that’s not true. they used to have a burger called the McBLT which was the ultimate in styrofoam packaging and it was quickly pushed out of the North American market after complaints about waste
This article is 33 years old.
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I am fairly certain the demands of the customers were not for less convenient packaging. A lot of companies actually want binding regulations, so they don’t have to deal with irate customer complaints or losses to competitors. They can just point to the government and say ‘their fault, we all have to do this now’.
viz. consumer rage here over the disappearance of plastic straws.
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but keeping the plastic cups and lids. that’s the stupid part. No, we can’t give you a plastic straw, but the cup and lid can stay that way.
I am not saying they’re wrong, but the optics are interesting for sure.
There used to be a discount for providing your own cups at some places, but with Covid that went away in a hurry.
Paper straws many a time are terrible.
Far too many fail in their primary function and lose integrity before the drink is finished. Had one with a thick shake from McDonald’s and first suck it collapsed. Next to useless. Even worse many paper straws coated in PFAS.
There are paper straws and PHA based straws which are good but too frequently restaurants don’t want to pay the premium.
When I am out I now simply remove the straw. At home I we have some metal ones for the kids.
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Friends in F&B told me that straws was a PR thing as there were big news about straws in the ocean etc but practically, straws are one of the few things that they can get rid of without additional costs and yet customers can still enjoy their drink without it. But for Some of the sustainable containers like takeaway cups and bowls they explored, cost a few times more expensive than a plastic one and if they increased prices, they are afraid of putting customers off.
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Roll on circa 2054
Sunak has this morning suggested that the Government are planning an Autumn Election.
I find this a bit bizarre, and I can’t see any advantages to the Tory’s delaying beyond clinging on by their fingertips and hoping something turns up.
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The council/mayoral elections are going to be a bloodbath for the Tories, and this is going to cost the party a lot of it’s local campaigning capacity. It doesn’t make any sense to delay the election and then try and fight it with a lot of your grassroots annihilated.
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Their flagship policy on Rwanda will have passed in May, giving them the ability to spin the narrative that they have done what they pledged to ‘stop the boats’. By Autumn it will be obviously that the boats have not stopped, people haven’t been deported and the whole thing is a waste of time and money.
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Governments always do better in summer elections than winter ones. Not just the sun but energy bills and cost of living. Sunak is an idiot to send people to the polls when they are starting to worry again about how they will get through the winter.
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Only the most naive optimist thinks it’s going to better - Sunak starts 2024 under pressure to sack his new Home Secretary for making a joke at a government function about using a rape drug on his wife - and I think it’s fairly likely that there is going to be some kind of leadership challenge as the Tory party continues to rip its self in two.
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My cynical bet is war. (Which always boosts support for government and economy)
The groundwork for much larger conflict is being established in the Middle East. When shit hits the fan UK/US will be there.
Add that over spring/summer if there is movement in Ukraine that’s when it’s going to be.
He can transform his imagine from a small little man that cares about money, to small little man who is the hero. Not quite a GI Joe, but still lacking the genitalia all the same.
My guess is he gets stabbed from behind before the election though. By his own MPs.
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I dont think so now unless local elections are really bloody. Interest rates expected to be cut this year, National Insuarance and probable Income Tax cuts give him some leeway to argue corner has been turned.
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A few more months to line their own pockets, and put policies in place that screw the economy/country even more for the incoming government
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Probably banking on Starmer continuing to do their work for them
Commentators have for some time suggested an October/ November election as being highly likely. That’s not new.
However, the idea of this being brought forward has been gaining substantial traction by a number of things, the most recent of which is the selection of the date for the spring budget.
Holding this in first week of March is probably the last date they can hold it and have enough time to pass a finance bill before May elections.
That might of course be just to bolster support for local elections. But it does leave open the possibility the autumn date is a ruse.
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Nothing new in a wealthy person in a position of power being totally disconnected from reality but I have to ask what fucking world do they live in?
You’d honestly think that the head of one of the largest UK mortgage suppliers would be aware of the impact of interest rates, and the state of the housing market, cost of living and wage levels. Apparently not!
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Bet he’s got loads of lovely buy-to-let properties, and is more than happy to gobble up the rent on them.
He’s a Manchester City fan…
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I just find it incredible that he doesn’t seem to understand the market in which his business operates. I’m sure repossessions increased over the last year and he seems blatantly unaware as to why.
Arrogance? Ignorance?
Totally out of left field, but could David Cameron ever become party leader and thus PM with a seat only in the HoL? I dont think there is any law or rule against it and it’s been done before.
I just see the Tories pivoting to a new leader 6 months before the election, new leader gets plaudits for any ‘recovery’ the country experiences, and Cameron comes without the baggage of the post-Brexit vote chaos (hush hush on Greensill though).
Why do I even think this? Because it’s best to always take the most extreme thought and run with it when talking of the Tories because that will likely be the direction they’ll take.
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I suspect they are quite aware that this government has run its course. So the game plan shifts to hanging a loss on an already disliked incumbent PM, trying to hold onto as many seats as possible in hopes of a hung parliament, ensure Labour gets 10 Downing Street. Then spend a year and a half blaming absolutely everything on a fairly hapless Labour government that cannot really do very much. Get called back to power for next 15 years.
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It’s guaranteed that the rightwing media will start blaming Labour for the state of the country as soon as they enter into government (if they do so), conveniently ignoring the fact that the Tories have been in power for the last fourteen years and are still blaming the previous Labour government for their own failures.
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Alec Douglas-Home did this.
Edit: apparently he renounced his peerage and stood for a safe Unionist seat in Scotland after being appointed PM.
Seemingly, before the 20th Century it was common for a PM to govern from the Lords but this went out of fashion after parliamentary reform.
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