Row erupts over plans to rename ‘The Midget’ pub after campaigner deemed it offensive - despite it being named after a classic car

15 November 2024, 12:50 | Updated: 15 November 2024, 13:15

Thousands of people have signed a petition to reverse plans to change the name of a pub labelled "offensive".

Owners Greene King announced last week The Midget in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, would be changed after more than 1,300 people signed a petition.

Since the announcement, a counter-petition to restore the pub's name has received the support of more than 3,000.

“I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with this decision [to rename the pub] and in my opinion I think it is ridiculous,” said the counter-petition’s creator Joe Lawlor .

He added: “The naming is part of Abingdon’s history.”

The pub was named after the MG Midget car that was once manufactured in the market town.

The pub had originally been called The Magic Midget when it opened in 1974 after a former land speed world record car produced by MG, but dropped the word Magic in 2002.

Greene King said the pub's name would be changed to The Roaring Raindrop in tribute to the last ever record-breaking car by MG to be manufactured in Abingdon.

Earlier this year, Dr Erin Pritchard, a senior lecturer in disability studies at Liverpool Hope University, started a petition demanding the pub be renamed as because she claimed the term midget is “disablist hate speech”

She said: “I have dwarfism and like the majority of people with dwarfism find the word offensive.

“I doubt anyone would tolerate a pub with a name containing an equally derogatory slur against another group of disabled people or an ethnic minority.”

Dr Pritchard, who has successfully pressured Marks & Spencer to rename its Midget Gems product, started a petition in January calling for the name to be changed.

But Abingdon resident Amanda Buckingham said the pub name was "only offensive if it is used as an offensive term about a person".

"People don't go into the pub and think that it's about a person - there's a sign with a picture of the car outside, the decor of the pub is all about cars," she said.

"Changing the name is not going to stop people from calling it The Midget, and it's not going to stop people using the term in a derogatory way."

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Zoe Bowley, managing director of Greene King pubs, previously said the company had thought "long and hard" about changing the name.

"We hope that making the change in this way helps to preserve our pub’s historic links to Abingdon’s past while simultaneously ensuring our pub can be a place where everyone feels welcome," she added.