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Food

28th Mar 2022

Pub sparks debate after renaming ploughman’s lunch with genderless term

Kieran Galpin

Twitter loses it over bread

After a pub renamed the ploughman’s lunch for “just a bit of fun”, many have taken to social media to share their disgust at their belief that “woke sh**e is getting out of hand.”

The Tors Pub in the Dartmoor village of Belstone, Devon, has changed the traditional name of the ploughman’s lunch – which constitutes bread, cheese, onion and pickle – to a “ploughperson’s lunch”, according to reports in The Telegraph.

The news was broken by Charlotte Deakins, 36, on Twitter – and in the days since, the nation has been outraged over the £12.50 lunch.

iStock

Speaking to The Telegraph, Deakins said: “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.”

You might assume this “dangerous” act is sweeping the nation but in actual fact, it’s just one single pub in Devon that has made the change. Language is not being rewritten, nor is anyone demanding that every UK citizen only refers to this popular pub dish as “ploughperson’s lunch.”

Instead, as Tors Pub landlord Dicky Harrison said, the rename was a “bit of fun” and “tongue in cheek.”

He added that the change was also a gentle nod to the women who tend the UK’s land, adding that he didn’t think it would cause offence.

Clearly, he misjudged how passionately the British public feels about chutney and cheese.

Still, Twitter is ablaze with individuals who obviously feel very passionately about this traditional British lunch.

“I will only purchase a Ploughman’s lunch. Sell anything else and I won’t be using your establishment,” wrote one disgruntled ploughman’s fan.

https://twitter.com/LordDeeDah/status/1508443746517635084

Another said: “Easy, ask for a ploughman’s lunch, when told they only have a ploughperson’s lunch, reply. “Thanks, I will go and find a proper pub.”

A ploughman’s lunch typically contains cheese, ham, pickled onions and chutney between two slices of sourdough bread.

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