Furore over a popular children's soft toy continues



The owner of an Enid Blyton gift shop has been banned from her town's window dressing competition because her entry features a tea-towel with a picture of a golliwog.

Viv Endecott specialises in selling the old-fashioned children's toy at her store in Corfe Castle, Dorset - shifting thousands because they are now so hard to find anywhere else.

For the Purbeck Arts Festival, she designed a tea-towel and mug celebrating 'English freedom', featuring a golliwog along with a description of what she regards as key national values.

But the trader has accidentally sparked a huge controversy as the festival organisers held an emergency meeting and ruled that the display should be banned.

They claimed the image of the golliwog - seen by some as a racial stereotype - was offensive and could not be endorsed by the festival.

Ms Endecott, 55, who is mixed-race, made a tea-towel listing a number of concepts which she believes either support or oppose the values of English liberty.

Terms such as 'freedom of speech, 'common law' and 'decency' appear in red, while other words such as 'slavery', 'sharia law' and 'political correctness gone mad' are in grey.

The items are displayed prominently in the window of the Ginger Pop store, which is dedicated to local hero Blyton, the author of books such as Famous Five.

The Dorset Race Equality Council also objected to Miss Endecott's display - head Adnan Choudry said: 'Golliwogs don't just offend black people, they're offensive to people of any race.

However, Miss Endecott insisted that golliwogs are not offensive and pointed to their role in traditional literature through the ages.

'It is about time the English started celebrating our culture,' she said. 'The golliwog is a part of our culture and no one needs to be offended by it.  'You cannot ban bits of history you don't like, history is part of our country.

'I sell thousands upon thousands of golliwogs in the shop every year. There are so few places to get one these days because most people are too frightened to sell them.'

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