She's at her work and it makes her uncomfortable. If I displayed anything similar at my, admittedly excruciatingly right-on, place of work I'd be sacked. I think the name of the beer is actually more offensive and I suspect Kate Green does as well. Its pathetic.

The other point is that the House resembles a gentlemens club of adolescent, sniggering, sexist public schoolboys (Calm down, dear! etc) quite enough as it is. Anything, even something as trivial as banning this, which bursts that bubble and makes it resemble a modern workplace, where being a preening, self regarding, sexist wanker is not acceptable, is worthwhile.

I'm not sure what else should be more important to the Shadow Equalities Minister than raising an objection to a blatant example of the objectification of women. The fact that people still think its OK to call a beer 'Top Totty' and to advertise it with a picture of a scantily clad woman shows how far we have to go before we can do away with the need for Equalities Ministers... I asked my 44 year old wife and 15 year old daughter and they both agreed.

I just genuinely feel that goatboyuk69 has articulated what I think in a more timely fashion than I did.

Parliament,like Caesar's wife, should be above suspicion.

Ridiculously naive to have it there in the first place, and she was right to draw attention to it.

it doesn't seem that important. There are a huge number of other more pressing issues at the moment, such as how women are being hardest hit by government cuts.

A pint of Top Totty is a bit Carry On, and a bit naff. So is this a fuss over nothing? The anti-PC brigade will definitely think so. They'll take offence at the fact that other people have taken offence. Which is a delicious irony, if you think about it. Although interestingly, if you read the story, you'll find that Kate Green found the fact that this beer was on sale "disturbing", and it's the headline writers that have decided that she's taken "offence".

I understand her point as being this: Maybe Parliament, which plays host to the very people who draft and vote on issues of gender equality, is not the right place for this beer.

No doubt the old line about humourless feminists will be trotted out by all and sundry. "Can't take a joke, can they? It's just a bit of fun."

But, just for a laugh, imagine this:

Imagine if the gender balance was reversed in the Commons.
Imagine if the place was run mainly by women (most of whom went to the same all girls' schools together).
Imagine there were only a few male MPs, who found it hard to be taken seriously, because most of the women judged them on their their hairstyle, how tight-fitting their trousers were, and what shoes they wore.
Imagine if lots of women MPs had done photoshoots for GQ magazine, fashion-styled and made-up and posed to make them look attractive - and the media didn't think this was worth commenting on. And then imagine that the few male MPs who did the same thing were subjected to masses of media comment about how they were 'letting the side down' and setting back masculinism because they were wearing trousers under which they dared to be carrying a penis.
Imagine if those outnumbered male MPs went into the bar to find the girls ordering pints of "Hot Cocky" and giggling at the picture on the...er...pump, featuring a cartoon man with bulging underpants.
Imagine how they'd laugh when they heard the shout of: "Here comes a some hot cock, girls," as they walked in.

Just a thought.

And Kate Green is quite right.

It would've been even better if a male MP had made the point, though.

Drakey's post does concern me a little. Lots of chances for comments about MPs pumping their handles, floods of liquid gushing forth, good head always important, etc and she's deliberately ignored them all.

http://servingbeers.com/alcohol/7985/Hepworth-Blonde.html

If you've not much on today* DG you might want to do some pump clip design for this one...

*As it were.

we should be grateful that MPs aren't quaffing pints of the charmingly named Dog's Bollocks, a beer I have never felt the urge to sample, even though I am a fan of Wychwood Brewery's products. Oh, and as per Red Umpire's post earlier, Slaters, the brewers of Top Totty, are crowing mightily on their website about increased sales following the hoo-ha.

No, I don't think you're a "sexist misogynist dinosaur". It's about context. There is a long tradition of giving real ale beers risque names so it's not alone in that respect. As a real ale drinker myself you become accustomed to asking for something that sounds like an indecent proposal. I've seen a group of blokes use a beer's name (Bishop's Finger) as an excuse to make suggestive comments to a clearly embarrassed and threatened girl working in an off licence.

This is the problem in a nutshell. When you put products that consciously objectify the way women are presented in the context of the public domain a percentage of men assume that its public availability gives them licence to act and behave in an inappropriate manner. Not all men, just some. The difficulty is knowing in what context the behaviour or actions are inappropriate. As a rule of thumb the older the generation the more difficult it is to see where offence is being given. I know this from experience.

As Drakeygirl points out when the context - such as Parliament - is already weighted heavily in favour of the male gender sometimes redressing the balance requires a sharp pull on the fulcrum in order to set the correct standard. It's a shame that it's always a woman who has to do this.

Plenty of people on here (myself included)have bitched and moaned about MPs failing to meet the standards expected of them when it comes to questions of morality and judgement (e.g. expenses). Equality is a perfectly reasonable standard to aspire to and showing dignity and respect in the work-place towards either sex is surely the minimum of standards to expect.

that 'Sheep Shagger's Ale' should be regarded as offensive to those of us who have had to spend time in Lanarkshire?

Minorly ambivalent about this one. Mainly, certain female personages of my acquaintances are fond of the real ale, and anything to piss off a rising sector of their market seems unwise. Certainly it seems a silly logo, not worth defending.

Also, you would think that any PR person worth their salt would have spotted that that this might could a headline or two if someone sharp-eyed happened to notice it in the Palace of Westminster. Maybe this is what they hoped for. Anyway, I believe other Slater's beers are still on sale.

On the other hand, I have a smidgeon of sympathy for the other side here. I have no idea how laddish or otherwise discouraging to women the Strangers' Bar is (perhaps the Massive can advise); however this beer has supposedly been on sale there since 2007, and no-one complained until Kate Green five years later. Further, Ms. Green has only been an MP since 2010, but clearly she never set foot in this bar in the best part of two years. Not exactly the principal workplace then. This certainly does not alter her right to kick off, but it does recall the introduction of the smoking ban. Then, it came across as the triumph of the prim, who clearly did not go to the pubs but who did not hesitate in legislating those who did, indeed claiming there would be a rising in business from non-smokers once the ban took off. The evidence since has not supported this, and loads of pubs have gone to the wall.

Maybe I just have a cob on about a succession of legislators dabbling in pubs for the benefit of their non-patrons, and then walking away from the ensuing destruction without a backward glance.

On the whole though, just re-brand the beer !

...about the beer in the House of Commons.

It's the fact that it's subsidised by the taxpayer. Why should I pay for cheap booze for someone who earns three times what I do?

Excellent!

i agree with Uncle Monty that a visit to the pub is now a much more pleasant experience. Their decline is more to do with cheap supermarket beers/alcopops. I know countless people who take a bottle of vodka out with them, buy a fruit juice and top it up with Vodka. Hardly conducive to increasing pub revenues.

Had the Strangers Bar ordered Tactical Nuclear Penguin from Aberdeenshire, certain alleged perverters of the course of justice would have been too snowblind to even find their car, let alone drive it (and the penguin in question doesn't even have its gender defined)
http://www.brewdog.com/product/tactical-nuclear-penguin

Sorry

Like those cans of Tennant's lager that used to have half-dressed women on them.

the brewer of TT, Slater's, has a website .. on the front page is a link through to a video clip of a local news programme that covers the 'scandal' in fairly balanced style (Slater's Brewery On Staffs Live)

http://www.slatersales.co.uk/