GERMAINE Greer, Emmeline Pankhurst and Scary Spice would all be proud of little Daisy Edmonds.

The eight-year-old featured in the Adver this week because she highlighted the sexism still inherent in the fashion world.

Daisy was at the Tesco store in Ocotal Way and was struck by the difference between the slogans on T-shirts for girls and those for boys.

The girls’ were full of asinine drivel, such as ‘Hey!’ and ‘Beautiful’.

Meanwhile, the boys were blessed with ‘go get ’em’ soundbites, such as ‘Think Outside The Box’ and ‘Desert Adventure Awaits’.

What an astute kid Daisy is to pick up on such stereotyping, and how gutsy of her to speak up about it. Her mum videoed her reaction and posted it to Facebook — and Daisy’s outrage has gone viral.

It really is astonishing, when you think that it’s more than 100 years since women began their fight for the vote and when you look back at how feminism revolutionised the nation between the 1960s and 1980s, that such piffle is still being peddled.

I remember as a kid being given dolls to play with and thinking they were rubbish.

Who cares if a plastic baby human cries, drinks milk (though that was quite impressive) and wets itself?

My cousin’s Action Man was far more exciting.

If you pressed the button at the back of his head, his eyes moved from side to side.

And as for wearing dresses... Pah, forget it.

Climbing trees, playing football, riding my bike and building dens took up most of my childhood (that and Spy Club, which involved a whole summer of learning Morse Code and spying on the neighbours who resolutely failed to do anything interesting, let alone suspicious).

You see, kids aren’t born prejudiced and don’t automatically fit into stereotypes. It’s we adults who teach them all that guff.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with little girls wearing pink or liking My Little Pony.

And they should be catered for in the fashion world.

But there are girls who simply don’t fit into the cutesy, girly niche and they deserve to be catered for too.

If a family store like Tesco operates purely within conventional stereotypes, what message are we sending out to our youngsters?

So come on, behemoth supermarket chain, and lead the way — listen to Daisy and prove that Girl Power isn’t already dead and buried.

Farewell to a man of peace

I WAS saddened to hear of the death of former Israeli prime minister and president Shimon Peres yesterday.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner played an important part in the politics of a tragically troubled part of the world.

Despite his best efforts, and those of the likes of Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, that part of the Middle East has never found peace and continues to suffer atrocities on a near daily basis.

I was lucky enough to meet Mr Peres once. I was working on a kibbutz in the olive fields, pruning and nurturing those gnarly trees in the brutal heat of the desert. He came for a walkabout through the olive groves one day — I didn’t even know he was coming so was somewhat awestruck.

He struck me as a charming, kindly man. We could do with more like him.

A whole lotto waiting

IT’S a feat of self control — or a classic example of English passive aggression — but I’ve been biting my lip for several years now.

But enough is enough. As I’m far too polite (pronounced cowardly) to say anything in real life, I’m going to have rant right here and now from the safety of my keyboard.

Why oh why do lottery ticket sales take place in real shops, causing real queues?

It’s Wednesday as I write this and I’ve just wasted ten precious minutes of my lunchbreak waiting to buy some throat sweets in a queue forming behind people buying Lotto tickets.

Fine, yes, the National Lottery does wonders for a lot of very worthy causes and I have nothing against anyone who wants to buy their weekly ticket.

But every other form of gambling takes place in places specifically reserved for gambling.

Shops are for people to buy commodities, not place their bets and hope for the jackpot.

Move lottery points to betting shops or create self-service kiosks — don’t hold up the rest of the world when you’re buying nothing but a pipe dream.