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.

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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.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Just enforce the existing laws you useless lot.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68773704

Assaulting a shop worker will be made a separate criminal offence in England and Wales as part of a government response to a wave of retail crime.
Earlier this year a report found violent and abusive incidents against shop workers rose by 50% in 2022-23.
Rishi Sunak said shops must be free from the threat of crime or abuse.
The government previously told campaigners for a new law it was not needed and would not be effective.
But the government says it is concerned about an increase in attacks. The prime minister said the new law was about "sending a message" to criminals stealing from local businesses or abusing shop workers that "enough is enough".
Helen Dickinson, chair of the British Retail Consortium, welcomed the announcement, saying "the voices of the three million people working in retail are finally being heard".
However, the charity Transform Justice argues that a specific offence will not reduce attacks on shop workers.
It cited evidence that a new offence of assaulting an emergency worker had not seen the number of attacks fall.

The new offence will carry a maximum sentence of six months.
Perpetrators could also receive an unlimited fine and be banned from the shop where they committed the offence.
Serial offenders could be forced to wear tags so their movements can be tracked and £50m will be spent on facial recognition technology.
Dedicated facial recognition units will be used in high streets to catch perpetrators and prevent shoplifting. Police have been told to check more CCTV images against police databases.
In more serious cases, offenders found guilty of grievous bodily harm will face jail sentences.
But anyone convicted of the new offence would not routinely go to prison.
The Sentencing Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, would mean sentences of 12 months or less would be suspended and served in the community, although a prison sentence could be imposed in exceptional circumstances.
The government has promised reforms to free up prison space in response to overcrowding due to tougher sentences and court backlogs.
The announcement comes as Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and other senior party figures are on a local election campaign visit to Tees Valley to promote the party's polices to revive high streets.
Labour is promising neighbourhood police patrols to tackle anti-social behaviour and shoplifting, as well as plans to bring empty premises back into use.
Creating a new specific offence of assault against shop workers is already Labour policy.
The party also wants to scrap a rule which makes it less likely police will investigate the theft of goods under the value of £200 because they are dealt with less severely by the courts.
Ms Cooper said: "Labour has been calling for tougher action against those who assault shop workers for more than 10 years.
"The Tories opposed and voted against our plans for better protection. Why has it taken them so long to act?"
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: "As the majority of shoplifting cases go unsolved, the Conservatives have repeatedly failed to get even the basics right of tackling this issue - something their new gimmicks won't change."
The government will introduce the new offence in its Criminal Justice Bill, currently being considered by Parliament.
Assault or abuse of staff has been a specific offence in Scotland since 2021.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Just enforce the existing laws you useless lot.

But if they did that they wouldn't have the excuse for this bit:

and £50m will be spent on facial recognition technology.
Dedicated facial recognition units will be used in high streets to catch perpetrators and prevent shoplifting. Police have been told to check more CCTV images against police databases.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

But if they did that they wouldn't have the excuse for this bit:

We already have a ludicrous amount of surveillance, while it will get worse this is a drop in the ocean. Of course that 50 million won't touch on the additional administration bloat to handle this new charging category. No doubt the Tories will be paying off a few of their buddies by getting some extra work for them through this.

Speaking of 50 million quid of the taxpayer's money.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68774242

Five members of an organised gang have been convicted of what has been described by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) as the largest case of benefit fraud in England and Wales.
The gang of three women and two men - all Bulgarian - made thousands of fraudulent claims for Universal Credit over a four and a half year period.
They each admitted to stealing more than £50m at London's Wood Green Crown Court.
All five pleaded guilty to fraud.
They also admitted money laundering offences.
According to the CPS, the gang - Gyunesh Ali, 33, Galina Nikolova, 38, Stoyan Stoyanov, 27, Tsvetka Todorova, 52, and Patritsia Paneva, 26 - made thousands of false claims for Universal Credit using either real people or hijacked identities.
These claims were supported by an array of forged documents, including fictitious tenancy agreements, counterfeit payslips and forged letters from landlords, employers and GPs.
If the claims were rejected, the fraudsters would try again and again until they were granted, the CPS said.
The investigation identified three "benefit factories" in the Wood Green area of north London where repeated false claims for benefits originated.
The businesses claimed to assist people with obtaining a National Insurance number and benefits to which they were entitled.

However, it was found that after applicants made their claims for benefits through these three sources, they then left them in the hands of the organised crime group.
Once the claims were made, money was laundered around numerous bank accounts or withdrawn in cash.
The false claims were made between October 2016 and May 2021.

Specialist CPS prosecutor Ben Reid said the case was the "largest benefit fraud prosecution ever brought to the courts in England and Wales".
"These defendants conspired to commit industrial-scale fraud against the Universal Credit system," he said.
"Submitting thousands of false claims, the organised criminals enriched themselves from government funds designed to protect and help the most vulnerable people in our society."
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the gang had stolen £53.9m by using "a sophisticated combination of legitimate identity documents and fake documentation to make it appear that they were eligible to benefits when they were not".

When the gang was finally arrested, in May 2021, hundreds of forged or false documents were found, as well as bundles of cash - some stuffed in suitcases - an Audi car, and designer goods including glasses, watches and jackets, the CPS said.
One of the gang, Ali, escaped to Bulgaria after being released under caution by police and had to be extradited back to the UK.
Ali, Nikolova, Stoyanov, Todorova and Paneva are all due to be sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on 28 May.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride praised the collaboration between the CPS and DWP.
"These convictions underline our commitment to protecting taxpayers' money. It is only right and fair that we bring those stealing from the public purse to justice," he said.

Universal Credit is the main welfare benefit in the UK and it is currently claimed by 5.8 million people - a mixture of people both in and out of work.
When it was launched in 2013, the government said its design would reduce fraud and error in the welfare system.
But, as the benefit was rolled out to more claimants, fraud levels increased, peaking during the pandemic when the rules claimants had to follow were relaxed.

 

[Otterly]

cutting your own hair is a no brainer. Hairdressers charge insane amounts. I don’t know anyone who reuses teabags though, that’s heresy

 

[teriyakiburns]

cutting your own hair is a no brainer. Hairdressers charge insane amounts. I don’t know anyone who reuses teabags though, that’s heresy

My old art teacher used to do that. This was, ohhh... a long time ago, but IIRC he was still doing it to the day he died, in the early aughts. He was big on re-use and scrounging like that. Every couple of months, he'd send us all out picking up old nails from the demolished factory next to my old school. Fun guy.

Just enforce the existing laws you useless lot.

But Lawn Order!

 

[Otterly]

Every couple of months, he'd send us all out picking up old nails from the demolished factory next to my old school.

You should write a book. This sounds like something from a Mike Harding book.

 

[User names must be unique]

cutting your own hair is a no brainer. Hairdressers charge insane amounts. I don’t know anyone who reuses teabags though, that’s heresy

I just let mine grow out until I start to look homeless, then clip it all off. I only go to the barbers if there's something I want to look good for.

The kind of retards that would reuse a teabag are probably the kind of retards that'd waste money they don't have on expensive brand name tea bags, rather than buying a lidl own brand.

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

I don’t know anyone who reuses teabags though, that’s heresy

I used to do it when I visited my grandparents and I made them a cuppa. I'd just use their dreg teabags for my own. Never really noticed any difference.

 

[Bill Evans 45]

makes him look bad to the working class, who value a principled stand even if they disagree with it. The "you know where you stand with him" effect. If he can't capture that, winning becomes significantly harder

I have relatives in Norf FC and was visiting when Thatcher died. They all hated her, but with qualifiers exactly as above and 'at least if she said she were going to do something, she did it.'

Right now is a good chance of Rishi himself losing his seat, which is embarrassing.

His constituency is in the wealthy north of Yorkshire, all old landed gentry, rich farmers and solid middle class. Rishi would have to shit on the queen's grave to lose there.

I think the driver of the polls is that Conservative voters are saying they won't vote at all next time.

I see the same thing here, disillusioned Dems aren't going to go Republican, they just aren't going to vote.

Owen, you radicalized them.

Turning up in the town where the Labour party was formed to tell local activists they were doing it wrong was a excellent plan by the oily little fucker.

Judge Sandy Canavan, Judge of the Upper Tribunal

That was a jump scare, she's doing the patented Chantal Sarault Rat Face.

 

[Whoopsie Daisy]

Anyone think it's mad that Truss was outed after 50~ days, without even getting to fail on her ideas, where as this fucking clown is still in charge of the country, even though him and his cabinet have been objectively the shittest since Cameron?

He has failed spectacularly and is still in power. Our reward for his inevitable defeat in the GE? Keir Starmer.

I hope the Greens, Reform, Lib Dems, Independent Party and Monster Raving Looney Party combine their power in Captain Planet like fashion to summon a half-decent government.

 

[SirCliveSinclairdabbing]

Anyone think it's mad that Truss was outed after 50~ days, without even getting to fail on her ideas, where as this fucking clown is still in charge of the country, even though him and his cabinet have been objectively the shittest since Cameron?

He has failed spectacularly and is still in power. Our reward for his inevitable defeat in the GE? Keir Starmer.

I hope the Greens, Reform, Lib Dems, Independent Party and Monster Raving Looney Party combine their power in Captain Planet like fashion to summon a half-decent government.

She pioneered ideas that would help the British people and economy instead of ((())).

At this stage I'd happily fund a workers party candidate as a fick you to the system

 

[Teghern]

Anyone think it's mad that Truss was outed after 50~ days, without even getting to fail on her ideas, where as this fucking clown is still in charge of the country, even though him and his cabinet have been objectively the shittest since Cameron?

He has failed spectacularly and is still in power. Our reward for his inevitable defeat in the GE? Keir Starmer.

I hope the Greens, Reform, Lib Dems, Independent Party and Monster Raving Looney Party combine their power in Captain Planet like fashion to summon a half-decent government.

She violated the sanctity of the sacred market and therefore had to be deposed, it's just a general rule that if you actually DO anything you get kicked out, case in point being salad girl Liz, milk snatcher Maggie when she switched up her agenda, and good old Churchill when he advocated re-arming the Wehrmacht for anti-commie purposes.
Richi hasn't actually done much beyond typical frog boil policies, I can't help but wonder if Johnson would have had the lettuce liz treatment too if he had the balls to go ham with his levelling agenda had covid not been handled the way it was.
Keith is gonna be real fucking boring I'm calling it now we get years of absolutely nothing interesting happening politically barring geopolitical funsies.

 

[Coolio55]

Keith is gonna be real fucking boring I'm calling it now we get years of absolutely nothing interesting happening politically barring geopolitical funsies.

Does "nothing interesting happening" count labour invoking all those big retarded campaigns that the tories also want but are to stupid to carry out?
I can 100% see Keir putting the great online harms firewall in place like every party wants to do.

 

[Moja Zemlja]

I don’t know anyone who reuses teabags though, that’s heresy

I do, my mum was dirt poor most of her life and I picked it up off her.

 

[AnOminous]

Skint Brits hanging up teabags to use again and performing 'sniff test' on worn pants​

Brits appear to be taking cost-cutting methods more seriously than ever from re-using old teabags to cutting our own hair and eating out of date food to save some pennies

I love how they present this story about how the corrupt and incompetent government has nuked the economy to the point even people of normal means are reduced to scrounging for pennies as some "quirky" and fun thing.

That was a jump scare, she's doing the patented Chantal Sarault Rat Face.

Imagine being a white man with a Paki rapist chomo on the other side and walking in and seeing that vile thing. Reminds me of Worm from Pink Floyd's The Wall. You know you're getting fucked by this corrupt bulldyke.

 

[Teghern]

Does "nothing interesting happening" count labour invoking all those big retarded campaigns that the tories also want but are to stupid to carry out?
I can 100% see Keir putting the great online harms firewall in place like every party wants to do.

Snoopers' Charter has been on the books for nearly 10 years now so it really couldn't get any worse.
R8 me optimistic but gaybour pushing the envelope with the censorship shit will be a positive thing, forcing the normoids to learn what a VPN is can only be a public good (tm).

 

[Rusty Metal Skull Gun]

Keith is gonna be real fucking boring I'm calling it now we get years of absolutely nothing interesting happening politically barring geopolitical funsies.

I would unironically vote for anyone who could guarantee that in five years' time things won't be worse than they are now. I'd love it if Sir Keir's time was boring. Instead we're going to get drugs, euthanasia, globalism, troonism...

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

I love how they present this story about how the corrupt and incompetent government has nuked the economy to the point even people of normal means are reduced to scrounging for pennies as some "quirky" and fun thing.

It's the Daily Star, they're pretty trashy even by tabloid standards.

That said the Jeffrey Archer matter shows that at times they could be right.

R8 me optimistic but gaybour pushing the envelope with the censorship shit will be a positive thing, forcing the normoids to learn what a VPN is can only be a public good (tm).

Sorted my hairdresser out with one a few years ago, alas he still used his personal mobile number when he joined telegram. He's in his late 60s though, can't expect perfect behaviour.

 

[teriyakiburns]

She violated the sanctity of the sacred market and therefore had to be deposed

Worse, it was one index, in a pretty esoteric market, that went down over a weekend and then immediately went back up again after it had been waved around by the press. People who normally called the stock markets a gigantic scam (they are) suddenly decided that this one index was the proof that the British economy was about to be destroyed by the Iceberg Dictator and went utterly insane.

The reality was, Kwarteng wanted to scale back IR35. His changes would have taken a huge tax burden off SMEs and single-employee ltds, but would also have threatened the profits of the mega consultancies (like Crapita) that seem mostly to exist as a retirement position for civil servants and a way to launder money into politicians bank accounts. That was the real threat of Truss''s administration; she would have ruined Sir Humphrey's retirement plans.

 

[Rusty Metal Skull Gun]

The reality was, Kwarteng wanted to scale back IR35. His changes would have taken a huge tax burden off SMEs and single-employee ltds, but would also have threatened the profits of the mega consultancies (like Crapita) that seem mostly to exist as a retirement position for civil servants and a way to launder money into politicians bank accounts. That was the real threat of Truss''s administration; she would have ruined Sir Humphrey's retirement plans.

I don't think that's it. IR35 was only ever really enforced in the public sector.

What's the one tax change in the last few years that absolutely everyone agrees makes no sense? The drastic increase in corporation tax, pushed for by the Yanks, which she attempted to reverse. I bet it eventually turns out she was brought down by American gayops.