Strangely enough. I had something in that line happen to me.

Before we moved last year, my wife used to be on the committee of a self help group for people with arthritis. (the illness not the mudcatter).

Anyway there was this little old lady in the group who used knit little woollen dolls as a hobby for club funds. The were lovely things all hand knitted and of course, amongst her repertoire was the golliwog.

Well we had several coloured members. so the committee were wondering what to do. You could ask everybody individually if they were offended - but in a way that would be pressurising them, and anyway you do that and you could get a new member that did take exception. And the old lady in question was a very nice old lady - so what to do...

I remember we had one committee member who was up for a fight and wanted Denise (my wife) to register disgust and annoyance that we harboured such a racist beast in our midst. he wasn't keen to do it himself, but we kept getting phone calls that this was our duty.

Finally Denise broached the subject with old lady and she said okay, I'll just put another head on them. I think when nice old ladies in their 80's can get the situation, most other folk should be able to.