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.

 

[Otterly]

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist

One of my favourites. And one I like to recommend to people who are for unfettered capitalism. The young apprentice sickening from mixing the lead paint is a case in point - Lead paint was known to be toxic for a very long time - Benjamin Franklin wrote someone a letter on it. The book was written in 1914(?) and by that time France had already banned lead paint for use in interior and exterior house painting uses. But England carried on using it because screw the poor.
It’s a great book, and pretty harrowing - the descriptions of the older painters working until death or destitution, well that’s what the ruling class wants for us. Raise the pension age and hope they freeze to death. It also shows that for all the organising, a lot of people don’t care, and that he only improves his situation through a mix of a stroke of luck, and hard work and skill.
This and The Road To Wigan Pier are ones that remain with me. The dreariness and the banality and the casual cruelty

 

[Kofi Drinka]

Just checking context clues, are you saying the guy was a migrant? I've seen a number of migrants in my area but not aware of any hotels being given over to the purpose. I'm suspecting either they're managing to keep individual room rentals very down low or they're going into private accommodation. They all seem to have bikes as well for some reason.

Hotels are only one of the ways they host them. They rent privately or give them council houses. There was an article last week on how Reform councils were being told to give entire streets for illegals to live in.

How the fuck does it get to this point? In what logical path do you take where you think it's easier running a people smuggling ring this large than it is to secure a border across an ocean. I know it's ideological and it's all about sticking it to the white people but still. The amount of money, effort and man power needed put's Greggs sausage rolls to shame. If they put that much effort into them the Vegan ones might be worth eating!

Spoiler: How to fix sausage rolls.

Put a bit of apple in them. Apple and pork pies are one of the best foods and exceptionally ENGLISH. Sausage rolls with a little apple is almost as good

 

[Convallaria majalis]

I'm confused. There were always estimated grades you used for applying to universities etc. but you still had to get the actual grades from your coursework and exams. Are you saying that even today kids are still getting actual grade awards based on estimates? How is that not a scandal? Is that widespread?

I believe if you cite "muh mentals" as extenuating circumstances (who can't) they will still do this. I think Covid set a lot of precedents that we haven't borne the rotten fruit of yet.

 

[Muad'Dick]

Are we seriously breadbooking people in this thread? In these troubled times?

Its a bap.

 

[Made In Wales]

I believe if you cite "muh mentals" as extenuating circumstances (who can't) they will still do this. I think Covid set a lot of precedents that we haven't borne the rotten fruit of yet.

Sadly, this is very true.

Going back to the Reform UK football shirt, I saw a post on Twitter/X from a Coventry fan angry that Reform UK had used 'their colours' and was making threats to kill anybody who wore one.

When somebody said 'well then, you'll end up in Prison and your life and that of of your family and friends will also be ruined' he went even more berserk.

Finally, when told 'you aren't going to change people's minds, you're acting like a whiny baby and I don't even like Nigel/Reform' by another fan his response was 'I'm going to kill myself.'

These people need removing from society - oh, and the whiny sod's job... an NHS Mental Health Consultant in Bedworth, Warwickshire.

 

[Otterly]

It's getting hard to engage boys with reading because the new stuff isn't there for them to discover and the old stuff is ignored by education.

The feminisation of publishing is not a good thing (we had a thread on this a while back.) having said that, English lit. Classes are for studying lit, and the ‘sparking a love of reading’ needs to come before that. What you’re describing is that, I think - a lack of a reading immersion culture so that kids are turned off books and so when they come to study them they find it really hard.
Schools can’t do that first step, it has to be something the children do. I suppose it’s a bit like music. You can love music, and you can certainly get Ok at knocking out tunes without a bit of study. There are plenty of popular artists who are genuinely good who can’t even read music, I’m told. But if you want to get really good, you’ve got to study it and do all the not fun stuff like arpeggios and theory. And that will not be easy for a kid who doesn’t even like music to start with. A kid who loves music will at least try.
I grew up before games consoles were a thing and I was an early and obsessive reader, but I don’t think you can force that. Star Wars isn’t really the kind of calibre you can study, it’s more for getting kids to love reading. The hobbit for sure, and I’ve never seen that in a reading list which puzzles me.
Maybe we need to make boredom great again? Games are so immersive kids don’t get the same hit from reading.

Shakespeare being taught to 11 or 12 year olds. That's just... they're really going to struggle.

Yeah I agree with that as well. We did Shakespeare final year or so before GCSEs and for A level. I remember not enjoying Midnight’s children either, I dont think that’s really a book kids would get, even teens.
How do we get children to sit and read a book when they have a whole world of immersive pew pew action?

 

[Overly Serious]

I remember not enjoying Midnight’s children either,

I'm not surprised. Salman Rushdie is a good writer in some ways - he is good with description. But some of his themes and ideas are rather uninteresting. I read The Satanic Verses as a kid and I like the beginning and earlier parts but it got really boring as it went on.

As to how you get kids to read in a world of pew pew? I don't know. Keep them away from the pew pew, I guess.

 

[Angry Alt Right Nerd]

Maybe you doorknobs should give up on this reading books shit, it's impossible in the age of video games and internet.

 

[Geoff Capes Vapes Apes]

Just let kids read what they want to. Young lads want adventure, a bit of violence, excitement. Start them on the Famous Five or some such (and not the modern wokified versions), Heinlein juveniles, Terry Pratchett, just for god's sake don't try and force them to read stuff about depressed fat girls in children's homes or gay vampires or whatever shite is being pushed as children's literature now.

 

[Tony Martin's Force Ghost]

@Overly Serious, One issue we are having is that the illegals are being housed at the local city, about 10 miles but then backpacking around the nicer areas. I have seen it happening a lot. I will be in the local woodland and will just see an Arab walking around, clearly not knowing where the fuck he is. It's always males. I have started taking a pen knife with me on country walks now, and I strangely enough found out the local wasps do too. A few of us have called the police and local authorities numerous times, saying these people are clearly undocumented and not in their zone of documentation. I had a local officer (a good one) come, and I said, "All it takes is one occurrence, and what was a nice area turns to shit." I am classed as vulnerable as I have a major disability, but I can defend myself; 80 year old Doris cannot.

I did call the local police earlier about the incident last night, as the area sadly has had a large influx of blacks, Indians, and Arabs, and the locals are on edge. A lot of local women whom I meet walking their dogs, say they always finish their walks by 8 o'clock because they "don't feel safe at night." I passed this on to them as I said, "This has been progressively noticeable in just a few weeks." Usually, things like this take months to take hold.

 

[The Crack Spiders Bitch]

As a boy I never read books.

And it shows.

 

[Kofi Drinka]

Sadly, this is very true.

Going back to the Reform UK football shirt, I saw a post on Twitter/X from a Coventry fan angry that Reform UK had used 'their colours' and was making threats to kill anybody who wore one.

When somebody said 'well then, you'll end up in Prison and your life and that of of your family and friends will also be ruined' he went even more berserk.

Finally, when told 'you aren't going to change people's minds, you're acting like a whiny baby and I don't even like Nigel/Reform' by another fan his response was 'I'm going to kill myself.'

These people need removing from society - oh, and the whiny sod's job... an NHS Mental Health Consultant in Bedworth, Warwickshire.

Report them to the old bill. Would be funny if people kept reporting and wellness checking the retards on twitter.

I grew up before games consoles were a thing and I was an early and obsessive reader, but I don’t think you can force that. Star Wars isn’t really the kind of calibre you can study, it’s more for getting kids to love reading. The hobbit for sure, and I’ve never seen that in a reading list which puzzles me.
Maybe we need to make boredom great again? Games are so immersive kids don’t get the same hit from reading.

The way to start kids off reading well is for the father of the family to read them a bed time story every night. It has to specifically be the father because they need to bond with the kids in a way mothers don't. He can take them to fantasy worlds like Middle Earth or Neverland and do the silly voices. Start small, work up to Hobbits, Discworlds and Redwall. Not only is it great bonding, it also fires up the imagination which kids today are in danger of never developing.

"You can't study Star wars" is an interesting phrase. But I'm going to ask "Why should we study Shakespeare?" We touched on how education has become a way to waste kids time and teach them useless shit they will never use in life. Shakespeare is right up there with useless shit you're never going to use. Red Dwarf said it best when they said Shakespeare was used to torture children and Rimmer pronounced his excellence with the "Now...." speech.

What good does Big Baz and Little Terry get from learning Shakespeare in school? What possible benefit does Romeo and Juliet have to those two living a working class life? It's a load of wank to them, puts them off reading and makes them bored at school. Little Terry would be far more engaged with Harry Potter, maybe the class reads Harry Potter and then they put on a small stage production of it at the end of the year. Far more engaging, they learn to enjoy reading and then get a reward and a school play at the end of it. Kids can even help select the scenes that go into the play and learn to write something at the same time. I think you could see the benefit of Harry Potter as an education tool in that way. Shakespeare is so fixed and up it's own arse at this point that it shouldn't be touched until Six form or College/Uni. Trying to teach working class people Shakespeare is like trying to convince people your surname is not pronounced Bucket. It's not their culture, they don't care about it and will never care about it. It's just art hoes in the selection room trying to seem high cultured.

 

[anklyscr]

Are we seriously breadbooking people in this thread? In these troubled times?

Its a bap.

It’s neither but explaining what they are would power level me so much I’d be in bellmarsh in minutes.

 

[Mister Fister]

You're such a cigarette. Romeo and juilet could be repeated any number of times as a normal human story. It's not about the couple but two lovers from rival factions. It's only because it's written in the archaic version of English that it's hard to read.

 

[Kofi Drinka]

You're such a cigarette. Romeo and juilet could be repeated any number of times as a normal human story. It's not about the couple but two lovers from rival factions. It's only because it's written in the archaic version of English that it's hard to read.

So find a better version of the same story that relates to people today. Maybe one with a robot dog companion and a couple of interstellar wars.

 

[Symbol of the Chud]

I'm starting to believe that this game is impossible!
Wait a minute...

The closest I got was fucking off to Vietnam.

Edit: Victory!

 

[Mister Fister]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8VOAxzgq42ASo find a better version of the same story that relates to people today. Maybe one with a robot dog companion and a couple of interstellar wars.

Human nature never changes. Make a version using modern English and I think it would fine.

 

[Otterly]

You can't study Star wars" is an interesting phrase. But I'm going to ask "Why should we study Shakespeare?"

Because Shakespeare is a foundational part of English literature. You learn about history. You learn about the rhythms behind the lines and why they work. About the fact that he seems to have invented so many words (or maybe they were in use but we didn’t have any other record of them?) about how his work echoes through literature since then, and culture in general. His work compasses themes that are universal. A Star Wars book is great for getting a kid into reading, but it’s not got the linguistic or cultural depth to be studied. you don’t get much time to study, so you need what gives you most bang for the buck.
I really disagree that working class kids don’t need this stuff. Are we just writing the working class off then? I grew up poor as a church mouse and was told by serveral people through my school life that my destiny was popping a couple of kids out as a single mum in a council flat. I didn’t have any rich family, so my only way out was education. I don’t like the idea that Baz is too dim for anything other than a life of deanobox and telly. Maybe Baz has the next great novel in him? I did a bunch of A levels, mainly sciences, but the English Lit one in many ways was most useful.

It has to specifically be the father because they need to bond with the kids in a way mothers don't.

BOTH parents can and should be doing this, no? I read to all mine every night (bar illness or late nights) and so did my other half. Silly voices and all.

 

[Eddie Riggs]

Because Shakespeare is a foundational part of English literature. You learn about history. You learn about the rhythms behind the lines and why they work. About the fact that he seems to have invented so many words (or maybe they were in use but we didn’t have any other record of them?) about how his work echoes through literature since then, and culture in general. His work compasses themes that are universal. A Star Wars book is great for getting a kid into reading, but it’s not got the linguistic or cultural depth to be studied. you don’t get much time to study, so you need what gives you most bang for the buck.

What if you gave them Star Wars as written by Shakespeare?

 

[Otterly]

What if you gave them Star Wars as written by Shakespeare?

Great excercise. We did something like this - take something mundane from modern media and rewrite in full iambic pentameter. It’s a fun thing to do.