Ric, the film was the dambusters. It's being remade as it happens and they're changing that dogs name to "trigger" or "digger" or something. Some people might yell that it's (all together now) "political correctness gone mad" which, in my experience is a phrase used as a euphemism for "i like saying certain things, and i don't care that times have changed and they're not considered appropriate anymore, i'm going to go on saying them, under the guise that i'm a brave advocate of freedom of speech, when in fact I'm the first to lambast others who say things that offend me".
I don't think we should white wash history either, at the time when the original dambusters was made, the dogs name was not considered so offensive to the audience, in 2012 it is, hence the change. When gollywogs were made, the popular sentiment was that it was not sufficiently offensive to prevent it being widely available as a toy distributed by a common consumer product. Some years ago Robertsons jam dropped their once popular logo, as they recognised that the public sentiment had shifted against it. Sensibilities change over time, in many different directions and many things that were once taboo are not, and vice versa.
Thankfully in 2012 in Britain, people are largely free to express themselves as they wish, even if the daily mail would have you think otherwise. The caveat is that laws exist (e.g. inciting racial hatred) to prevent your freedom of expression being at the expense of someone elses freedoms.
