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.

Offsite Comment: Taking the liberal out of the Lib Dems

22nd September 2011. See article from spiked-online.com by Patrick Hayes

The Liberal Democrats persist in calling themselves Liberals, while at the same time announcing a range of policies that could deal a bodyblow to individual freedom. From plans to introduce parenting classes, to proposals to ban Page 3 girls and give the state powers to put investigative journalists behind bars, a rebranding as the Illiberal Democrats must surely be in the pipeline.

...Read the full article

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.

Platform 51 is a women's group that was once the YWCA. They write:

Platform 51 poll reveals significant support for ban

A new poll, commissioned by women's charity, Platform 51, reveals that over two fifths of women in the UK would support a ban on the use of topless images in daily newspapers.

• Almost double the proportion of women (42%) would support a move to ban topless models as oppose it (24%)
• Amongst men and women, younger people aged 18-24 (41%) and Londoners (43%) would be most supportive of a ban

Commenting on these latest figures, Rebecca Gill, Platform 51's Director of Policy, Communications and Campaign, said:

Today's figures reveal that many more women are in favour of a ban on Page 3 than against it. Everyday we help girls and women across the country to build up their confidence and self-esteem and we see how they are affected by such photos, both in how they feel about themselves and how men see them.

These figures are particularly timely with Dominic Mohan being recalled in front of the Leveson inquiry on this issue. We hope that the inquiry will listen to women's views.

Surely readers have the right to know the full results of the poll including the views of men, older people, and those outside London. The results selected have obviously been cherry picked, and one assumes that the full results simply do not support Platform 51's views.

And then Rebecca Gill, CEO of Platform 51, cheekily uses these bollox half survey results to sort of call on Leveson to ban page 3. See article from huffingtonpost.co.uk by Rebecca Gill:

On Monday Dominic Mohan was recalled to the Leveson inquiry where he defended Page 3 as a British institution. Unfortunately he missed the all important word was'- it was a British institution - and not a particularly good one at that.

Platform 51 commissioned a nationally representative poll over the weekend which showed that almost twice as many women would support a ban on topless pictures of female models appearing in daily newspapers as would oppose it. In a country where many people feel uneasy with the word 'ban, these results are certainly striking.

...

These serious objections to Page 3 are perhaps well rehearsed. But what our polling shows is that many people, far from viewing institutions like Page 3 as harmless fun, in fact see Page 3 as an outdated institution which is, frankly, a bit embarrassing and needs to be consigned to the dustbin of history.

I wonder if Leveson appreciates the irony of being asked to make recommendations based on the very sort  of unethical bollox that he is supposed to be sorting out.