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
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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.

 

[the rat]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=83IYfRzlYv8Jonathan Pie weighs in with the scathing political commentary of "REFORM MEAN AND EVIL! NAZIS EVERYWHERE, LABOUR NEEDS TO CONNECT TO PEOPLE OR THE PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE THEIR LYING EYES!". Hope he gets cancer.

Could you imagine walking past this nutter as he's faffing about? The second hand embarrassment I'd feel if I were yelling that shit in public like a loon.

 

[Smyrna]

Josh Simons is resigning as the MP for Makerfield to facilitate Burnham's return.

 

[Feathers McGraw]

Josh Simons is resigning as the MP for Makerfield to facilitate Burnham's return.

I hope Starmer blocks him from standing again out of pure spite. Watching him desperately cling to power has been hilarious.

 

[Heinrich Maneuver]

Josh Simons is resigning as the MP for Makerfield to facilitate Burnham's return.

The 2024 Makerfield election results. Simons/Bunrham have to be hoping that this constituency will vote Labour to, essentially, save the Labour party. The whole constituency needs to basically fear a Reform government getting in, and will vote Burnham to turn the Labour party around and save the country. Risky.

 

[Smyrna]

Very risky. Makerfield's estimated result in the EU referendum was 65% Leave. 32% must be one of Reform's best vote shares from the 2024 GE, and considering the growth they have enjoyed since then...

I can definitely see this backfiring. This is absolutely not Gorton and Denton.

 

[Johnny Dipp]

I like playing Jonathan Pie videos at -50% speed to make him sound like he's drunk. It's way more entertaining.

 

[BongoMongo]

Very risky. Makerfield's estimated result in the EU referendum was 65% Leave. 32% must be one of Reform's best vote shares from the 2024 GE, and considering the growth they have enjoyed since then...

I can definitely see this backfiring.

We need a fingers crossed sticker. Rainbows don't cut it sometimes.

I'll laugh my sides into orbit if they elect a reform candidate,that would be perfect.

 

[Smyrna]

I have done some quick back-of-fag-packet maths and I am quite sure that Makerfield was Reform's 6th best result in 2024, behind only Farage, Anderson, Tice, Lowe and Barnsley South.

 

[Heinrich Maneuver]

Very risky. Makerfield's estimated result in the EU referendum was 65% Leave. 32% must be one of Reform's best vote shares from the 2024 GE, and considering the growth they have enjoyed since then...

I can definitely see this backfiring. This is absolutely not Gorton and Denton.

Is he banking on Makerfield having some kind of loyalty to the Cult of Burnham? Makerfield iirc is Wigan, voting wise, and closer to St Helens and Merseyside than it is to Manchester. Is this the closest to Manchester he could get? If so, that makes me think any Manc MPs either a) don't want to give up their seat (most likely) or b) don't have enough faith in the 'cult of Burnham' anymore, because most of his young 'Manchester bee' student voters that gave him that 'cool' cred have gone to the Greens (Manchester voted in 18 Green councillors, 7 Reform, and 6 Labour, and 1 Lib Dem). They need to be door knocking in every single street if they want to win this imho. They also need to pray there is no Southport style stabbings in the surrounding area.

Martin Daubney of GBNews is reporting that all pubs in Westminster will be closed Saturday due to 'significant pressure' from the Met.

 

[Random Internet Person]

Big Ange has paid what she owed, so she can theoretically run if\when Streeting launches. Al Carns (junior defence minister and ex-special forces) is also preparing to run. He wrote an article in the New Statesman yesterday which acts as his pitch to members.

Just remember, Big Ange always win trophies in the second season.

 

[cancelmysubscription]

I’d be very surprised if Burnham loses (feel free to bookmark this post for later mockery):


Seems like a safe Blairite-ish type seat to me. The low-ish majority at the last election could’ve been because it was a skeezy posh kike running, I imagine they all think Burnham’s great. The few thousand BNP voters from 2010 is pretty interesting though:

 

[Overly Serious]

Looking at those polls from 2024 I think it will come down to how united the opposition is so expect 24/7 messaging that "a vote for Tory/Green/Lib Dem is a vote for Reform" till you're sick of it. It's not just Reform that has risen higher since 2024, the Greens have as well. I expect a lot of anti-Green stories in the run up as well as they marshal every media friend they have.

 

[AssignedEva]

I hope Starmer blocks him from standing again out of pure spite. Watching him desperately cling to power has been hilarious.

If Starmer were a gambling man he could let Burnham run and hope Reform gets it, as that'd take all momentum out of what's now being alluded to with "timetables" and "a battle of ideas not personalities".

Martin Daubney of GBNews is reporting that all pubs in Westminster will be closed Saturday due to 'significant pressure' from the Met.

There go my weekend plans. Tommy's Boys aren't going to skip the pub, they'll just all head into the West End after the march.

 

[evrae]

Seems like a safe Blairite-ish type seat to me.

Depends really, keep in mind the leader view stats are national surveys. Older demographics, especially white ones, heavily favour Reform (and Restore wherever available). Considering how badly the locals went, it doesn't paint a confident picture.

And that's if Starmer is even willing to allow it to happen, it wouldn't surprise me if he'll let the seat fall to Reform by putting some random Labour tard in there solely to deny Burnham, who has the best shot of pushing Starmer out of power. Starmer can do this shit another 80 times after all.

 

[Heinrich Maneuver]

I’d be very surprised if Burnham loses (feel free to bookmark this post for later mockery):

I think it'll all come down to the Greens. I can see Polanski wanting 'the win' over Keir on this single seat to make up for all the disastrous PR he got over the council election, and not think about the wider ramifications of cucking Burnham. The Tories aren't really relevant but they could potentially get a percentage point or two in the election. This will all come down to campaigning and hoping that none of these nice Blairite voters haven't popped into central Liverpool recently and been overwhelmed by the shit smell of rapefugees.

Tommy's Boys aren't going to skip the pub

Tommy's Boys will have live facial recognition hunting them down, the first time the Met is using it. Meanwhile the pro-Palestine march next door won't. The Met are saying they are concerned about 'football hooligans' from the FA Cup Final.

 

[cancelmysubscription]

Depends really, keep in mind the leader view stats are national surveys. Older demographics, especially white ones, heavily favour Reform (and Restore wherever available). Considering how badly the locals went, it doesn't paint a confident picture.

And that's if Starmer is even willing to allow it to happen, it wouldn't surprise me if he'll let the seat fall to Reform by putting some random Labour tard in there solely to deny Burnham, who has the best shot of pushing Starmer out of power. Starmer can do this shit another 80 times after all.

My assessment of the area is that the Blairite anti-racist types are never-Reform because they’ve been told they’re racist, and the Reform 2024/BNP 2010 voters are now less likely to vote for them because they know they’re nowhere near racist enough.

The fact that a Finkelstein ran for the Tories in 2024 and Simons was the Labour winner is very, very interesting to me - significant jewish population in Makerfield? I don’t think Burnham has done any ‘from the river to the sea’ type shit, so he should be fine there.***

Going to be an intriguing one, and we can all make jokes about the incompetency, stupidity and ‘bullet-in-foot’ ability of politicians, but I assume Burnham, Simons and the people around them have put at least a bit of thought into this and decided it safe.

***Computer says no on the JQ, though it did bring me to a page about the historic ‘Wigan Jewish’ community, which is pretty amusing. Not got the name recognition of the NY hasids but I’m sure they could kvetch like the best of them. Greggs pasties instead of challah, Mecca bingo cards instead of dreidels etc. etc.:

 

[Feathers McGraw]

If Starmer were a gambling man he could let Burnham run and hope Reform gets it, as that'd take all momentum out of what's now being alluded to with "timetables" and "a battle of ideas not personalities".

From looking at their local election results, you might be on to something:

Ward	Turnout	Reform UK	Labour	Green	Con	Lib Dem	Ind
Abram	33.10%	1,958	844	394	158	138	—
Ashton-in-Makerfield South	38.50%	1,572	1,100	432	285	—	—
Bryn with Ashton-in-Makerfield North	37.80%	1,770	816	400	229	177	—
Hindley	35.30%	1,832	750	374	140	125	282
Hindley Green	38.90%	1,878	1,172	258	174	106	—
Orrell	43.10%	1,621	983	470	787	199	—
Winstanley	42.40%	1,881	1,174	312	243	176	—
Worsley Mesnes	37.40%	1,711	847	320	101	108	272
Total (8 wards)	38.30%	14,223	7,686	2,960	2,117	1,029	554

That looks like it has the potential to go very, very wrong for him.

 

[Heinrich Maneuver]

From looking at their local election results, you might be on to something:

from the Manchester Evening News: highlighting a 'catastrophic' loss and the electorate being 'sick of ' Labour, especially with the massive warehouses in Wigan that went up, and repeating that Labour councillors 'did not expect this result'.

The Labour Party endured a catastrophic night in Wigan and Leigh as voters gave them “a kicking”, with Reform UK winning 24 out of 25 seats up for grabs. Areas that had long been considered among Labour’s safest wards were sensationally won by Nigel Farage’s party on a night of major inroads across the borough.

Ince, which had been a symbol of Labour’s dominance in Wigan for over 40 years, went to Reform as result after result saw the party win decisive majorities.

Reform’s leader Coun Paul Watson described the results were “unprecedented”. The only ward where his party did not win was in Atherton North where independent councillor Jamie Hodgkinson came out on top.

Despite Reform winning nearly all the seats on May 7, Labour will still be in charge of Wigan Council as it was mathematically impossible for the party to be ousted.

However, the opposition party said they see a clear path to taking control in 2027 and view themselves as an administration in waiting.

Coun Watson said: “For Labour, it all comes down to their leadership. Keir Starmer, he has to go. He has to fall on his sword because when the people speak, the government has to listen and the people have spoken.


“They no longer want a Labour government. The people have spoken here in Wigan and we are going to see this across the country. We need a general election and the people want a Reform UK government led by Nigel Farage.”

Reform had been expecting to win 20 seats going into the night but exceeded that, meaning Labour’s strategy in Wigan and Leigh of distancing itself from Westminster failed to persuade enough voters. Deputy council leader Coun Keith Cunliffe said the campaign had been dominated by national issues from the cost of living to local government funding.



Aside from Labour’s problems nationally, its leaders in Wigan also struggled to face down a significant public backlash against a giant “cruise liner”’ warehouses which have been erected in Tyldesley.

While Coun Cunliffe argued proper planning process was followed, he said Labour was “stuck between a rock and a hard place”, adding: “People think we can do things we cannot do, that we haven’t the powers to do.”

If they win a majority next year, a Reform UK controlled council promises a raft of changes. These include axing the council’s equality, diversity and inclusion function saving £400,000-a-year, divert managers to front line services, reform the council’s planning department and regulate houses of multiple occupancy.

Labour’s cabinet member for finance, resources and finance Coun Nazia Rehman pointed the finger at the Labour government, adding: “We were not expecting this but we knew people were not happy and some people voted against us.


“I think the government has to do more and we have to do better. What people have been saying on the doorstep is that the government needs to listen to them. We promised change and I think we have to do more locally and nationally to deliver that change.”

Ahead of the election, Wigan Metropolitan Borough was controlled by Labour, who had 62 seats.
Wigan MP Lisa Nandy, who was at the count at Robin Park leisure centre, said: “We always knew these elections were going to be really tough. We came into office 18 months ago on a promise of change as people were crying out for change. We inherited a situation unprecedented in our lifetime, a world in turmoil and the economy flat lining.

“Having knocked on doors over the last few weeks, I think people understand that it will take time but they are running out of patience. Life has been hard for too long for too many people. We promised to make this country better for them. We have to re-double our efforts to make sure that change comes and comes quickly.”
However Leigh and Atherton MP Jo Platt said the vote was "catastrophic for Labour" and "speaks for itself", adding: “They wanted to give us a kicking and they have.

"This is about the voters. This is about listening and that's what we've got to take stock of locally and nationally. We have got to listen to what they have said and it starts tomorrow.”

She said the good work the government was doing was not getting through to people and the entire party needed to reflect. Despite the result likely leading to more calls on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign, the MP said she did not want to see the party “rush into anything” and take stock of the results.

If you'd just voted out the Labour councillors for their failures, you'd feel pretty pissed that some other Labour MP who's claiming he's 'local' (he's from Newton le Willows, really) is using your constituency to hop and skip his way to Prime Minister, right?

 

[GratsTheat783]

Found an update on that kid who had his chin impaled on a fence spike by the police a few months back.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PoeMBKhtxZw

Police Cover Up the Case of the Impaled Teenager [PoeMBKhtxZw].webm

Are all police power-tripping faggots and if so, have they always been?

 

[Overly Serious]

Tommy's Boys will have live facial recognition hunting them down, the first time the Met is using it. Meanwhile the pro-Palestine march next door won't. The Met are saying they are concerned about 'football hooligans' from the FA Cup Final.

I've been meaning to mention this for a while. Archiving is good but is there any chance you could leave the original link as well? If it's not a big deal. The archive site is slower to load often I'll want to go to the original anyway because I'll want to see the replies, or the layout is better or the media will play or some such. I can get there from the archive but it can mean waiting 5 seconds for the archive version to load, finding the original link from it then pasting that in...

If it's more trouble for you for some reason to put the original in there, then please ignore. But I figure your process is probably to grab the original first and then create an archive link from it. Archive everything is the rule, but it doesn't need to be the primary link. And actually if archive.ph ever goes tits up, then we'll actually have no way of seeing what the original link even was, which may well still be valid.

Love your comments, just an ask as I'm always copying and pasting your links.