Sigh.. back at you Jim.

His Mancunian accent seemed to disappear as his new name took hold. Some early Theatre Workshop recordings of him speaking are there to hear. Full stop.

His father may have had an accent and this may have helped him use one in later life but to suggest he ever had a Scottish accent until he used it as part of his MacColl act is ludicrous. He did manage to keep it up without the mask slipping too often though....

He was a bit of a genius, although like all such people, had anther genius alongside him to complete the picture. That doesn't make him some sort of authentic figure. He was in show business and projected his act. Your insistence that it was anything else is what makes people poke fun at you, and that's a shame considering your life work since putting down the wire strippers.

Anyway, the "folk scene" isn't a fuck up. At least, it started improving once oddballs stopped gracing it with their presence, eh?