Licensee in row over racist windows'

by Claire Hu

A pub manager in the West Midlands has been left bemused after calls were made for a window of the premises to be removed because it may cause racial offence.

James Gold, who runs the Labour in Vain, in Oldswinford, near Stourbridge, has been contacted by the local Racial Equality Council (REC) about the window.

It depicts a black man being scrubbed in a bath by two women next to the pub name.

Dudley REC said the windows had attracted criticism for more than a decade.

It is seeking the views of local people and is meeting with the manager and the tenancy company Watergate Inns.

Gold said the windows, some of which had been smashed, had never been an issue.

He said: "I think it's all a bit pathetic.

Nobody in this pub has ever said anything about the windows.

Two have been broken and I am now expecting the others to be since all this has been blown up.

We had to take the pub plaque outside down and, to be honest, I don't mind if the window stays or goes."

Dudley REC first criticised the images in the late 1980s and the new campaign is being supported by Liberal Democrat councillors.

Mark Charman, of Watergate Inns, said it was the first he or the landlord Wolverhampton and Dudley had heard of the windows causing controversy.

He said: "We are not racist and there is no racial motivation in anything we do.

It's not our wish to cause offence and if this window is then we will remove it.