Top Totty ale banned in Commons

Friday 3rd February 2012, 9:12AM GMT.

Top Totty ale banned in Commons

Staffordshire brewery bosses today spoke of their dismay after their Top Totty ale was banned from sale at Parliament because its pump plate featuring a half-naked blonde offended women.

It was withdrawn from the famous Strangers’ Bar at Westminster after a woman MP took offence at its cheeky pump clip.

An image of the woman in a bikini with bunny ears has been the symbol of Stafford-based Slater’s Brewery four per cent blonde beer for many years.

Within 90 minutes of shadow equalities minister Kate Green complaining yesterday it had been removed from sale.

Miss Green claimed she was left “disturbed” after seeing the image and demanded bar staff remove Top Totty from sale.

She told 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.”

The beer was withdrawn after Commons’ Leader Sir George Young told MPs: “Action will be taken.”

Slater’s sales director Fay Slater, aged 33, wife of head brewer Andrew Slater, said: “It’s a popular beer, it has won gold awards.

“Okay the pump clip is a little cheeky, but that’s generally what they are like.

“We don’t want to offend anyone, but if there was a major complaint we would be happy to change it.”

Vicki Slater, owner of the George Inn in Castle Street, Eccleshall, where the brewery business started before it moved to a site in St Albans Road in Stafford, said: “We’ve brewed Top Totty for 10 years or more and there’s never been a problem.”

Stafford MP Jeremy Lefroy said: “I invited Slater’s to put forward a guest ale to the bar following a visit to the brewery site in Stafford.

“I am keen to support local businesses and British beer.”


  1. 1
    HSK

    Beer & Totty, what more can a man ask for!

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  2. 2
    mike

    oh my gosh!! what is this great country coming to?

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  3. 3
    Gavin Caddick

    What is going on havent these MPs got anything
    else better to do pathetic i love top totty and the drink!!

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  4. 4
    vindaloony

    Pathetic !! What on earth is happening in this world. What happened to good old fashioned humour. Obviously nothing important to worry about.

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  5. 5
    Tom

    Im offended that the woman was offended, its a cartoon picturefor christs sake! They going to ban the flinstones nxt because willma shows to much thigh? This is stupid, and the fact that those who run our country waste time on this says alot for the state of the uk.,

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  6. 6
    Gary

    Pity the MPs dont react just as quick on more important issues !!!!

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  7. 7
    sherlock

    she’s ‘disturbed’ alright…

    shouldn’t she have something better to fuss about?

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  8. 8
    Albrightondek

    What a joyless soul she is.
    If she’s offended by a bikini clad cartoon character on a beer pump, I wonder how she reacts to real life women at the seaside on the beach in bikini’s.
    Or is she one of those that are in favour of burkini’s for women.
    Shame on the Commons leader for acquiesing to such a nonsensicle request.

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  9. 9
    English Exile

    On the other hand it is a good bit of advertising for the company concerned.

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  10. 10
    JJ

    Time to ban Marge Simpson, Lois Griffin, Betty Boo and Jessica Rabbit. Need to ban all Barbie dolls too.

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  11. 11
    Ale Drinker

    If this is the way it’s going then I can think of a couple of others she would take offence at.
    Good job she didn’t have a bag of nuts off the card! Now that I would perhaps have had some sympathy with but, as has already been said, this was a cartoon image for goodness sake.
    Get a life, woman, and start worrying about some important issues.

    Report abuse

  12. 12
    Trevor Lloyd.

    Some of these female MP’s want to get a life there is a enough gloom in the world without them being offended by the slightest thing, you can’t say or do anything nowadays in jest without being jumped on they need to lighten up.

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  13. 13
    Albrightondek

    As shadow equalities minister, I wonder if she would have given approval to Lesbian lager?

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  14. 14
    happydrunk

    After the Top Totty Ale scandal in the Commons bar I have decided to give my morning brew the name Ugly Unloved Left-wing Manbird which will feature a politcally correct image of a woman being liberated by a burka!!!!

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  15. 15
    Yana Bennett

    I thought it might be a good idea to balance out the list of comments with one from a female perspective…

    Wake up world! Women don’t want to be misrepresented(the picture isn’t of a real woman – I don’t know any woman that shape for a start)and we are sick and tired of the way media, advertising and marketing moguls portray women as nothing more than sex objects to market, promote and sell their products.

    Perhaps those men that have made comments here should go and talk to some ‘real’ women and find out what they feel about the constant stream of misrepresentation.

    Report abuse

  16. 16
    Bob S

    It is a pity that the same indignation cannot be displayed at the recent comments of Diane Abbott.

    Report abuse

  17. 17
    Ross

    Kate Green may see herself as some sort of 21st century suffragette, but she is in fact just exceptionally small minded and tedious.

    Report abuse



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