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.

 

[Tony Martin's Force Ghost]

ehhh I always view the police as operating as a separate entity of the country's standards. They'd quickly arrest an old woman sitting on a bench at a beach during lockdown (this did happen). But fuck when it comes to arresting gippos who would probably fight them. Christ in an old job, I had a group of yobs on crack trying to smash through during lock up and the responder said go through the back. I had over 20k in takings to lock away and was demanding an incident number for insurance purposes.

The British people loathe the police much more than foreigners. A lot of Americans seem to think we love them, but we don't.

edited incase PC Plod is watching

 

[Coelacanth]

Does this not worry you ? The thought that the average plod is making these kinds of decisions is frankly terrifying to me.

It does, but the other problem with the Brits is that they breathe the "Keep Calm and Carry On" motto. It doesn't matter how rude or nasty someone else is acting, just keep your head down and have a cup of tea when you get home. It's painfully frustrating because being half American I've got that Southern stubbornness in me that clearly sees what has to be done but can't get the others to move. It's only when you have the likes of Adolf poking his head over the Channel Islands that Bongers finally get their shit together.

Wonder how many more like her there are in the NHS?

If they've emigrated, have a middle eastern background and have an accent so thick you can barely understand it nine times out of ten they're unqualified. I have about 20 years worth of experience being handled poorly by the NHS and the only time I've gotten any help is when the regular GPs weren't in. The ones that helped were usually older men who'd been in the health service for a very long time. It's exhausting.

 

[Amin Yasister]

Hannah Gaffey stands up on a flight as Home Office employees were deporting a criminal back to Jamaica and stops them doing so. She had boasted about doing so on her X account, which she has blocked people from.

How big a cunt do you have to be to stop someone being deported when you have no idea what offences he had commited?

Well, Hannah big actually.

https://metro.co.uk/2024/01/14/man-whose-deportation-stopped-plane-mutiny-jailed-shootout-20110831/amp/

Should she now be prosecuted and charged for for the costs associated with her actions?

 

[ロボ﹏§¤r﹏h¶rœ]

Civil servant given warning after ‘inappropriately’ saying there are two sides to the trans debate​

Archive

Work and pensions official investigated and found guilty of breaching department’s behaviour policy and rules on harassment

A civil servant was told by a Whitehall investigator that it was inappropriate to say there are two sides to the trans debate.
An official in the Department for Work and Pensions was reprimanded over a series of comments made during a discussion around transgender issues, including for saying “I think it’s useful to hear both sides of a subject”.

On March 11 2021, civil servants in the DWP met online for an International Women’s Day event entitled “What trans is and some of the issues faced”.

The call, in which officials were encouraged to submit written questions in an online chat, featured a transgender woman civil servant discussing issues faced by trans people in the UK.

One civil servant was subsequently investigated and found guilty of breaching the department’s behaviour policy and rules on harassment for their comments on the call.

‘Inappropriate comments relating to trans women’​

Among the remarks made by the civil servant, and branded as “inappropriate comments relating to trans women” by a DWP investigator, were the comments: “One of the things I struggle to understand as a lesbian myself is, how can trans women be lesbian as lesbian is same sex attracted, not gender?”, “I find the term cis very offensive”, “Sport is segregated because there is a difference” and “What if you don’t believe in gender? I don’t”.

Discussing the comment, “It’s useful to hear both sides of a subject,” a DWP investigator claimed that the “event did not appear to be a forum designed to generate debate on both sides of the subject” and therefore it was “inappropriate” and made in the wrong context.

The department’s investigation led to an official warning against the civil servant.

Employee ‘disciplined for a thought crime’​

Responding to the investigation, Kate Harris, co-founder of LGB Alliance, a gay rights charity, told The Telegraph: “The Civil Service was once renowned around the world for impartiality and integrity. Now the DWP believes it is sensible to discipline an employee for a thought crime.

“First she dared to say that a man cannot be a lesbian. Then she said that there is more than one view on sex and gender and - heaven forbid - both sides should be heard. Both of these are heresy in today’s Civil Service.

“It’s way past time for [Cabinet Secretary] Simon Case to take this seriously - does he really want his departments to let anti-democratic, anti-scientific bullies run riot through Whitehall?”

Following a discussion of whether men who identify as trans women should be able to participate in women’s sports, some civil servants argued for separated sports for men and women, while others claimed it was “false” that men and women have different bone density and muscle mass.

The civil servant who was investigated by the DWP replied “drink the kool aid” in response to those arguing for trans women to participate in women’s sports.

‘Likely to cause offence’​

The investigation found the phrase was not appropriate and likely to cause offence “as the origin of the phrase is linked to a mass suicide”.

While the phrase originated from a mass murder suicide of over 900 people in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978, it is commonly used to refer to those who display obedience to a cause or cult-like behaviour.
The DWP found that by using the phrase the civil servant was harassing colleagues on the call.

The civil servant’s comment that “I think IWD should centre [on] women really” was found “to exclude trans women from the relevance of International Women’s Day” and was therefore inappropriate.

When the civil servant was accused on the call by fellow officials of displaying “Terf [Trans exclusionary radical feminists] behaviour”, the civil servant responded by saying: “STOP BEING INSULTING”.

The investigation found the latter comment to be “not the appropriate manner in which to raise concerns about others behaviour/language as writing in all Caps letters is interpreted as aggressive and shouting when read out”.
A DWP spokesman said: “We don’t comment on individual staffing matters.”

 

[teriyakiburns]

General election: Labour would need record swing to win

aka the BBC anticipates the possibility of starmer fluffing it with his stupid flip-flopping and lays a cope foundation. It was boundary changes, gov!

 

[Amin Yasister]

They will win, but not because of the Labour Party policies, but because the Tories are weak and fuck up all they touch. Let alone Covid corruption.

Can they (or their coalition) put "right" 13 years of Tory Government in 4 years? I can see another election within two years of 2024 looming.....

 

[Rusty Metal Skull Gun]

They will win, but not because of the Labour Party policies, but because the Tories are weak and fuck up all they touch. Let alone Covid corruption.

Can they (or their coalition) put "right" 13 years of Tory Government in 4 years? I can see another election within two years of 2024 looming.....

My prediction is that the next Parliament will last four years, because even though everyone hates Starmer he'll have a solid majority, and the Conservatives won't yet have recovered.

All of the current problems with the country (immigration, low growth, etc.) will still be there in 2028, plus whatever lunacy Labour come up with in the meantime (but conveniently forget to put in their manifesto). Self ID, legalization of drugs, euthanasia, even more net zero...

 

[teriyakiburns]

They will win, but not because of the Labour Party policies, but because the Tories are weak and fuck up all they touch. Let alone Covid corruption.

Exactly. It's very much Labour's fight to lose at this point. The problem for them is, they're doing their level best to lose it. The media, the BBC especially, has been full-bore "labour will win a landslide" for most of the last year, throughout all of the gaffs and u-turns Starmer has made on supposedly core labour policies. It's obvious they've finally realised that there's no realistic way labour get a working majority, whence the laying foundations for the cope if/when the tories only lose by a gnat's cunt hair.

I've been saying for a while that a hung parliament and a labour/lib coalition, or a labour minority government with confidence and supply from the libs and snp, is the most likely outcome. It'll be a few years of firefighting and internal strife, with little ability to advance actual policies, and then we'll be almost at the deadline for the national ban on new cars and gas boilers. The Tories will likely return to government on the back of a popular rejection of the whole net zero initiative (even though they implemented most of it to begin with) and then pivot to trying to implement ID cards for milk deliveries, or something equally retarded.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

ID cards for milk deliveries, or something e

After the Post Office cock up I'm thinking ID cards to receive mail. Expanded under Labour to include e-mail.

 

[Coolio55]

After the Post Office cock up I'm thinking ID cards to receive mail. Expanded under Labour to include e-mail.

As-if they'd implement anything even vaguely percieved as an impediment to wogs stealing parcels.
I'd imagine them solely legislating emails and mobile phones.

 

[Dambusters' Dog II]

One wonders where this will all end ?

British people don't use spaces before end-of-sentence punctuation. Also, your post is clearly intended to make people shit themselves and do nothing. Some of us are trying to get people aware of these laws about "grossly offensive communications" and how the British government breaks its own rules about what communications are "grossly offensive" (which is why the autist who wrote nigga on Instagram won her appeal). The problem is that people see guys like Dankula and assume that a fat porridge-nigger with a lot of piercings must actually be a neo-Nazi and don't look any further into it.

It does, but the other problem with the Brits is that they breathe the "Keep Calm and Carry On" motto.

"Keep Calm and Carry On" was a rejected propaganda poster from the start of World War II in 1939, and only ever used unofficially during the war. This one was officially used:

Nobody had heard of "Keep Calm and Carry On" before it was rediscovered around the year 2000, but then people decided that it would be the next "Live, laugh, love" and that it had always been there in the same bizarre Orwellian advertising that led to people claiming their grandparents had had Werther's Originals as children when they were only introduced to the UK in 1992. Maybe British redditors live and breathe it, but that's because they're niggercattle.

Civil servant given warning after ‘inappropriately’ saying there are two sides to the trans debate

This is another example of how they view trying to be "reasonable" as a weakness, which emboldens them to attack harder.

 

[Snekposter]

Exactly. It's very much Labour's fight to lose at this point. The problem for them is, they're doing their level best to lose it. The media, the BBC especially, has been full-bore "labour will win a landslide" for most of the last year, throughout all of the gaffs and u-turns Starmer has made on supposedly core labour policies. It's obvious they've finally realised that there's no realistic way labour get a working majority, whence the laying foundations for the cope if/when the tories only lose by a gnat's cunt hair.

I've been saying for a while that a hung parliament and a labour/lib coalition, or a labour minority government with confidence and supply from the libs and snp, is the most likely outcome. It'll be a few years of firefighting and internal strife, with little ability to advance actual policies, and then we'll be almost at the deadline for the national ban on new cars and gas boilers. The Tories will likely return to government on the back of a popular rejection of the whole net zero initiative (even though they implemented most of it to begin with) and then pivot to trying to implement ID cards for milk deliveries, or something equally retarded.

At least Joe Biden's excuse for being a vacillating non-entity is that he's gone completely senile. What's Starmer's?

 

[Vesperus]

"Keep Calm and Carry On" was a rejected propaganda poster from the start of World War II in 1939, and only ever used unofficially during the war.

Not exactly true - it was accepted and millions were printed, but the uk suffered a paper shortage before they were put up so the majority of them got pulped.

...the same bizarre Orwellian advertising that led to people claiming their grandparents had had Werther's Originals as children when they were only introduced to the UK in 1992.

The name should really give you a clue here. The original Werthers had been kicking around since the start of the 20th century before falling out of favour: They were then re-introduced as "Werther's Original".
Kids not exactly memorizing an old brand name is not some Orwellian plot to gaslight you.

Sounds like somebody needs a Marathon.

 

[Rusty Metal Skull Gun]

At least Joe Biden's excuse for being a vacillating non-entity is that he's gone completely senile. What's Starmer's?

It's working for him so far. He doesn't have to be popular, he just has to be less unpopular than Sunak.

 

[Dambusters' Dog II]

The name should really give you a clue here. The original Werthers had been kicking around since the start of the 20th century before falling out of favour: They were then re-introduced as "Werther's Original".

That's not true for the UK. When they were Werthers Echte they were not imported to the UK. They were imported to the UK starting in 1992 under the name Werther's Originals, but the ad featured an old man who said he was giving them to his grandchildren just like his grandfather had given them to him (I used to joke that the grandfather must have been a Luftwaffe pilot who bailed out and then successfully blended in instead of being captured). The purpose of the advertising was that they knew young people wouldn't just spontaneously start buying them and they had to get established in the right niche - old people. The thing was, loads of old people just went along with it and uncritically believed the advertising. That's the Orwellian part. I'm not claiming the government was involved or any other stupid idea you'd like to attribute to me.

Not exactly true - it was accepted and millions were printed, but the uk suffered a paper shortage before they were put up so the majority of them got pulped.

By used I meant being actually posted up where the public could see them, not printed, hence the general public was not aware of the slogan until the 2000s. The article you linked mentions the rejection (my emphasis):

It was only when initial reports on civilian morale pointed to boredom rather than dislocation, that a newly appointed director of Home Publicity decided to ‘go slow’ and asked for funds to be transferred to produce an additional 750,000 copies of ‘Your Courage’ and ‘Freedom is in Peril’.
This decision can be partly attributed to changes in staff and responsibility as the MOI moved out of the shadows and into the glare of public attention. However it was also likely to have been influenced by an unease that had surrounded the slogan since its inception. The individual responsible for sanctioning expenditure at the Treasury had, for instance, expressed real fear that ‘the population might well resent having this poster crammed down their throats at every turn’ whilst Waterfield maintained that the slogan was ‘too commonplace to be inspiring’ and feared that ‘it may even annoy people that we should seem to doubt the steadiness of their nerves’.

 

[Snekposter]

It's working for him so far. He doesn't have to be popular, he just has to be less unpopular than Sunak.

Eh... its debatable. A wet sack of manure has more charisma and backbone than he does, and so the only reason I can assume Sunak might lose is because he's an Indian and therefore cannot properly dispose of fecal matter of any sort.

 

[Overly Serious]

Yep, the graun is sort of like wikipedia in that sense. It has a fuckton of cash on hand, but it begs for pennies from its almost exclusively middle class readership, to trick them into thinking it's a poor freedom fighter against the oppressive oligarchs that run the world. This despite the fact that its columns are filled with the alcohol-soaked ramblings of upper-middle-class yummy mummies, Americans, and various other rich twats, with the occasional token paki for diversity points.

The Guardian has been around a very long time and has always cast itself as the underdog and always been a tool for political propaganda. I often enjoy contrasting it with the Spectator magazine.


https://www.spectator.co.uk/ .


The Spectator is moderately right wing and has been around for a similar period (without the massive trust fund that the Guardian enjoys and yet is still somehow cheaper). Interestingly the Guardian campaigned FOR slavery in the Americas whilst the Spectator campaigned against it. Such as things ever were.

One wonders where this will all end ? Is it now a criminal act to offend someone

In Bongland, yes. But also it doesn't need to be an actual criminal charge. The police have powers to issue various orders and warnings (to go on your file) without having to go to courts over it.

Bad taste yes, but Brits have always had gallows humour. Some one famous dies, and within minutes, jokes about them are being shared.

The day after Princess Diana died, somebody said to me: "What's the difference between a Skoda and a Mercades Benz...? Diana wouldn't be seen dead in a Skoda!"

The police do. We have a number of laws now, where the operative clauses hinge on the "feeling" of an investigating officer. If they "feel" that something is grossly offensive or indecent, then the law is broken and they can arrest you. Given how much they enjoy arresting people for hurting their own feelings, these recent laws are a god-send for the rozzers. They can arrest whoever they like, at any time they like, and be pretty sure of a prosecution.

And even if they don't get the prosecution, the process is the punishment. It can be very harmful to ones career to be charged and dragged through that process.

Discussing the comment, “It’s useful to hear both sides of a subject,” a DWP investigator claimed that the “event did not appear to be a forum designed to generate debate on both sides of the subject” and therefore it was “inappropriate” and made in the wrong context.

The particularly egregious thing here is the subtext that someone can just declare when you are and are not allowed to challenge something. I've seen this myself - it ends with uncontested putting out of a view and then some go-nowhere, unattended sideshow at best where people are allowed to discuss.

. It's painfully frustrating because being half American I've got that Southern stubbornness in me that clearly sees what has to be done but can't get the others to move.

Yes - this is the killer. You can speak out, you can get people to sort of agree with you privately. But very few will actually take action or even voice support. The British are possibly the most obedient people I have ever encountered with the possible exception of the Germans.

 

[ロボ﹏§¤r﹏h¶rœ]

Private youth gender clinic approved by regulator​

Archive

A private hormone clinic for transgender young people has become the first in the UK to receive approval from England’s health watchdog.
The Gender Plus Hormone Clinic has been approved by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to prescribe hormones for those over the age of 16.

It comes just weeks before the only NHS gender-identity service for children in England and Wales is to shut down, with replacement services promised to open this spring.
Young people questioning their gender identity currently face a wait of five years for a first appointment on the NHS.

Clinical psychologists​

The new clinic is part of private service Gender Plus, which offers young people questioning their gender identity psychological support for a fee.

On its website, the CQC says new services are checked to ensure they are “safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well led”.
The approval means Gender Plus, which has offices in London, Birmingham and Dublin, will be able to prescribe hormones to over-16s in the UK who have been assessed by a team of clinical psychologists across a minimum of six sessions.

Not all patients will be suitable for hormones, clinicians say, and the clinic will not prescribe puberty-blocking treatment.

Some transgender people take cross-sex hormones to help change their physical characteristics and relieve distress about their body not aligning with their gender identity.

The NHS says their long-term use, external may have some side effects and can eventually lead to permanent infertility.
Care for children and young people struggling with their gender identity has been at the centre of controversy and debate over recent years.
The Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), part of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, was rated "inadequate" by the CQC and is set to close at the end of March.

An independent report commissioned by NHS England, external called for care to be "fundamentally different", as the complex needs of some young people, such as eating disorders or autism-spectrum disorders, had been overlooked.

'Highest standard'​

Gender Plus is run by a number of clinicians who worked at Gids previously.
Senior clinical psychologist and founder Dr Aidan Kelly said: “In this area where there’s so much scrutiny and uncertainty from parents, patients and other professionals, this [CQC approval] is a stamp of approval and lets people know we are held to the highest standard.”

Patients would be offered support that took into account their gender, neurodiversity, sexual orientation and mental health, to develop a care plan, he added.

New NHS clinics are set to open in the south of England in April, with another in the north-west in the autumn.
The NHS has predicted there will be more than 3,000 referrals per year.

 

[Spud]

What's Starmer's?

He's a labor MP. Doesn't mean the torries are better though, 10 years and record immigration is the torrie legacy.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-67509978

A crane operator has rescued a worker from a roof close to a burning building.
Firefighters were called to the Station Hill development in Reading, which has since been cordoned off, at 11:40 GMT.
Video footage from social media shows a person being lifted by a crane from the roof of a building, prompting applause from a crowd below.
Crane operator Glen Edwards said it had been a "very close call" due to swirling winds.
"I looked out my left-hand window and saw a guy standing on the corner of the building," said the 65-year-old, from Egham, Surrey.
"I'd only just seen him and someone said 'can you get the cage on', so that was it, I got the cage on and got it over to him the best I could.
"I tried to put the cage down between him and the flames, but I was hampered by the wind swirling around there.
"But I got the cage down and I managed to get him in there."


The blaze, which created a huge amount of black smoke, has now been been put out by Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Group Manager Chris Hearn said during the incident another person was also rescued using a crane.
South Central Ambulance Service said two people were taken to the Royal Berkshire Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, but neither case was severe.

Local residents and businesses were urged to avoid the area, stay indoors and to keep windows closed.
More than 50 firefighters attended the blaze, along with the air ambulance and an incident command unit.
Tom Canning, who was on his way to a meeting, said there were crowds of people watching the fire from below.
He said: "I worked out as I walked closer to my office that it was the new development on Station Hill - it looked horrific, just massive plumes of black smoke.
"The crane operator was just incredibly brave to rescue that worker."

Steve Reynolds works in a building 100 yards away from where the fire started.
He said: "I saw a black cloud go up and a ball of flames happen and all of a sudden I could see there was a guy trapped on the corner.
"There were bits of glass falling off the side of the building and he was completely exposed up there.
"Then all of a sudden a crane came out from the left with a carriage on it and they lowered it down… and he gets in and they pull him away.
"There was a massive cheer from all the workers on the ground. It was pretty terrifying."
Peter, who runs a local cafe, said the fire was "really quite dramatic - thick billowing smoke and lots of flames".
"We immediately got rid of all our customers - that's all we could think to do," he said.
Aaron, who was a bystander, said it was the "most devastating thing" he had seen in his life.
"I thought the flames and smoke were going to break the glass," he added.

Another witness said: "I was in the next door building, there was a guy standing up there, luckily the crane came in just in time.
"He was coughing [when he came down], from the smoke.
"When he got inside the crane and the crane put him down everyone was clapping.
"The crane operator was very fast. He was still in the crane while the building was on fire."
Redwood Consulting, on behalf of the Station Hill redevelopment project, said: "We activated our fire emergency plans immediately, the emergency services were notified and are currently on site.
"The safety of those on site and the wider public is always our first priority, and the site has been evacuated as a result."

Old article but the various videos of it were interesting.