier to return devices to their owners.

Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show only a fraction of devices taken in London are returned to their owners.

Between 2017 and February 27 2024, a total 587,498 phones were stolen in London excluding the City, 13,998 of which were recovered, and 573,500 were not.

Delegates from countries including Japan, Brazil, Spain, and the United States attended the conference, the first of its kind.

Sir Mark said weak security means criminals can still bypass locks, alter IMEIs, and sell parts that are not cryptographically tied to devices.

He said there would be no criminal market if a stolen phone were unusable, and called for similar action to that taken by the car industry to make car radios less attractive to steal.

The commissioner said manufacturers have worked hard on data and financial security on phones but "far less attention" has been paid to the "physical safety of their customers".

"If a stolen phone were to become an unusable brick and the parts were not recyclable, there would be no criminal market," Sir Mark said.

"I do not understand why tech companies leave their clients at risk despite two or three years of discussions.

"Until this device is worthless, the market will remain attractive to organised crime," he added.

Samsung said it had already implemented features requested by the Met, including making IMEI numbers visible on locked screens.

The company stated it has fulfilled direct requests from the Home Office and contacted 40 million UK customers with security guidance, asserting it takes the matter "extremely seriously."

Apple highlighted its "stolen device protection," which prevents thieves from changing account settings even with a passcode.

The firm noted that its latest software beta (iOS 26.4) now enables this feature by default, moving toward the "default-on" protection requested by police.

Last month the Met said that the number of recorded phone thefts in London went from 81,365 in 2024 to 71,391 last year.

Separate figures available on the Met's crime data website show that in 2023 there were 52,820 thefts from the person where a phone was taken, and 14,326 robberies; the figures for 2024 were 70,249 thefts and 11,125 robberies; and for 2025 61,292 thefts and 10,207 robberies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c620zw40xryo
In the space of the month to mid-February, the Met arrested 248 people over phone theft and recovered around 770 stolen handsets.

The force is using high-powered e-bikes and drones as part of its operations to stop phone theft.

But in a report for the London Policing Board, Sir Mark warned the Met remains "an outlier" for the number of personal robberies per thousand people, and theft from the person.

The force also solves one of the smallest proportion of these offences compared with others in England and Wales.

In the year to the end of December 2025, 6.9% of personal robbery cases ended with a suspect being identified and dealt with, while the rate was 0.9% for theft from the person.

In Westminster, between 69% and 72% of thefts from the person and personal robberies each week involve phones.
I underlined the bit that is them trying backdoor more control in for our Orwellian state.

Watchdog confirms there's coverup going on around the Sturgeon stuff
The Scottish government is being threatened with further legal action by the information commissioner over the release of documents about an ethics investigation into Nicola Sturgeon.
David Hamilton said he could no longer trust the government to handle some files "unsupervised" after being given "preposterous and unacceptable" excuses for not complying with his orders.
Ministers have repeatedly missed deadlines to publish correspondence about the Sturgeon inquiry, which cleared her of misleading parliament during a Holyrood probe into the handling of harassment claims against Alex Salmond.
The Scottish government insisted it was handling the documents with "the highest standards of impartiality and integrity".

The information commissioner is dealing with six different freedom of information appeals relating to the Sturgeon and Salmond inquiries.
The government published a large bundle of documents last month following a court battle.
Hamilton's latest criticism comes after he sought reassurances that ministers had complied with a 2024 order to release legal advice relating to a previous appeal about inquiry evidence.
After receiving a response, the commissioner said he believed the government had failed to comply and that he was considering legal action.

'Unacceptable'​

Hamilton said in a statement: "Perhaps worse than the fact that Scottish ministers have once again failed to comply with one of my decisions, is that they appear to have tried to conceal this breach of trust with unjustified delays and a wall of silence.
"The excuses I have now been given, both in writing and in person, are preposterous and unacceptable."
The commissioner said he had expressed his dismay to Permanent Secretary Joe Griffin, Scotland's most senior civil servant.
He said: "I can no longer trust the government to handle this information unsupervised and will explore more intrusive options to ensure compliance."
The commissioner complained that the handling of freedom of information requests relating to the Sturgeon inquiry stood in "stark contrast to the way nearly every other case of theirs is handled".
Hamilton added that he would "now need to assess whether I can resource a further intervention to examine the unusual case handling practices in these cases".


In his letter to Hamilton, Griffin said: "I would reiterate that ensuring compliance with court orders has been ministers' absolute priority throughout this matter."
The permanent secretary said he had been assured that the government had not withheld information it had been ordered to publish and that ministers had fully complied with previous rulings.
Griffin also confirmed that the large bundle of documents released last month had been temporarily removed from the government website "to redact some additional information".
He said although the incident was regrettable, it was due to "the scale and complexity" of publishing more than 700 documents.

Freedom of information row​

First Minister John Swinney previously told parliament that the freedom of information requests had been complicated by the need to make redactions to avoid identifying women who had made allegations against Salmond.
Salmond successfully sued the government in 2019 over its mishandling of complaints against him.
The former first minister, who died in 2024, was cleared of sexually assaulting nine women in 2020.
The freedom of information row dates back to March 2021, when James Hamilton, an Irish lawyer, cleared Sturgeon of breaching the ministerial code.
A freedom of information request was then made to the Scottish government for all written evidence used in the investigation.
The government had originally insisted that as Hamilton was an independent adviser on the ministerial code and he was not subject to freedom of information legislation.
However, the information commissioner intervened and ordered the government to look at the case again.
Ministers then challenged this decision in the Court of Session, sparking a lengthy series of complex appeals.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: "The Permanent Secretary met the Scottish Information Commissioner on 11 March and assured him that these cases were being handled properly, in line with statutory duties and with the highest standards of impartiality and integrity."
 
I’m disabled – the DWP cut my work support funding by £50,000 with 17 days’ notice
So let me get this straight. This bitch gets £70,000 a year to "support" her business because she's blind? And she runs some kind of company that puts cripples into universities.. Why? Why are we paying her almost twice a normal salary to help her run a business she clearly is not capable of running? It's a scam.
 
So let me get this straight. This bitch gets £70,000 a year to "support" her business because she's blind? And she runs some kind of company that puts cripples into universities.. Why? Why are we paying her almost twice a normal salary to help her run a business she clearly is not capable of running?
I knew that one would get people.
 
68k a year??? Why do people work? That’s double the median pay, it’s just wrong
 
1773416965027.png
Mandelson, Epstein, and Andrew.
The Mirror headline (archive) 'Epstein files bombshell - Andrew, Mandelson and paedo pal pictured together for first time: The new photograph, showing the three men lounging around a wooden table, is believed to be the first photograph of the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson with Epstein to be uncovered'
 
So let me get this straight. This bitch gets £70,000 a year to "support" her business because she's blind? And she runs some kind of company that puts cripples into universities.. Why? Why are we paying her almost twice a normal salary to help her run a business she clearly is not capable of running? It's a scam.
I thought people wanted disabled people working? A lot of disabled people will need an amount of resources to even think about working that paying benefits is cheaper...

You had the man volunteering in Waitrose (I'm pretty sure he's now been hired) who needs 1:1 support to do that (While performing way worse than a normal employee which loses the branch as well money), that support worker would cost between £20 to £25 per hour after all hiring costs and care company margins.

The government doesn't want to be honest with the public that they don't want disabled people working, they just want to generate headlines that if "disabled" was swapped with black, Muslim or Jew would see the newspaper raided by police..

Getting every disabled person doing any little amount of work possible, no matter how little will bankrupt every local authority (they have to pay for that 1:1 staffing expense to support that person in work and earnings from wages are excluded from care contributions).
 
I thought people wanted disabled people working? A lot of disabled people will need an amount of resources to even think about working that paying benefits is cheaper...

You had the man volunteering in Waitrose (I'm pretty sure he's now been hired) who needs 1:1 support to do that (While performing way worse than a normal employee which loses the branch as well money), that support worker would cost between £20 to £25 per hour after all hiring costs and care company margins.

The government doesn't want to be honest with the public that they don't want disabled people working, they just want to generate headlines that if "disabled" was swapped with black, Muslim or Jew would see the newspaper raided by police..

Getting every disabled person doing any little amount of work possible, no matter how little will bankrupt every local authority (they have to pay for that 1:1 staffing expense to support that person in work and earnings from wages are excluded from care contributions).
I know how it all works, it's just amazing so much money is being poured into doing fuck all yet again. It's like Delboy designed our economy..

Disabled people should have assisted living facilities where people of an equal measure can live together and help run the facility. If you can wash the tables then you wash the tables before tea. If you can do a bit of gardening then you do a bit of gardening. It would be much cheaper for an assisted estate or block of flats with on call help 24/7 than any of this.

I feel sorry for disabled people who want to do something but get held back by these sort of regulations. It all needs reforming, but none of it can be reformed until we kick out all the foreigners and take the pressure off. Once we do that we can have proper NHS staff, not third parties assessing them and not just hearing "depressed" and getting free cash. Maybe I should submit my post history. "I'm a miserable git, give me a tenner so I can buy some fags and a golliwog"
 
There's also the novel idea of "appropriate work"

There is work, I'm sure, that a blind person could do without a subsidy from the Exchequer equivalent to two full time jobs

You've lost two legs and want to work? Kudos, let's find you something that you're able to do. No, you can't be a firefighter because we'd have to pay two more firefighters to carry you up and down the ladder you fucking clown.

Instead some fucking div took her make a wish job aspiration and decided to make it a reality with your money.

I guarantee someone is related to someone in the accountancy firm too
 
I feel sorry for disabled people who want to do something but get held back by these sort of regulations. It all needs reforming, but none of it can be reformed until we kick out all the foreigners and take the pressure off. Once we do that we can have proper NHS staff, not third parties assessing them and not just hearing "depressed" and getting free cash. Maybe I should submit my post history. "I'm a miserable git, give me a tenner so I can buy some fags and a golliwog"

The funny thing is that the current spending on disability benefit was caused by a failed attempt to cut it in 2013.... (A few court cases and a tiny £100m/year saving becomes a mutibillion pound in extra spending).

Heres the thing. The government claims to want more disabled people in work, even some that could be considered severely disabled (Many people who get less than 4 points on a single PIP question can be severely disabled if they need medium levels of assistance in everyday life).

The government idea of help from the job centre will not get those severely disabled jobs. A large chunck of thoes people will need support to do anykind of basic work and because the government saved money by closing the Remploy, local authorities will be responsible under the Care Act 2014 to help them find a job and provide a 1:1 support worker to help them perform that job (Not having Remploy factories means that each job will be individualized which means no chance to share support workers).

The government wants disabiled people in jobs by the end of the decade. Not enough time to wait for migrents to leave to take pressure off.
 
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