I laughed when I read Michael Gove's comments, blaming lad mags for all society's ills. I've written for a few lad mags in the past – Zoo, Maxim, Arena, GQ (though I would call the last two style magazines). That doesn't mean I am now going to try and make a case for their moral fibre, because frankly they've got about as much moral fibre as asbestos. But that's precisely their point. So telling lad mags that they're doing something wrong actually means they are doing something right. The day the editor of a lad mag gets a letter of congratulation from a Conservative MP will be the same day he gets another letter. From his boss. With a P45 in it.

This rebuke from Gove will be worn as a badge of honour – the equivalent of the cool kid in class getting a ticking off from teacher. And the mags to which he has given free publicity will respond with a contemptuous snigger. You can bet those editors will today be standing behind their respective art directors' chairs, clapping with delight at the digital manipulation in Photoshop of Mr Gove's visage, which will doubtless appear as a vulgar retort in next week's issue. A joke which approximately 1% of the readership will get, because they've probably never even heard of this Gove bloke. But whatever, right, it's a picture, yeah, of a geezer with his head up his own arse, right, and that's like well funny, innit.

Gove is crediting these magazines with too much power and influence. Zoo and Nuts do not dictate culture; they reflect it. That's why they sell so well and that's why they exist. Blaming two magazines for everything from "teenage pregnancy" to "selfish irresponsibility" is exactly the kind of lazy generalisation I would expect from absolutely all soggy-biscuit-eating Tories. The same lazy generalisation they rouse from its slumber every time a kid stabs someone, having apparently learned precisely how to do it while playing Grand Theft Auto: Chav City or watching So You Think You Can Dance.

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In a keynote speech Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary, condemns the so-called "lads magazines" for encouraging men to view women as mere sex objects.

Our strategies for dealing with teenage pregnancy need to be focused more on young men and their responsibilities, he will say.

That's why I believe we need to ask tough questions about the instant-hit hedonism celebrated by the modern men's magazines targeted at younger males.

Titles such as Nuts and Zoo paint a picture of women as permanently, lasciviously, uncomplicatedly available.

We should ask those who make profits out of revelling in, or encouraging, selfish irresponsibility among young men what they think they're doing.

The relationship between these titles and their readers is a relationship in which the rest of us have an interest.

The images they use and project reinforce a very narrow conception of beauty and a shallow approach towards women. They celebrate thrill-seeking and instant gratification without ever allowing any thought of responsibility towards others, or commitment, to intrude.

The contrast with the work done by women's magazines, and their publishers, to address their readers in a mature and responsible fashion, is striking.

Comment from Dan

Yeah fatherlessness and relationship breakdown is caused by young men reading lads mags. What a brainwave!

Asda has come under fire from independent magazine publishers for proposed alterations to distribution arrangements that include the supermarket being given editorial space in the publications it stocks.

MediaGuardian.co.uk has seen an email memo from Asda's newspaper and magazines buyer sent to some magazine distribution companies that includes a series of demands for a new relationship with the supermarket giant.

Publishers supplying magazines to Asda branded the supermarket's demands "outrageous" and not "economically viable".

The proposals were due to be discussed at a meeting between representatives of Asda, magazine distributors and publishers. Asda's demands include a request for two pages of editorial or advertising space each month in titles of the company's choosing.

Another is that shop space given over to a distributor's titles will be subject to a "space contribution" of £10,000 paid to the supermarket. Asda is asking for a space contribution for each new Asda store opened of £2,500 per magazine title to be paid to the supermarket. The supermarket company is also demanding that any new title distributed in its stores will be subject to an "item set up" charge of £2,464.

According to the email memo, the supermarket is also requesting that a turnover bonus to the value of 2% of its magazine suppliers' total business with Asda be paid quarterly to the supermarket and backdated to January 1 2008. In addition to these charges Asda is also seeking a "hurdle rate" for new titles carried in stores, so if sales of the magazines are 20% less than forecast the supermarket will be compensated with the difference.

Asking for a contribution for each line [magazine title] in a new store is just not economically viable, a senior magazine publishing source told MediaGuardian.co.uk. The source added that it was "absurd" of Asda to expect editorial teams to give control away to the retailer.

The most annoying thing is asking for editorial space in magazines. The implications of that are huge because Tesco and Sainsbury would want it too and then all of a sudden magazines are full of advertorials, they said.

A group of pastors and preachers belonging to different churches in Manila have filed criminal complaints against editors and publishers of popular men’s magazines and so-called smut tabloids before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office.

The group was led by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, a pastor of the Metropolitan Bible Baptist Church and anti-porn nutter.

Charged in the joint complaint affidavit were editors and publishers of Philippines Playboy magazine, FHM, Maxim, Playhouse, Sagad, Hataw and Toro.

The group accused the respondents of grave scandal and obscene publication. The respondents also cited violation of Ordinance No. 7780 of the City of Manila, which prohibits the printing publication, sale, distribution and exhibition of obscene and pornographic acts and materials.

The group said the magazines and tabloids violated anti-pornography laws for containing obscene, erotic, indecent, or lewd pictures/poses that show, depict, exhibit, or describe nude or semi nude bodies sexual acts, sexual intercourse, private parts of the human body of both male and female, with no educational, artistic, cultural or scientific value.

Abante said this will be the first time that a class suit will be filed against the said magazines and tabloids. Abante said he is hoping that there are still judges who have the moral conscience to look into their complaint.