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
See spread happiness's other Tweets
Twitter Ads info and privacy


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."

View image on Twitter


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

The hype got me like #Greggs #Veganuary

42
10:28 AM - Jan 3, 2019
See pg often's other Tweets
Twitter Ads info and privacy


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.

 

[Random Internet Person]

Britons paying hundreds of millions to turn off wind turbines as network can't handle the power they make on the windiest days

The cables that transfer the power from the north to the south can't safely deal with the amount of power the turbines generate on some days. The National Grid paid £215m to get them shut off last year - a cost that eventually ends up on people's bills.

news.sky.com

Britons paying hundreds of millions to turn off wind turbines as netw…

archived 1 Mar 2023 16:57:50 UTC

archive.ph

UK consumers are paying hundreds of millions of pounds to turn wind turbines off because the grid cannot deal with how much electricity they make on the windiest days.

The energy regulator Ofgem has told Sky News it is because the grid is "not yet fit for purpose" as the country transitions to a clean power system by 2035.

But at the moment there aren't enough cables between Scotland and England to do that.

There is one major undersea cable off the west coast of the UK, and two main junctions between the Scottish and English transmission networks on land.

This bottleneck means that when it is very windy there is actually too much electricity for these cables to handle without risking damage.

And because we can't store excess renewable energy at the necessary scale yet, the National Grid Electricity System Operator has no option but to ask wind generators to turn off their turbines.



Advertisement
According to analysis by energy technology company Axle Energy, using publicly available data from the electricity system's balancing market platform Elexon, in 2022 the National Grid spent £215m paying wind generators to turn off, reducing the total amount generated by 6%, and a further £717m turning on gas turbines located closer to the source of demand, in order to fill the gap.

These costs are eventually passed to UK consumers as part of the network costs section on energy bills.


Constraint costs are not just restricted to clean, cheap wind power.

In order to balance the system, the National Grid pays fossil fuel generators to ramp production up and down when necessary too.

But there is a particular focus on the impact of increasing levels of variable renewable generation and how that can be best managed.

'A huge risk - and a waste'

Director of policy for the renewable industry group RenewableUK, Ana Musat, told Sky News her members have been calling for upgrades to the grid for years.

She is now concerned the lack of transmission capacity may jeopardise the government's promise to decarbonise power generation by 2035 and get to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

She said: "It's a huge risk. We're wasting power instead of exporting it or using it and this is really cheap power that we're wasting.

"And I would also say as an investment signal, it's not great.

"If you think about a developer that wants to build wind farms in the UK, they know that it's not easy to connect to the transmission system, they know there's not enough capacity.

"So it's a really huge non-financial barrier that we're seeing and it's a big deterrent."



The energy department and Ofgem recognise the problem.

They recently set out joint plans to "overhaul" underwater and onshore transmission networks to connect up to 50GW of offshore wind to the grid by 2030, including two new undersea cables between Scotland and England that have already been approved.

But in a statement to Sky News an Ofgem spokesperson admitted the grid was not yet "fit for purpose".

They said: "Consumers must not pay the price for any foot dragging on net zero.

"Our transmission and distribution networks are not yet fit for purpose in getting secure, affordable and cleaner electricity to every part of the country.

"That's why we're investing in and overhauling electricity networks so we reach net-zero power at the lowest cost to consumers.

"We're speeding up planning reforms and regulatory approvals to increase network capacity rapidly.

"We're doubling investment by 2028 in expanding local grids to handle millions of new electric vehicles and heat pumps - plus improving energy security by increasing electricity storage; stripping out network congestion and stronger connections with other countries."


The National Grid ESO has set out plans for a £50bn 'Holistic Network Design' that would connect more wind power to the grid by 2030.

But it also has to manage congestion on the grid using the infrastructure that exists, and is already working on schemes to reduce costs around the transmission bottleneck between Scotland and England.

In a statement they told Sky News: "As Great Britain's electricity system operator, we operate the system in the most cost effective way for the consumer, keeping capital costs as low as possible.

"Like many system operators across the world we make constraint payments when it is more economical to temporarily reduce wind output, for example, than build expensive new infrastructure.

"We constantly analyse constraint costs versus the building of new assets and are working with industry to reduce the impact of network constraints whilst building a greener system.

The Department for Energy and Net Zero is also increasing funding and encouraging private investment in grid scale battery storage and the development of green hydrogen production using excess renewable energy, as well as delivering more nuclear power to help compensate for the variability of renewable power.

 

[AnOminous]

She said: "It's a huge risk. We're wasting power instead of exporting it or using it and this is really cheap power that we're wasting.

>really cheap power
>that it costs over a billion just to flip the off switch

 

[Johan Schmidt]

>Electrical grid cannot store power because that's not how electricity works
>Build all new power input systems to not be controllable or easily adjustable to fit grid demands.
>They do not fit grid demands.

Am I the retard? Is it me? Am I the fucking moron here? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, because this is blindingly obvious to anyone with a brain?

 

[Quack_Quack]

I'd give anything to have wogan commentating...

Get Graham Norton pissed and it'll be close.

>Electrical grid cannot store power because that's not how electricity works
>Build all new power input systems to not be controllable or easily adjustable to fit grid demands.
>They do not fit grid demands.

Am I the retard? Is it me? Am I the fucking moron here? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, because this is blindingly obvious to anyone with a brain?

Massive fucking batteries?

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Get Graham Norton pissed and it'll be close.



Massive fucking batteries?

Might work during the summer, but during the autumn and winter? Not a chance in hell.

 

[East_Clintwood]

Massive fucking batteries?

Yes, sort of. On the scale of a national power grid you need to use a gravity battery rather than a traditional chemical one. Normally because of the loss of efficiency they're technically a net user, rather than genertor, of electricity, and they're mostly used to reduce the cost of peak times. However they'd be great ina situation like this where it's a case of use the electricity and get some return, or turn off the power entirely and lose it (and money) anyway.

 

[AnOminous]

Yes, sort of. On the scale of a national power grid you need to use a gravity battery rather than a traditional chemical one. Normally because of the loss of efficiency they're technically a net user, rather than genertor, of electricity, and they're mostly used to reduce the cost of peak times. However they'd be great ina situation like this where it's a case of use the electricity and get some return, or turn off the power entirely and lose it (and money) anyway.

They had to have spent billions just to build this shit, couldn't they have spent a few million to hire some smart people to tell them how grids work?

 

[Bored & Confused]

Charles Bronson's public parole hearing is scheduled for next week (Monday the 6th & Wednesday the 8th).

Charles Bronson: Public parole hearing due for notorious prisoner

The 70-year-old, who is due to face a public Parole Board hearing, was first jailed in the 1970s.

www.bbc.com

Archive Link

When Charles Bronson's parole hearing is, and whether he could be released

A public parole board hearing for Bronson is set for Monday 6 and Wednesday 8 March at the Royal Courts of Justice in London

inews.co.uk

Archive Link

Spoiler

The notorious prisoner was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, in December 1952 as Michael Peterson.
He was convicted of armed robbery in 1974 and earned a reputation as a violent and dangerous inmate.
The former bare-knuckle boxer changed his name to Charles Bronson during a brief spell of freedom in the 1980s, but now uses the name Charles Salvador.
He chose the name as a homage to the Spanish artist Salvador Dali.

While in prison, Bronson has created a number of artworks and many have been sold, with some proceeds donated to charity.

In 2014, a sale of 200 of his pieces raised more than £30,000 at auction.
He has had several books published, including ones about his prison fitness regime and his time at Broadmoor Hospital.
A film starring Tom Hardy, released in 2009, also dramatised Bronson's time in prison.

Bronson was first jailed aged 22 in 1974 for armed robbery and wounding.
Since then he has only had brief spells out of prison and is believed to spend much of his time in solitary confinement.
He has become notorious for attacks on prison staff and other inmates.
In 1975 he attacked a fellow prisoner with a glass jug and in 1985 he carried out a three-day rooftop protest.
In 1994, Bronson held a prison librarian hostage and demanded an inflatable doll, a helicopter and a cup of tea as ransom.
Four years later, he took three inmates hostage at Belmarsh Prison in London.
Then 12 months on, he took a prison education worker hostage for 44 hours at HMP Hull and was sentenced to a discretionary life term, with a minimum of four years.
He received a further two-year jail term in 2014 for holding a prison governor in a headlock at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
In 2017 he was refused parole while an inmate at HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire.

A year later, he was cleared of trying to seriously harm a prison governor.
During his trial, Bronson admitted he had been a "very nasty man" in the past, as he described to the jury how during his time in prison he had held 11 hostages in nine different sieges - including governors, doctors, staff and, on one occasion, his solicitor.
In a documentary being aired by Channel 4, Bronson said he could "taste freedom".
He said: "The system have labelled me for so many years untameable, untreatable, unpredictable, dangerous, blah, blah, blah. I've had every label you can think of.
"But at the end of the day, what people don't realise, since George, my son, has come into my life, I've changed and... George has got me the best legal team in the world... I'm coming home, I'm definitely coming home."

In 2020 Bronson won a court case arguing for a public parole hearing and in 2022, rules were changed to allow such hearings to take place.
In December, the first public hearing occurred. It was regarding Russell Causley, who murdered his wife Carole Packman in Bournemouth in 1985.
The board decided Causley was fit for release and he has since been freed.
Bronson's hearing is due to take place on 6 and 8 March at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
The Parole Board's duty will be to decide whether Bronson presents a danger to others. If the risks are deemed low, he could be released on a life licence.

 

[Eat to the beat]

Charles Bronson's public parole hearing is scheduled for next week (Monday the 6th & Wednesday the 8th).

Charles Bronson: Public parole hearing due for notorious prisoner

The 70-year-old, who is due to face a public Parole Board hearing, was first jailed in the 1970s.

www.bbc.com

Archive Link

When Charles Bronson's parole hearing is, and whether he could be released

A public parole board hearing for Bronson is set for Monday 6 and Wednesday 8 March at the Royal Courts of Justice in London

inews.co.uk

Archive Link

Spoiler

The notorious prisoner was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, in December 1952 as Michael Peterson.
He was convicted of armed robbery in 1974 and earned a reputation as a violent and dangerous inmate.
The former bare-knuckle boxer changed his name to Charles Bronson during a brief spell of freedom in the 1980s, but now uses the name Charles Salvador.
He chose the name as a homage to the Spanish artist Salvador Dali.

While in prison, Bronson has created a number of artworks and many have been sold, with some proceeds donated to charity.

In 2014, a sale of 200 of his pieces raised more than £30,000 at auction.
He has had several books published, including ones about his prison fitness regime and his time at Broadmoor Hospital.
A film starring Tom Hardy, released in 2009, also dramatised Bronson's time in prison.

Bronson was first jailed aged 22 in 1974 for armed robbery and wounding.
Since then he has only had brief spells out of prison and is believed to spend much of his time in solitary confinement.
He has become notorious for attacks on prison staff and other inmates.
In 1975 he attacked a fellow prisoner with a glass jug and in 1985 he carried out a three-day rooftop protest.
In 1994, Bronson held a prison librarian hostage and demanded an inflatable doll, a helicopter and a cup of tea as ransom.
Four years later, he took three inmates hostage at Belmarsh Prison in London.
Then 12 months on, he took a prison education worker hostage for 44 hours at HMP Hull and was sentenced to a discretionary life term, with a minimum of four years.
He received a further two-year jail term in 2014 for holding a prison governor in a headlock at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
In 2017 he was refused parole while an inmate at HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire.

A year later, he was cleared of trying to seriously harm a prison governor.
During his trial, Bronson admitted he had been a "very nasty man" in the past, as he described to the jury how during his time in prison he had held 11 hostages in nine different sieges - including governors, doctors, staff and, on one occasion, his solicitor.
In a documentary being aired by Channel 4, Bronson said he could "taste freedom".
He said: "The system have labelled me for so many years untameable, untreatable, unpredictable, dangerous, blah, blah, blah. I've had every label you can think of.
"But at the end of the day, what people don't realise, since George, my son, has come into my life, I've changed and... George has got me the best legal team in the world... I'm coming home, I'm definitely coming home."

In 2020 Bronson won a court case arguing for a public parole hearing and in 2022, rules were changed to allow such hearings to take place.
In December, the first public hearing occurred. It was regarding Russell Causley, who murdered his wife Carole Packman in Bournemouth in 1985.
The board decided Causley was fit for release and he has since been freed.
Bronson's hearing is due to take place on 6 and 8 March at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
The Parole Board's duty will be to decide whether Bronson presents a danger to others. If the risks are deemed low, he could be released on a life licence.

I don’t usually have any time for celebrity violent types but Nicholas Winding Refns’ film, Bronson is superb. The man never really finished growing up. I expect there is a danger of some wanting to ‘’ave a go‘ if he was released. He strikes me as the sort who’s buttons are easily pushed.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

Well

The United Kingdom Home Secretary Suella Braverman warned against Islamist extremism and cautioned that 'political correctness' in the larger scheme of things for British national security has created a blind spot for such extremism to flourish.

Didn't see that coming

 

[Foghorns at a Funeral]

Well
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VjtwwUsZbtk
Didn't see that coming

It is because they recently found out that Prevent was entirely staffed with leftist infiltrators who were going on and on about incels and none existent right winger terrorism in the UK while letting the muzzies rape kids and stab MPs.
I saw it myself on Talk TV when that MP got stabbed by that Jihadi, they had one of the fags on and he all he said was WHAT ABOUT DA INCELS!!!!!

 

[Coolio55]

Well
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VjtwwUsZbtk
Didn't see that coming

I'll believe it when I see some response that isn't shucking and jiving while "accidentally" letting more of this crap pass and shrugging their shoulders as if they aren't running the country or something.

 

[frap]

Well
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VjtwwUsZbtk
Didn't see that coming

They've been in government for 13 years. Ok they could write off the first five as coalition. Even one year after that because Cameron was still PM. But in the 7 years since they've done nothing except continue the soft touch that Labour started. Yet British people continue losing rights because of those who choose to come here to ostensibly escape oppression then try to edit our culture to fit what they left behind. Fuck the fuck off. The Tories are meant to be conservative, not progressive.

Literally, at this point, pretty much the only country in Europe even trying to push back against Islam is the fucking French.

Null talks about Dems and GOP being the same. It's true of Labour and Tories too.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Null talks about Dems and GOP being the same. It's true of Labour and Tories too.

They all went to the same schools, attend the same clubs, fuck the same children, and mingle at the same parties. More in common with politicians in other countries than they have with the people of this country.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

Well

Under new legislation, Channel migrants would be removed from the UK, banned from future re-entry and barred from applying for British citizenship. Supporters say the PM is "getting a grip" on illegal migration. The government is expected to outline the plans on Tuesday.

 

[Coolio55]

Well
https://youtube.com/watch?v=EjRCqPYGkQw

There'll probably be some stupid clause nullifying the entire point but I graciously await the mass seething.

 

[Inquisitor_BadAss]

Well
https://youtube.com/watch?v=EjRCqPYGkQw

This won’t stop anything. As long as France and the UK allow for the people smugglers and NGO’s who aid in their activities continue to function these fuckers will still show up.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

An update on the migrants bill

The Illegal Migration Bill is set to prevent those arriving illegally from claiming asylum, and will block them from returning or seeking citizenship. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was "fair for those at home and those who have a legitimate claim to asylum".

 

[Johan Schmidt]

An update on the migrants bill
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-wvEau79_Qo

1) I literally do not believe the Paki.
2) Even if I did believe the Paki, the 'legitimate claim' he's talking about is so nebulous and absurdly broad it doesn't matter.
3) We don't have the tracking manpower, and effective bureaucracy or inertia to even implement this should the other two issues become non relevant.

 

[Help I'm A BritFag]

An update on the migrants bill
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-wvEau79_Qo

Tories have zero intention of stemming the tide of boat people, since they drive down wages, make a fortune for their friends in the security/hospitality industry who process and house the hundreds that are arriving every day, and keep racial tensions simmering to divide and conquer the plebs. This proposed legislation, assuming it even passes, will be intentionally vaguely worded and be full of easily exploited loopholes so that when it inevitably fails to put a dent in the immigration numbers the government can shrug their shoulders and say "Oh well, we tried to stop the boat people, but those darned lefty lawyers outwitted us again, we'll get tough on those Johnny Foreigners soon, honest!"

And of course, people will believe all this bullshit and keep voting for them to do nothing.