Conspiracy theories you're amenable to

[Stumpy Pepys]

1. I believe Diet Coke and Coke Zero are the same drink. I think Diet Coke got labelled a 'women's drink', so Coca Cola invented a new brand and put it in a different bottle.
2. I think the Indian restaurant at the top of my road is a money laundering scheme. I can't otherwise rationalise both its terrible food and chronic lack of customers.

[ursus arctos]

1. Even though Diet Coke's most prominent customer is the much-indicted former President of the US?

2. It likely is.

[San Bernardhinault]

I used to be convinced that the Syrian/Lebanese pizza place on Kennington Road that never had any customers, served a weird half-pizza/half-lahmacun minced lamb and pine nut pizza, but somehow made everything badly, was a money laundering scheme.

[Patrick Thistle]

Diet Coke and Coke Zero taste very different.

An Indian Restaurant seems a hard way to launder money compared to a vape shop.

[S. aureus]

There was a (actually very good) sandwich shop that I used to go to that I was suspicious of being a money-laundering scheme due to their irregular application of sales tax on their products. However I have since learnt that California has rather byzantine laws for taxing sandwiches, so it's possible that the sandwich people were just applying them.

[Gangster Octopus]

California has rather byzantine laws for taxing sandwiches

Okay more information is needed here.

[ursus arctos]

Knock yourself out, chief

https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/lawguides/v...-art8-all.html

The key distinction is that hot sandwiches are taxed, while cold sandwiches are not. This raise questions about a sandwich that was once hot, but has since cooled, as well as cold sandwiches to which hot sauces, gravies, etc have been applied. Not to mention hybrids like Tuna Melts.

[Gangster Octopus]

This is in Jaffa Cakes/Biscuits territory. It's basically how solicitors make a living out of doing fuck all...

[ursus arctos]

Very much so

[San Bernardhinault]

I'm glad it's all food and not only sandwiches otherwise we'd be back on the definition of sandwich thing.

Instead it's the almost equally bizarre "was it expected to be eaten above ambient air temperature" standard, so even if it has cooled down it's taxable; and if it's sold with other cold food or drinks (such as a Happy Meal) the whole thing qualifies as "hot".

It appears that dipping a sandwich bun in hot gravy makes the sandwich taxable.

[Fussbudget]

Diet Coke and Coke Zero taste very different.

Yeah that particular conspiracy can only come from someone who either hasn't tried them both or has no working tastebuds.

I think Diet Coke got labelled a 'women's drink', so Coca Cola invented a new brand and put it in a different bottle.

It's no secret that Coke Zero was meant to remedy the fact that Diet Coke is seen as a girly drink, but it was also meant to address the other issue with Diet Coke which is that lots of Coke drinkers think it tastes horrible (hence all the marketing about how Coke Zero tastes like proper Coke)

[3 Colours Red]

Yeah, Coke Zero is more pleasant to drink that Diet Coke but it's still obviously sugar-free. You can't hide that aftertaste of artificial sweeteners no matter how hard you try.

[Sean of the Shed]

Pepsi Max is better than Coke Zero.

[Lang Spoon]

The vape shop on Balbriggan main st that brazenly stayed open no matter the lockdown restrictions, and within walking distance (not that they were ever seen round there outside a patrol car, ) of the Garda station (and across the road from where theyd get their horrible chicken fillet rolls), for sure Drogheda gang connected money launderers.

[Ginger Yellow]

It appears that dipping a sandwich bun in hot gravy makes the sandwich taxable.

You'd want the meat to be hot in a French/beef dip anyway wouldn't you?

[beak]

I'm guessing that global elite paedophile rings are now conspriacy fact, so I'll settle for the belief that Thomas Edison had Louis Le Prince murdered.

[Jah Womble]

I'm sure that the long-dead Balham Tandoori (now The Lounge) - which opened to some acclaim around 1992 - was some kind of front for drugs or money-laundering. I went there with an ex several years later and they had to 'phone someone up to come in and cook us dinner. Plus they had no cold beer.

This would've been 1998, because the 'maitre d' (or chief launderer) was cajoling me with talk about the upcoming World Cup while we waited what felt like hours for kitchen staff to arrive.

Yeah that particular conspiracy can only come from someone who either hasn't tried them both or has no working tastebuds.

Exactly. How anyone could think that they taste remotely alike is beyond me.

I didn't know Diet Coke was seen as 'girly', either. After Yorkie-gate, I didn't think such opinions were ever on the agenda.

[Capybara]

I used to be convinced that the Syrian/Lebanese pizza place on Kennington Road that never had any customers, served a weird half-pizza/half-lahmacun minced lamb and pine nut pizza, but somehow made everything badly, was a money laundering scheme.

The only person I ever saw coming out of there (and I walked past it twice a day for many years) was the guy who ran Cooper's Natural Foods on Lower Marsh. It's now one of those places where you can take your laptop in and have a place to work (the pizza place, not Cooper's Natural Foods). Another in the area was the Indian restaurant opposite the Crown and Cushion on Westminster Bridge Road. It hardly ever had anyone in and you wondered how they made any money, although the food was actually OK.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Knock yourself out, chief

https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/lawguides/v...-art8-all.html

The key distinction is that hot sandwiches are taxed, while cold sandwiches are not. This raise questions about a sandwich that was once hot, but has since cooled, as well as cold sandwiches to which hot sauces, gravies, etc have been applied. Not to mention hybrids like Tuna Melts.

We have had controversy for years about that particular VAT issue in the UK. Food is generally zero-rated for VAT in the UK, with numerous very specific exceptions (and indeed counter-exceptions and even counter-counter exceptions in the cake/biscuit territory and the crisps/snacks field). But there's a general exception (i.e where food is standard rated for VAT) for food supplied "in the course of catering". That "in the course of catering" concept is defined to incude (a) food sold for consumption on the premises and (b) food heated for the purpose of being consumed hot. The "for the purpose of being consumed hot" has resulted in years of both litigation and political wrangling, e.g. some years ago when the Government tried to change the rules and were lambasted for their so-called "pasty tax". The current rules are that standard rating will apply where food meets any of these tests::

• has been heated to enable it to be consumed hot
• has been heated to order
• has been kept hot after being heated
• is provided to a customer in packaging that retains heat (whether or not the packaging was primarily designed for that purpose) or in any other packaging that is specifically designed for hot food
• is advertised or marketed in a way that indicates that it is supplied hot

The idea that this is all driven by solicitors is, incidentally, total bollocks, and shame on ursus for conceding GO's allegation on that point. The complexity of the legislation is driven by bitter wrangling between the Treasury on one side and the Greggses of this world on the other, and the endless litigation likewise - believe me, the finance directors of the likes of confectionery companies or Greggs-type outfits are quite eager enough to push every VAT-saving argument with HMRC to the limit without any encouragement from outside advisers. And to the extent that their litigiiousness is boosted by outside advisers peddling their VAT-related services, those advisers are far more likely to be VAT-specialist accountants than lawyers.

[anton pulisov]

Macedonia intentionally gave six points to Serbia in the Euro 2000 qualifiers.

One of the more obvious conspiracies, that one.

[HORN]

I suspect the invariably customer-free barbers at the top of my street is a money-laundering device. Furthermore I've legitimate grounds to believe that "Number one on the sides and back" is Kurdish for "Make me look like Limahl".

[elguapo4]

Bohemians 0.1 St Patrick's Athletic, 1980 FAI Cup semi final. The match Referee was allegedly seeing the owner of a local chain of bookies shops, and she stood to lose a fortune if we won. Their winning goal was about a mile offside, and none of us who were there will ever think it wasn't a fix.

[3 Colours Red]

Pepsi Max is better than Coke Zero.

Agreed.

Adding to that, Pepsi Max is probably better than regular Pepsi since they changed the recipe of the latter to swerve the sugar tax... which ties in neatly to my belief that the sugar tax was made to punish low income households in the wave of policies various governments have come up with ever since that massive fucking hypocrite Jamie Oliver was telling us all not to eat turkey twizzlers while flogging fatty, sugary treats for Sainsbury's.

[George C.]

Maybe, more seriously...

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/...earned-2941121

[blameless]

I'm also convinced that a pizza place where I used to live was a money-laundering front.

It's not that they had no customers (the footfall in there was half-decent, as was the food), but their prices stayed exactly the same for 15 years or so, even for 5 years after the credit crunch.