UKIP leader Gerard Batten vented his outrage on Twitter over plans for Greggs to adopt a ‘gender neutral’ business model
Unfortunately for the MEP, the revelation of the bakery chain’s ‘plans’ came via a spoof Guardian Twitter account, meaning that the steak beak makers are unlikely to be adopting any such policy.
The spoof account @GuardianMemeWin posted a ‘story’, “Greggs is to rebrand in a move towards a gender neutral business model following criticism that their name sounds too male”.
https://twitter.com/GuardianMemeWin/status/1055306297380347904
The parody account regularly lampoons The Guardian’s perceived ‘right-on’ attitude towards social issues.
Other @GuardianMemeWin headlines include “Owen Jones: ‘I’ve always had a problem with white people eating rice but I’ve remained silent, until now’ and “Theresa May prepares to condemn Saudi by penning a moderately worded letter that details her displeasure at their execution of a journalist”.
Apparently the Greggs ‘news’ got under the skin of the UKIP leader.
In a now-deleted tweet, Batten wrote: “Criticism from who? Probably someone who doesn’t buy from Greggs.
“A cheese roll is a cheese roll! When is this madness going to stop? By the way, almost all the staff in Greggs are female. Do they operate a biased recruitment policy?”
Ukip leader Gerard Batten gets himself in a right tizz over an admittedly brilliant Guardian parody account tweet claiming Gregg's will rebrand to be more gender sensitive. H/t @nick_gutteridge @GuardianMemeWin pic.twitter.com/RNhZnoaPIk
— James Crisp (@JamesCrisp6) October 30, 2018
In fairness to Batten, he wasn’t the only one to fall for the headline, but he was the only leader of a prominent political party to do so.
