Free Republic

The landlady of a pub whose collection of golliwog dolls was confiscated by police has assembled replacements, which she plans to display in defiance of a continuing investigation. Last week four Essex police officers and a trainee seized all the dolls on show in the White Hart Inn in Grays as part of an investigation into an alleged hate crime. The dolls divide opinion in Grays. On Tuesday some pub regulars turned up to show support, but others expressed their fury. The pub’s landlady, Benice Ryley, 62, refuses to accept they are racist. Clutching an armful of the dolls, including...

A shopkeeper was told by police to remove Golliwogs from her window display - because they were offensive. Moira Pickering, 62, was warned that she risked breaching race hate laws if she failed to take them down. Recently bereaved widow Moira has been selling the dolls in her shop Stalybridge Reproductions in the town near Manchester for years and said they had never caused offence. Moira said the action was political correctness gone mad She said: "A woman came in and began taking photos. I thought she was taking a photo of the table and chairs, but then she went...