One flavoursome ale, however, has proven too fruity for the House of Commons. Top Totty, a blonde beer brewed in Stafford, was banned yesterday from a parliamentary bar on the grounds that it was “offensive” to women.
The pump plate fixed to the bar tap features an image of a buxom blonde wearing little more than a bow-tie, a pair of bunny ears and a bikini to protect her modesty. Female members of the House were said to have been “disturbed” by the sight of the refreshment on offer in Parliament’s Strangers’ Bar.
However, the decision to ban the beer quickly led to allegations of a sense of humour bypass.
Mike Natrass, the UK Independence Party’s MEP representing Stafford, said: “This sort of knee-jerk Puritanism does more to damage the cause of equality than a thousand beer labels. It suggests that to be in favour of equality you must be a dour-faced, insult-searching misery.”
Claire Fox, the director of the Insititute of Ideas and a regular panellist on the Radio 4’s Moral Maze, wrote on Twitter: “What really demeans women: idea we’ve no sense of humour and MPs acting as sanctimonious killjoys in our name.”
Tracey Crouch, the Conservative MP for Chatham and Aylesford, added: “Why is a beer called Top Totty offensive & now banned from Commons? Not as if it is called Middle-Ranking Totty?”
Should Top Totty beer have been banned?
Kate Green, who speaks for the Labour Party on equality issues, originally lodged an official complaint about the beer with the leader of the House of Commons, Sir George Young.
She later told MPs during questions in the Commons: “I was disturbed last night to learn that the guest beer in the Strangers’ Bar is called Top Totty and there is a picture of a nearly naked woman on the tap.”
She called for a debate on “dignity at work in Parliament” and asked for Sir George’s support in removing Top Totty “immediately” from sale. He assured her: “Action will be taken.” Within 90 minutes, the beer had been withdrawn.
The speed of response to Miss Green’s complaint was hailed as the fastest political victory in history.
The beer’s removal came as a blow to the Tory MP Jeremy Lefroy, who had arranged for Top Totty to be sold in Strangers’. “These guest ale slots offer a very welcome opportunity for small independent breweries, like Slater’s, to reach a wider audience with their products, some of which have cheeky names,” he said. “However, I can understand that some people may take offence to the marketing, which I am sorry about.”
Sally Bercow, the wife of Commons’ Speaker John, who last year posed in just a bedsheet for a magazine, took to Twitter to protest at the brew. She wrote: “Cannot *believe* that there’s a beer called Top Totty on sale in the Commons! Outrageous – does Mr B know?”
Slater’s brewery describes the ale as “a stunning blonde beer, full-bodied with a voluptuous hop aroma”.
More from the source: Top Totty beer deemed far too fruity for House of Commons bar - Telegraph
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