"I suspect you really don't have the courage of your convictions"

"Hence I had my radical youth outlook fixed on more international debate, such as Chile, South Africa etc."

I was in South Africa 1976 to 77. I was there when Biko was thrown out of a window of the police headquarters in John Foster Square. I was there when Soweto and Alexandria burned. I was summoned to the Department of the Interior and told, in no uncertain terms, that I should keep my nose out of SA politics (I didn't). I had to leave at a few hours notice by doing a reverse detour via Cape Town, leaving everything I owned behind, to avoid the SA authorities. Do not lay that kind of shit on me because I lost friends in Angola and some who were 'disappeared' by the police in SA. (Sorry, getting a bit emotional here.)

Ian, we both love the music but maybe we come from a different standpoint - my background comes from a grandfather who, after leaving school at 12 to work as a ploughboy, then worked on the railways all his life, became a life-long socialist, but was the ultimate autodidact with an incredible knowledge of history, literature and politics, and served the community as chairman of the council, a JP , church warden, and many other community roles despite the fact that he never rose beyond being a booking office clerk.

My own son seems to have a similar leaning, having gained a place at Loughborough Uni to study history and politics - although, I have to say, his politic leanings are much more to the right than mine! Bloody kids - they will have their own opinions!

BTW, Ian, I like challenge - it's the lifeblood of folk music and, at 60 years of age, it's probably what keeps me alive. As Dougie Maclean said: "You can fall but you must not lie down".