Ploughman's lunch is cancelled: Backlash after 'woke pub' rebrands it as Ploughperson's

28 March 2022, 12:14 | Updated: 28 March 2022, 12:43

A pub landlord has defended his decision to rebrand the venue's Ploughman's lunch as "ploughperson's', saying he hadn't intended to offend anyone.

The Tors pub in Belstone, Devon, offers what it has described on its menu as the 'ploughperson’s' lunch.

At £12.50 the popular dish offers the classic Ploughman's lunch - cheese, ham, pickled onions, chutney and sourdough bread - but with its new gender neutral name.

The rebrand has caused outrage online, with one person saying it is "utter crap" and another claiming "the world has properly gone mad".

But the pub's landlord, Dicky Harrison, insisted the move was 'tongue-in-cheek' and said he didn't mean to offend anyone.

In a now-deleted tweet, pub-goer Charlotte Deakins shared a picture of the new menu complete with the 'ploughperson's' lunch.

The tweet caused uproar, with Ms Deakins telling the Telegraph: “Quite frankly, my reaction is that it is pandering and dangerous, unless the pub owners have done it in a tongue-in-cheek manner and I hope they have.

“The tweet has gained some traction and people are absolutely sick of the nonsense and having to pussyfoot around because of a small minority who are eternally offended.”

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Twitter user @Basil3106 also shared their frustration online: “Never seen such utter rubbish in my life - stop the bus I want to get off now.

“The PC brigade need to get a grip, created by the ‘plough man’ of Britain, otherwise known as a farmer in the modern day. Who invented The Ploughman’s Lunch?”

Pub landlord Dicky Harrison said he had been startled to see how much attention the renamed dish had received, insisting it wasn't meant to cause offence.

“The menu item was just meant as a bit of tongue in cheek," he told the Telegraph.

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"We live in a farming community with amazing women and men farming the land. It’s just a bit of fun and a nod to the amazing ladies who work the land here. I didn’t think it would cause offence, but in reality, women plough too!”

The pub also posted a Tweet with the hashtags #WomenPloughtoo and #ploughpersons, joking that it was "great to see everyone is so passionate about a bit of bread and cheese".

The 'ploughperson's' is one of a number of foods to be renamed to avoid causing offence.

Marks and Spencer has dropped the name "midget gems" to avoid offending people with dwarfism, renaming them "mini gems" after a lobbying campaign by Dr Erin Pritchard, an academic at Liverpool Hope University who has achondroplasia.

The condition restricts bone growth, which causes short upper arms and thighs.

M&S also changed the name of its canned version of the pornstar martini cocktail to Passion Star Martini, after feminist campaigners complained it was "normalising porn".