Liz Nice reacts to Agrifac UK's use of models at trade events.

I know a man in his 60s who has a state of the art Scalextric – it really is a sight to behold (that's retirement for you).

When I went round to see it, his wife said, 'Sorry, Liz, some of it isn't very PC!'

I'm not exactly the guardian of all things PC anyway but I did laugh at the little figures of decorative sexy ladies who were the staples of 1970s Grand Prix.

'At least it's not like that now,' his wife said.

BUT IT IS.

Women are still being used as decoration at all sorts of sporting events and social occasions – witness the furore over East Anglian farm machinery supplier Agrifac UK receiving an award at the Lamma trade show in Birmingham and posing for a photo with two models clad in skin tight red dresses and knee high white boots.

The only point of the women in the photo is for decoration.

They have contributed nothing, other than their looks.

Agrifac UK have defended their decision to employ models on their stand. They said: 'We did not get a single complaint at the show. To call the models 'Barbie dolls' was just awful. We employ women in our business and we believe in equal rights.'

But it's not equal is it? The photo shows that the men are the winners and the women are there merely to bathe in their reflected glory and make them look good because not only have they won something, they are also now able to surround themselves with pretty women.

Working women battle every day to be taken seriously for their ideas, rather than what they look like.

Even Theresa May struggles to be heard for her actual words, rather than what outfit she is wearing or how she has done her hair and it is women like the Barbie dolls in this picture who do the rest of us a disservice.

If you're sick of men staring at your chest, rather than listening to the words coming out of your mouth, thank the 'skin tight models'.

And if you're anticipating an old age where men grow more distinguished while you end up on the baggy-eyed, saggy breasts' scrap heap, remember that it starts from the moment you first traded on your looks rather than your brain.

Women get more interesting as they get older precisely because they no longer need male attention to exist. (Not that it isn't welcome of course!)

But intelligent men – men worth having - don't want a one-sided monologue where your only job is to gaze at them and look pretty. They want a conversation.

It's never too early to start working on the art of it.