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.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

Some students in the UK stand up against their teacher who have leftists views.

 

[Overly Serious]

Some students in the UK stand up against their teacher who have leftists views.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=owt_agyG7EI

This is actually from some years ago. I'm sure I have the original recording by them saved, I'm trying to find it. Both girls were quite young and were recording from a phone in a bag or pocket. They held their ground better than most adults and I think were originally lined up to be punished for it but they leaked the recording (wisely).

EDIT: Found it. Took a moment because it was saved under "Miss Starkey Going Mad" for it was indeed one "Miss Starkey" of Rye College who was going mad.

3:51

 

[Clem Fandango]

Southwark Council is getting rinsed for giving Council Housing to the First Lady of Sierra Leone. She insists she 'hasn't broken the law' by continuing to rent the property (X). She is a former 'asylum seeker' due to child marriage

I thought she looked familiar. There was a puff piece about this lady on the BBC the other day.

It does at least mention the council house. How hard is it for Southwark Council to just say look, you clearly don't even live in this country, we're kicking you out and giving it to someone else?

 

[AssignedEva]

How are these supposed price caps supposed to work when different supermarkets and shops have such variationin the same thing? One price cap across them all? Say if they introduce a price cap for whole milk. M&S sell their Irish whole milk, their regular whole milk, their organic whole milk which is likely to be different (and more expensive) than Aldi's whole milk. Which will be different again to the whole milk you might get delivered to your doorstep by McQueens Dairies. The latter you can get glass bottles or plastic bottles. Which believe it or not, people care about.

I suspect it'd be a case of "you must ensure that you sell pints of milk that do not exceed 90p in order to access the tax exemptions". That doesn't mean the organic milk costs the same, that can still be more expensive. Treasury's also saying they can't squeeze suppliers. So probably what would happen is they'd price cap their own-brand, deliberately understock it, purchase limited to one-per-customer and if we're out, you have to buy the more expensive milk - and in limited quantities even if there's a significant negative margin it still nets them their tax exemptions without too much overall impact.

 

[Overly Serious]

I suspect it'd be a case of "you must ensure that you sell pints of milk that do not exceed 90p in order to access the tax exemptions". That doesn't mean the organic milk costs the same, that can still be more expensive. Treasury's also saying they can't squeeze suppliers. So probably what would happen is they'd price cap their own-brand, deliberately understock it, purchase limited to one-per-customer and if we're out, you have to buy the more expensive milk - and in limited quantities even if there's a significant negative margin it still nets them their tax exemptions without too much overall impact.

So essentially a stealth tax on non-slop food? In a country where food is not supposed to be taxed and we've even held court cases to determine whether something is a cake (food) or a biscuit (arbitrarily a luxury and not a 'food' in UK law).

They really want people to eat the lowest possible quality health-destroying shit, don't they?

 

[AssignedEva]

So essentially a stealth tax on non-slop food? In a country where food is not supposed to be taxed and we've even held court cases to determine whether something is a cake (food) or a biscuit (arbitrarily a luxury and not a 'food' in UK law).

They really want people to eat the lowest possible quality health-destroying shit, don't they?

It's the law of unintended consequences. The SNP proposal was essentially to go back to the mid 20th century.

60 years ago (give or take), the prices for milk were as followed:

A pint of ordinary milk cost 10d (but Jersey milk cost a whole shilling). A shop couldn't charge more for it, a shopkeeper caught breaking this law (remember, an era of small shopkeepers) faced a hefty fine and up to three years in prison. A big part of it was the Milk Board set up in 1933 guaranteed a price for dairy farmers, by collecting milk, pooling it, organising the sale of milk etc (remember in this era it was pretty much all small farms). But that meant milk farmers could use the Milk Board to do price fixing/gouging, so to make sure consumers could still get milk there was legislation brought in under wartime powers to control the price of milk (and various other things). Specific mechanisms for things like milk remained from the 50s onwards, agreed between the Agriculture Secretary (for England and Wales, and separately Northern Ireland) and the Minister for Scotland.

Similar thing with bread - big bakeries nicely asked the Agriculture Secretary in 1969 if they could increase the price of a big loaf by 2d., and after conferring with the National Board for Prices and Incomes, it got decided they could put up the price of bread by 1d. instead.

That got done away with by the Conservatives, but then when the oil crisis hit emergency measures were brought in. For example, here's the maximum prices for bread in 1975 (now in new money)

Ted Heath had wider ranging actions like temporarily freezing all rents, wages and prices to November 1972 levels for a bit.

The Government has already said they're not going to do it, because they've no room in the budget and because this entire approach to managing the economy got abandoned 50 years ago and would freak out globalists. But the SNP proposal was

First minister and SNP leader John Swinney said he would use devolved public health powers to force large supermarkets to sell one line of essential food items, such as bread, milk and eggs, at the capped price.

The Treasury is going for something weaker,

The UK Treasury is pushing large supermarkets to introduce voluntary price caps on key groceries in return for lifting some regulations, according to four people familiar with the situation. Supermarkets have reacted furiously to the proposals, under which grocers would agree to identify and cap the prices of essential goods such as eggs, bread and milk. In return, the government has said it would offer “incentives” to the supermarkets, which the people said could include easing packaging policies and potentially delaying costly changes to rules around healthy food. Some of these measures, such as the packaging regulations, generate revenue for the Treasury.

The point is, the voluntary approach would likely mean a feckless approach wherein big Supermarkets can gain the system. There's no intervention to support suppliers, so these voluntary items would probably end up as a negative margin (if they're not loss leaders already). So although the intent would be making our food available, the half-in approach would likely lead to silly-buggers economics where an attempt to cap things like milk results in cheap milk becoming scarce.

Edit: the main reason for this is because British supermarkets have got some of the cheapest food in the West, run on razor thin margins. This has enabled rent, bills, transport costs etc to be much higher. They've no space on the budget to address those, really, and they can't really afford to borrow more (plus gilts probably won't be healthy at all fairly soon). But if food places increase by 7% by the end of the year, that's too much for many people. So they want supermarkets to cap these things in return for some sundry tax breaks in the hopes they'll absorb increased wholesale price, increased energy prices, shortages in packaging manufacture, increased transport cost etc.

The other element -

The Treasury has also told supermarkets that it would like guarantees that British farmers would not lose income from shop price caps.

They're probably shitting themselves that if they don't offer the supermarkets some token concessions, the supermarkets will bankrupt most of our farmers (regardless of whether or not the supermarkets price cap).

 

[BongoMongo]

I have to admit I'm a milk snob. I like Daylesford organic, non-homogenised full fat for drinking straight, and their semi skimmed for my cuppas. Then again, my "breakfast" (or whatever you want to call it that I have before falling into my pit at 8am) of late is a couple of cold boiled eggs and a glass of full fat.

It's really nice milk, and it is a bit more expensive but the taste difference is vast. I'm inherently distrustful of that Bovea stuff which was lurking in arla milks (amongst other dairies) so changed to organic a few months back.

As someone up thread rightly commented, they absolutely want you eating the most unhealthy, miserable, damaging slop there is because an unhealthy body makes for an unhealthy mind, and a mentally and physically drained population is easier to control.

Edited to say: I've got an aquaintance who moved to the USA over five years back. Within 6 months of moving there she ballooned in weight, developed acne and her health plummeted. She's since lost the weight, but that's because she got onto mounjaro, though her other health issues persist. American food is trash for the most part, and food here is rapidly becoming terrible, too.

It's hard to, but cutting out processed foods is probably the best thing you can do. However long gone are the days of being able to access locally grown meat and veg. Centralising supply chains and supermarkets basically monopolisng them, as well as effectively killing local shops and suppliers has been ruinous for the nations health.

 

[Clem Fandango]

There's no intervention to support suppliers, so these voluntary items would probably end up as a negative margin (if they're not loss leaders already). So although the intent would be making our food available, the half-in approach would likely lead to silly-buggers economics where an attempt to cap things like milk results in cheap milk becoming scarce.

Labour really aren't doing themselves any favours with this. After 14 years in opposition, they could dismiss suggestions that they would implement policies like price fixing and rent caps as scaremongering. But they've been in for only two years and they're already resorting to literal commie shit that has been proven time and again not to work.

 

[Morethanabitfoolish]

Is he a Pokémon Gym Leader?

"The judge used ASBO"
"It was not very effective..."

EDIT: Found it. Took a moment because it was saved under "Miss Starkey Going Mad" for it was indeed one "Miss Starkey" of Rye College who was going mad.

Want to be depressed? She's still there.

https://archive.ph/sxr1g

Mrs. D. Starkey - Director of Learning: Pathways

Ofstead did an inspection in the wake of that pathetic behaviour and cleared the school, demonstrating that they too are not worth what they're paid.

 

[Overly Serious]

@AssignedEva Thank you for all that - as informative as ever. Price caps are like... covering your eyes when a tiger approaches because if you can't see it then it can't see you. Tragically I can see this happening at some point because if things get bad enough then people will tend to support any solution the government offers, good or bad.

I have to admit I'm a milk snob

You should be. I've gotten used to some of the good stuff, the old stuff and then recently tried some of the regular stuff and the difference was very, very noticeable. Standards have really declined. And the "regular stuff" wasn't even some dirt cheap eco brand - it was the M&S standard range. Even that didn't taste as good as fresh locally produced stuff. (And yes, steer the Hell away from anything with Bovaer in it, heads up to anyone who hasn't heard of this which is being pushed heavily in the EU now and cropping up in Britain in places),

Want to be depressed? She's still there.
https://archive.ph/sxr1g Ofstead did an inspection in the wake of that pathetic behaviour and cleared the school, demonstrating that they too are not worth what they're paid.

Ha! I looked that up myself and even found what I think is a picture of her looking pretty much like you'd expect her to look. However, I didn't post it as I wasn't certain it was her and I don't want to spread misinfo. Still, you would think there'd be some consequences. I hope kids in her classes continue to play it to today. That's if a "Director of Learning" actually teaches. Sounds like another case of someone failing upwards. You can't promote the people who are good at their job or everything would collapse.

 

[Chunky Salsa]

Bovea

Can a nigga get a qrd?

 

[Changed later]

Can a nigga get a qrd?

Bovaer's a chemical they put in ruminant animal feed to reduce methane emissions (read: Farting and burping) but may interfere with fertility and thyroid health in humans - you'll note that the latter is heavily quashed with Google links pushing anti-conspirarcy articles in your face, and you'll still be treated like a crazy conspiracy thoerist for even suggesting the additive might have undiscovered side effects.
But on a more day-to-day usage, it completely fucks up the taste of the milk and even that the Establishment will say is impossible.

 

[Overly Serious]

Can a nigga get a qrd?

The EU in their ever spreading obsession with grift climate change, have decided that if they can't stop the poor from eating cows, then they'll stop the cows from farting. Bovaer (sorry for early mispelling) is a weird, weird chemical added to cow feed which acts as an enzyme inhibitor that reduces methane in cows' farts. The Lord knows what this actually does to cows or the people who consume the milk that it ends up in. But whilst He does, we don't because it's patented and therefore profitable and therefore not going to see much in the way of evidence of harm they find.

Farmers are bribed, pushed into using it because using it gets you money from carbon credit programs - which of course we pay for ultimately.

Anyway, it's new, it's weird, it does get in the milk and I trust it not in the slightest. Someone else could give you a better more detailed analysis on the medical side. But I wont touch it and it's worth the trouble to contact whoever you get your milk from and check it's not included there, either. Because it's a feed additive not a milk additive, they're not required to disclose that you're drinking it even though it ends up in the milk. The Soil Association currently wont grant their Organic certification to milk that comes from cows on it, so there's that. But not every "Organic" food has that. And you shouldn't have to buy hippy organic stuff just to not have toxic chemicals in your milk.

EDIT: @Changed later has just given you a better take on it while I was writing.

 

[BongoMongo]

@Overly Serious : on Bovaer, I know for a fact it's in anything made by Muller or Arla, the two biggest dairy cooperatives in the country. Additionally, MMRI, muller, is part of Culina / Stobarts so it's fairly safe to assume muller milk goes into food made by Culina, and their network is vast.

Not sure about organic milk in general but I know Daylesford don't use it. Not sure about Longley farms,but their yogurts are excellent and I'd be disappointed if they do use it.

Anything that makes cows drop dead can't be healthy.

 

[Kofi Drinka]

Any people in school reading this thread.

Don't get into fights with your teachers. You cannot win and they hold more power over you than you realize. It's the same with university and college. If you make yourself a problem you will get worse marks and make enemies who influence your future. Nod politely, mumble some sort of vague agreement and keep your head down. A few years of swallowing your pride will do you much better than making enemies who can torpedo your future over pettiness. Leftists are vindictive and petty, if you really upset them they will start trying to get you kicked out of school and have you labeled as a dangerous person if they can't do that. Endless harassment because you tried to debate an ugly cow on something neither of you can impact.

The super markets will just try to crunch farmers more than they already are. And farmers are already putting guns under their chins and pulling the trigger because super markets already make farms barely profitable. There is no competition with the big super markets, so they decide the price or you don't sell it and the food spoils. 50% of what it cost you to make it is better than 0%.

 

[Overly Serious]

Not sure about organic milk in general but I know Daylesford don't use it. Not sure about Longley farms,but their yogurts are excellent and I'd be disappointed if they do use it.

I'll check out Longley Farms - love some good yoghurt when you can still find it. McQueens Dairies also don't use it, I think I read.

Any people in school reading this thread.

Don't get into fights with your teachers. You cannot win and they hold more power over you than you realize. It's the same with university and college. If you make yourself a problem you will get worse marks and make enemies who influence your future. Nod politely, mumble some sort of vague agreement and keep your head down.

@Kofi Drinka This is why they teach some of the crap they teach - because they want to stamp the tendency to speak up out of the kids and make them just mumble and nod. Some things, like the trans nonsense, are so blatantly absurd that their own real purpose can be as a separator to identify those who will resist and those who will comply - and then target the former until their coerced into agreement.

These two girls won against their teacher and it might have gone badly for them but they had the sense to leak it and bring attention to the teacher. They also had parents who backed them up, I think, which is something good parents must do for their kids. Britain would be in better shape if we had more people like those two kids.

Anyway, I think it might be time for me to start looking more seriously into a vegetable patch.

 

[teriyakiburns]

I'm inherently distrustful of that Bovea stuff which was lurking in arla milks (amongst other dairies) so changed to organic a few months back.

Even that didn't taste as good as fresh locally produced stuff. (And yes, steer the Hell away from anything with Bovaer in it, heads up to anyone who hasn't heard of this which is being pushed heavily in the EU now and cropping up in Britain in places),

The bovaer trials got me to switch to getting milk delivered from a guaranteed-bovaer-free milkman (the modern milkman, if you're wondering). It turns out, on top of not having weird chemicals pumped into it, milk from small and independent dairies is immensely better than the stuff in the supermarkets, all of which tastes weird or watery in comparison. Even the pricier stuff. ASDA's home brand was the worst, in my experience. It's daft that ASsociated DAiries would produce shitty milk, but there you go.

That said, last I heard, the bovaer trials had ended rather abruptly last year, after the stories of Dutch cows dropping dead came out, and don't seem to have resumed. I can't find any new info on whether they're trying to sneak it back again, though I'm sure they will try somehow.

 

[Kofi Drinka]

@Kofi Drinka This is why they teach some of the crap they teach - because they want to stamp the tendency to speak up out of the kids and make them just mumble and nod. Some things, like the trans nonsense, are so blatantly absurd that their own real purpose can be as a separator to identify those who will resist and those who will comply - and then target the former until their coerced into agreement.

These two girls won against their teacher and it might have gone badly for them but they had the sense to leak it and bring attention to the teacher. They also had parents who backed them up, I think, which is something good parents must do for their kids. Britain would be in better shape if we had more people like those two kids.

You don't have to believe what they say, but do you want someone spiteful marking your grades for years? I know how absurd it is, but it's still in your best interest not to make enemies who control your education.

You can win battles but you can never win the war. Your whole family can back you up but they're not the ones marking your essays. I used to follow some MRA content and saw a lot of men have their lives ruined for doing this kind of thing. They would try to debate Men's rights under a leftist frame work, saying if we're all for equality men need rape support and shelters from aggressive partners too. A lot of them ended up on feminist hit lists where they would constantly get accusations made against them to the schools. They could be doing home work all weekend and the teachers and their golems would say they had been abusive towards them when they never left their room. Being dragged in front of a school court to defend themselves and prove they hadn't done anything became a biweekly event for them.

If Britain was in better shape I would agree. Debate is important and teacher's aren't always right. But the clown world we live in doesn't work that way. Leftists hold all the power and you have to be careful what you say in the class room. If they get even a whiff of racism or sexism they will immediately go for the throat. There is a reason we're posting here and not on social media.

 

[BongoMongo]

Well, you know, we can't possibly expect China and India, the two biggest polluters in the fucking world, to curb their shit. Oh no! Instead, we must poison people in the west!

 

[Chunky Salsa]

Well, you know, we can't possibly expect China and India, the two biggest polluters in the fucking world, to curb their shit. Oh no! Instead, we must poison people in the west!

Glad you understand. Now get in ze pod and eat ze soylent cockroach.