21st Century Miserabalism…Rupert Murdoch tweets that he is considering the future for Page 3

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See article from guardian.co.uk

I n a single, apparently off-the-cuff remark on the internet, Rupert Murdoch hinted that he may at last be ready to give way to Britain’s miserabalists. Responding to a fellow user of Twitter who described Page 3 as so last century , News Corp’s chairman and chief executive commented: Page three so last century! You maybe right, don’t know but considering. Perhaps halfway house with glamorous fashionistas. A News International spokesperson said the company was making no comment in relation to whether the Sun’s topless Page 3 could be for the axe.

Limey, There’s a Liberal Bone in His Body After All…Nick Clegg declines to support the campaign to ban Page 3

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See  article from  guardian.co.uk

Nick Clegg has declined to back the campaign to ban page 3 girls from the Sun, on the grounds that the state should not dictate the content of newspapers. In an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, the deputy prime minister said it would be deeply illiberal for the state to dictate what appears in newspapers.

Mean Minded…Lynne Featherstone speaks out against Page 3

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See  article from  independent.co.uk

Lynne Featherstone, the international development minister, said she would sign a petition to ban Page 3 because it had a deleterious effect on women. The petition, set up by Lucy Holmes and entitled Take the bare boobs out of The Sun , had more than 30,000 signatures last night. Admitting she would be called mean and sour-faced by some people, Featherstone said: There is a real argument about what is OK in the public space. If you are on the Tube you may find Page 3 is facing you and your young daughter and you may not want that to be a role model for her. There is an army on the other side hurtling abuse. It’s not simply about equal pay. It’s about the constant drip, drip of women being sexualised in the public space [which] has a great bearing on attitudes and domestic violence. When you know that one in four women experience domestic violence in their life, two women are killed each week by their partner or husband, there is a very long way to go. While a lot of blokes say ‘You are mean, sour-faced, whatever — it’s harmless’, actually it’s not harmless at all.

The Miserable 21st Century…Harriet Hatemen whinges about Page 3

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See article from huffingtonpost.co.uk

Harriet Harman has had a whinge against Page 3 girls, telling Sky Newsthat tabloid pictures of topless females are not the right thing for women in the 21st century. Labour’s deputy leader said: I’m not saying that we should ban it...BUT...I think that women in the 21st century who are going out to work, who are bringing up their children, who are playing a full role in public life, I think that the idea that women are sex objects to be posing in their knickers to be leered at by men in a national newspaper – I don’t think that that’s the right thing for women in the 21st century. Perhaps the 21st century will one day become known as the Miserable Century. When for one reason or another, all pleasures in life were frowned upon. And when everything ended up banned, nobody could make any money, and the western world went down the pan.

Not So Liberal Democrats…LibDems pass motion to restrict the Sun to the top shelf because of Page 3 girls

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See article from huffingtonpost.co.uk

Amongst the motions passed at the Liberal Democrat’s 2011 conference is a call to restrict sexualised images in newspapers. A plan by former MP Evan Harris aims to tackle the projection of women as sex objects to children and adolescents by restricting sexualised images in newspapers and general circulation magazines to the same rules that apply to pre-watershed broadcast media. The Sun reports that Evan Harris held up photos of page 3 girls during a debate in Birmingham, and argued they – and the Sun newspaper – should only be on the top shelf at newsagents. He said: OK, these images can be available for adults if they want to access them, but they should have to reach up to a higher shelf than what is at the general view for young people.

Labouring for a Miserable Britain…Harriet Hatemen takes aim at Page 3 Calendars

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Based on article from thesun.co.uk

Harriet Hatemen, the minister for Intolerance and Inequality, claims it is harassment to put up saucy pics at work. The small print of the Government’s flagship Equalities Bill declares: An employer who displayed any material of a sexual nature, such as a topless calendar, may be harassing employees where this makes the workplace an offensive place to work. Critics fear a witch-hunt against workers. Tory MP Philip Davies fumed: This is crazy – the nanny state running riot.