Sweeney has expressed his contempt of and distrust for collectors often enough in the past as to leave us in no doubt of his opinions of them, yet, like every other singer of traditional songs, he has no hestiation in reaping the benefits from their efforts.

That's the thing in discussions like this, one can't point out the inherent darker issues of the revival without being slated as some sort of hypocritical traitor to the cause. As a Post-Revuival Folk Singer I'm as much aware of the dodgier aspects of the revival as I am of the dodgier aspects of my country, and yet I choose to live here and be a (generally) contented citizen. The evils of social class and cultural colonialism are right there for us all to see; it is writ large in the very fabric of the thing & to call that passage patronising and condecending is only right and proper, because it is. However, Sharp was only human, a man of his times, but that doesn't mean we can't look at his legacy by the standards of our own. After all, it doesn't make him any less human to be aware of such issues,does it? Of course not. In this life we must live with the legacy of such things - ideologues, histories, ideologies - warts and all. I'm a huge fan of Miles Davis, but that doesn't mean I'm blind to the darker sides of his character - on the contrary, I eagerly swallow up biographies as much I do his recordings and accept that it's an itegral part of his genius. And I'm not even going to mention Ewan MacColl's war record; to me it rests alongside his utter brilliance as a ballad and folk song singer. Such is the merry way of biography, history, and human frailty; we embrace strengths and weakenesses with equal passion whilst being all too aware of our own; indeed, we applaud same in others as a very gladsome measure of PURE GENIUS. So - not biting hands, or expressing CONTEMPT, much less DISTRUST, just pointing out a passing imperfection that strikes me as being not the sort of thing we ought to be celebrating in this day & age, much less citing it support of what remains all too elitist a cause.