Hard not to notice that Shirley Collins; statement has been ignored - ven by her fellow Sussex by the Sea-ers
What are we supposed to do? Spring to attention and respond immediately because we have received the call from County Clare. I hesitate to repeat my claim about the person who thinks the world revolves around himself but I would submit this as further evidence. It's the subversive nasty edge to Jim's comments that I object to. Why does he continue to make provocative comments? This is not meant to be a side-taking snide comment competition. Ideally, it would be a fair and open minded debate. Some hope.....

I first met Shirley 53 years ago in 1964 and have become very friendly with her. Tina and I are delighted that in her recent books and records, we have received dedications from her. We have worked with Shirley in many ways over the intervening years, worked with her on developing and delivering all her multi-media shows, most notably a huge Arts Council funded tour of her "America Over The Water" multimedia shows that took us to major venues in five countries in 2007/8. It gave us some of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences in all our decades in folk music.
Now, I take it that Jim wants a response to the comments -

"Folk song belongs the despised and neglected people of the hard-working classes
They deserve to be known
My grandparents and my mum came from the labouring classes"

That was exactly her background just as it was mine; my father a docker, my mother a cleaner. Shirley's mother was an intensely involved Communist party member and the teenaged Dolly & Shirley were expected to spend their Saturdays selling The Daily Worker in the main shopping streets of Hastings, a thing that they found embarrassing to do and both resented intensely. Shirley's political interests are certainly of the left; from what I have heard her say, she seeks equality of opportunity and treatment for all but despises cant. rigidity and dogma both of the left and of the right. In many thousands of miles that Tina and I have driven her to gigs in our cars, there has been a wide range of discussions and one repeated topic was her deep loathing of the way she was treated as a young singer by both Lloyd & MacColl. She talked of put-downs, dismissive comments and what amounted to plain misogyny from the pair of them. I found this difficult to listen to because I had admiration for both men, but we are now surrounded by evidence of the treatment of young women by older men of that generation so who am I to doubt it. Yet when her relationship with Alan Lomax developed, she felt that there was jealousy that it was Alan and not Ewan that she favoured.

All of this is water that has long since passed under the bridge, and I only write it here because it has been called for. I fully expect to hauled over the coals for writing this but in my defence, I only write what I have heard because I have been asked to comment.