General News Thread

[Spudulike]

3 hours ago, filthyfox said:

I'm in Newquay right now...

I used to be able to holiday quite well here.  This year prices are STUPID.

 

Been out for dinner with the Mrs twice and its cost £85 each time- two main meals, 3 alco drinks and a pudding to share.  AND THEN they have the cheek to add a service charge!!!

 

And these are independent places.

Which restaurants? I'm down that way next week. I'll swerve them.

[filthyfox]

2 minutes ago, Spudulike said:

Which restaurants? I'm down that way next week. I'll swerve them.

They were REALLY nice though...

Fistral Beach Hotel and the Beach Shack at Watergate Bay

[Spudulike]

3 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

One of the many reasons capitalism has failed is that markets aren't really markets. Let's take the chocolate industry. There's not much competition coming to steal their thunder that I can see:

 

One company bought every brand you grew up with — then quietly gutted them. Same packaging. Same price. Less of everything that made them good.

 

That company is Mondelez International.

 

🐀 Mondelez owns Cadbury, Toblerone, Milka, Oreo, Ritz, Chips Ahoy, Marabou, Clif Bar — and dozens more.

 

🐀 In 2010, Kraft (now Mondelez) acquired Cadbury for $19,600,000,000 — against the will of British workers, unions and politicians.

 

🐀 They promised to keep the Somerdale factory open. They closed it. Hundreds of British jobs gone. Production moved to Poland.

 

🐀 2015: Cadbury quietly swapped the Dairy Milk chocolate in Creme Eggs for "standard cocoa mix." Their own words: "It's no longer Dairy Milk." Six eggs became five. Same price.

 

🐀 2016: Toblerone widened the gaps between peaks — 400g became 360g, 170g became 150g. Consumers said they felt "cheated." One fan: "Not to be melodramatic but thanks for ruining Christmas, Mondelēz."

 

💰 2023: Toblerone moved production from Switzerland to Slovakia — cheaper labour. The Matterhorn logo, 115 years of Swiss identity, was legally required to be removed from the packaging.

 

🐀 Milka: 100g bars became 90g. Price unchanged. In 2025 Milka was awarded Germany's "Goldener Windbeutel" — the consumer protection prize for shrinkflation.

 

🐀 Oreo: packages shrunk 10–15%. Consumers on PissedConsumer.com (1,321 reviews, avg 2.3/5): "Less filling and taste different." In 2024 Mondelez quietly "adapted the recipe" — called it "meeting changing tastes."

 

🐀 Marabou: Sweden's beloved chocolate since 1916. Swedish consumers: "It no longer tastes the same." Mondelez announced weight reductions in 2025 — customers: "Tänker inte köpa deras produkter framöver." (Won’t buy it again). 

 

💰 Clif Bar: founded on organic ingredients and employee ownership. Mondelez bought it for $2,900,000,000 in 2022. Employees on Glassdoor: "They gutted everything." "Sold out everything good they stood for."

 

💰 CEO Dirk Van de Put: $22,300,000 in 2024. 657 times the median worker's salary. Bonus structure based on "cost savings." Your chocolate got worse. His bonus got bigger.

 

🐀 Mondelez 2024 revenue: $36,400,000,000. Net income: $4,610,000,000.

 

The playbook never changes. Buy a beloved brand. Cut the ingredients. Shrink the package. Keep the price. Deny everything.

 

They didn't ruin your taste buds. They ruined the product.

Passing it on to the customer, that's the phrase, isn't it. Someones got to pay for the Christmas party bubbly.

[Tommy G]

Wes Streeting resigned

[Wymsey]

4 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Wes Streeting resigned

Would be a big loss on the NHS front.

[Tommy G]

5 minutes ago, Wymsey said:

Would be a big loss on the NHS front.

Agree he's had a positive impact. 

[kenny]

28 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Wes Streeting resigned

He is an idiot. Should have stayed on and supported Starmer.

[davieG]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8p7p83vdzo

 

Full Letter of resignation

[leicsmac]

Streeting opting for personal ambition over national future, then. 

 

Goodness only knows what will happen now. 

[CornwallFox]

2 hours ago, Spudulike said:

Which restaurants? I'm down that way next week. I'll swerve them.

 

2 hours ago, filthyfox said:

They were REALLY nice though...

Fistral Beach Hotel and the Beach Shack at Watergate Bay

https://www.thebarnatcoastalvalley.com/wood-fired-food

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/18F1XDbiqS/

 

Both a little down and dirty but great food and decent prices 👍🏻

The second one is kinda outdoor feeling so if it's really freezing don't bother

 

 

Edited 14 May by CornwallFox

[Zear0]

Streeting took “the principled decision' not to trigger contest”.

 

What a pillock. What’s he planning here? Burnham can’t run so who’s he backing then? Rayner? Need to stop f**king about with new PMs every few years, it’s not good.

[CornwallFox]

6 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Streeting took “the principled decision' not to trigger contest”.

 

What a pillock. What’s he planning here? Burnham can’t run so who’s he backing then? Rayner? Need to stop f**king about with new PMs every few years, it’s not good.

Apparently Burnham has found an MP that will stand down to create a bi-election. Only problem is it's rumoured to be polling very high towards reform! It's a tricky one for Burnham, he is their best hope, and I think has a chance to win over the electorate, but finding a safe enough seat where the MP will stand aside in time is an issue now. He should have been allowed to stand months ago of course. 

[leicsmac]

7 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Streeting took “the principled decision' not to trigger contest”.

 

What a pillock. What’s he planning here? Burnham can’t run so who’s he backing then? Rayner? Need to stop f**king about with new PMs every few years, it’s not good.

This whole matter becomes more nonsensical by the hour. 

 

Unfortunately, such are the fast food, social media driven times we live in. Three cheers for democracy, huh?

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Streeting opting for personal ambition over national future, then. 

 

Goodness only knows what will happen now. 

Aren't most of them.

 

Unfortunately, the person who wants power is the last person you should give it to.

[Innovindil]

18 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Streeting took “the principled decision' not to trigger contest”.

 

What a pillock. What’s he planning here? Burnham can’t run so who’s he backing then? Rayner? Need to stop f**king about with new PMs every few years, it’s not good.

Got to think he's got the numbers to trigger it but doesn't think he can win it vs Starmer. Trying to get Starmer to step down willingly and hope he beats the next challenger, maybe? 

[Trav Le Bleu]

Only one way to sort this out...

 

 

[st albans fox]

Does raynor ally herself to a milliband run for PM? 
Does she believe she can win ?  You’d assume that the membership would support either of those on a ticket 

 

can’t see streeting winning a vote of the membership - which is why he doesn’t want to trigger anything.  Maybe he wants to be ‘anointed’ where Starmer agrees to go and the rest of the cabinet with raynor returning go along with it. (No one of any gravitas stands against him which is the only way he wins a membership vote). 

 

[CornwallFox]

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Streeting opting for personal ambition over national future, then. 

 

Goodness only knows what will happen now. 

 

2 hours ago, davieG said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8p7p83vdzo

 

Full Letter of resignation

 

2 hours ago, Tommy G said:

Agree he's had a positive impact. 

 

2 hours ago, Wymsey said:

Would be a big loss on the NHS front.

He has had a positive impact on things like waiting times. 

 

Thing is, he's created a huge transformation within the NHS. A lot of this is effectively cost cutting by removing NHS England, merging ICBs, merging trusts, it's a really significant change. It's only halfway done. Organisations are mid merger. People are still working out what future structures will look like.

 

Having the architect of this (though that's a poorly used phrase in this regard as he actually made big decisions re culls and then has left it to the NHS to sort out the detail) disappear before it's finished could be chaos. 

 

If he wins and becomes PM then presumably he would want it to continue. If he doesn't and he doesn't pick up the health secretary job again, then what? 

 

I'm a little unimpressed from this angle.

[Innovindil]

Labour MP Josh Simons has just issued a statement: "Today, I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and will be resigning as MP for Makerfield.

I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home."

 

Good banter if they block him again 

[leicsmac]

6 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Labour MP Josh Simons has just issued a statement: "Today, I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and will be resigning as MP for Makerfield.

I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home."

 

Good banter if they block him again 

It would be the blackest of comedy, yes 

 

How long will it take for Burnham to be eligible from here (if he wins the by-election)?

[Innovindil]

3 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

It would be the blackest of comedy, yes 

 

How long will it take for Burnham to be eligible from here (if he wins the by-election)?

Months. Think it averages around 3 months to get the by election started, few weeks after that for the actual by election. 

 

Plenty of time for greens and reform to absolutely pile everything into the by election themselves. 

 

Rough seas ahead. 

[NorthWalesFox]

Absolutely scenes when Burnham loses the by-election to reform 

[leicsmac]

16 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Months. Think it averages around 3 months to get the by election started, few weeks after that for the actual by election. 

 

Plenty of time for greens and reform to absolutely pile everything into the by election themselves. 

 

Rough seas ahead. 

Have there been any other kind for the last decade?

[leicsmac]

And one would hope that whoever is doing the homework here would have ensured whatever seat Burnham would be parachuted into would be absolutely bulletproof. 

 

But these days, who knows?

[Innovindil]

8 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

And one would hope that whoever is doing the homework here would have ensured whatever seat Burnham would be parachuted into would be absolutely bulletproof. 

 

But these days, who knows?

Don't think it is bulletproof, just seems the best available right now. You'd have to expect with the "our MP is gonna be PM" aspect they'd get enough votes for him there though. 

 

11 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Have there been any other kind for the last decade?

No, but it keeps life interesting I guess.