Alliance National, one of Britain’s biggest catering suppliers, has announced it will offer only environmentally friendly ‘crackless’ crackers to its customers, which include dozens of care homes, hotels, pubs and restaurants across the country. The Telegraph has more.
The company has axed Christmas crackers with silver fulminate strips – which have been used to give the snapping sound since as early as 1860 – and now says its crackers will have “the audible crack of cardboard” instead.
The new crackers come with a note that urges users to “make some noise” before informing them that “we have removed the snap from this cracker to ensure it is fully recyclable”.
The note inside says that the move is “part of our journey to make every Christmas a celebration of responsibility” and says on its e-commerce website, Alliance Online, that the eco-friendly crackers will reassure people they are “doing something right for the environment”.
Christopher Snowdon, an author and Head of Lifestyle and Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, was served the crackless crackers at a recent lunch hosted by the Lords and Commons Cigar Club in the House of Lords.
He said the silver fulminate-free crackers were “rubbish” and felt like when “you pull a cracker and they don’t crack and you just think it’s broken”.
A House of Lords spokesman confirmed the recyclable crackers would be used at its banqueting events this Christmas and said they were a “small part” of its commitment to reduce waste.
At my first xmas dinner of year. pic.twitter.com/UGWSDoEPVH
— Christopher Snowdon(@cjsnowdon) December 4, 2023
Scrooge, it seems, is now green.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
No. #12,426 on the list of ‘things that plebs enjoy so let’s ban them’.
Further up the list are heating your home, driving a car, getting on a flight, watching history on TV, using a bank account …
Of course it has nothing to do with saving money by dispensing with all the conditions required for the handling of fulminates and simplifying production.
Bl””dy killjoys, the lot of them.
There’s a simple solution – only buy proper Christmas Crackers.
What a crap company.
Ah, that’s the spirit. Spread the Christmas cheer… Happy Responsibility everyone!
“Make Christmas a celebration of responsibility”? That’s almost as good as Boris’s “T’is the season to be jolly careful (tra la la, etc)” if we’re ranking all the killjoy things you can say during the festive season.
Or Hancock’s Christmas song.
Don’t kill your gran at Christmas time,
Leave her all alone.
Don’t kill your gran at Christmas time,
She’s safer on her own.
You’ve not seen her for nine months,
Another three won’t be so bad.
Don’t pop round to cheer her up,
Leave her lonely and sad.
Don’t invite her round for dinner,
To share in the good cheer.
You may well give her covid,
And she’ll be dead by new year.
Don’t give your gran a kiss,
It might be the kiss of death.
Don’t even try to hug her,
She could die from your breath.
Don’t kill your gran at Christmas time,
Leave her all alone.
Don’t kill your gran at Christmas time,
It’s safer just to phone.
OK…this is the last straw! Removing the cracker’s crack? What a load of virtual signalling codswalloping b*ll*x!! Why not remove all the candles as well and the holly sprigs, the Christmas tree and mistletoe. Get rid of the Christmas pud as it might offend an overweight person. Reinvent Christmas with Rainbow Santas and gender fluid reindeer – Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer? No. It’s Ruby the pink haired Rainbow four legged being bringing you Christmas misery. Bah! Humbug!
In our times, virtue is only virtue if it is broadcast boastfully to everyone and forced passive aggressively on others. Virtue exercised quietly and privately is not virtue any more because it suggests a lack of commitment to “make the world a better place.”
“Major Catering Supplier Removes Crack From Crackers”. What have they replaced it with, crystal meth?
Fentanyl would be my guess. In these hectic and stressed-out times, people really need to calm down!
good shout.
I think they’re taking a responsible approach, because of the recent unknown increase of cardiac arrest any shock which maybe caused has now been removed. We will now see a massive reduction of heart attacks over the festive period, party poppers should also be banned along with those curly whistle things and bottles of sparkling wine which give off a frightening pop when opened.
It’s traditional for crackers to contain a crap joke, and this is it
Remember when you were a kid and your parents couldn’t afford the expensive shiny crackers your mates had but had to get the cheap ones with crap contents and rarely cracked? This.
In other news Oxford Council have placed large billboards around the city showing Santa Claus plus nine reindeers’ mangled corpses strewn round a crashed sleigh with the caption “Ignore traffic calming, Eulez and Net Zero measures at your peril. Citizen Claus could have gone with a speed limited EV, but chose instead to stick with his traditional faster-than-light C02 emitting rocket-sled. And look where that ended up. Unhappy Ex-Mas.”
Can we all just whisper “Merry Christmas” this year in the interests of “diversity”? Or better still why not bother putting up our “Holiday Trees” at all
“Thats a Cracker”
Don’t buy from them. Choose a competitor… that’s what free markets are for so consumers have choice and those businesses which do not meet consumer preferences go belly-up.