A SHOP owner in Worcester today defended her right to sell golliwog dolls, despite a call for them to be removed from sale.

Margo Harreld, who runs Rhubarb in Chapel Walk in the CrownGate Shopping Centre, said she had been selling the gollidolls, to give them their politically-correct title, for a number of years and said they were very popular.

But Richard Woodhead, chairman of the Worcestershire Racial Equality Council, said they should be removed because they are offensive to ethnic minorities.

No official complaints have been received about the dolls, but Mr Woodhead said they had been brought to his attention by BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"This just reinforces the stereotypes that we have been trying to get rid of for so long," said Mr Woodhead. "It is disrespectful."

Mrs Harreld, who also has a shop in Hereford, said the dolls were part of Britain's heritage and were in no way intended to be racist.

"People who come in and buy them, do so for the nostalgia," she said. "They remember them from year's gone by.

"This is just political correctness gone made, again, just as you can no longer sing Baa baa black sheep'."

Last year your Worcester News reported how a shop owner in Bromyard was investigated by police for selling golliwogs.

The dolls were removed from a window display at A&E Pettifer's store after a passer-by said they were offensive.

Police seized the toys under Section 5 of the Public Order Act, which makes it an offence to display material which could be deemed threatening, abusive or insulting.

West Mercia Police later decided not to press charges.

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