El Greko, thanks for you thoughtful reply. I didn't ask a polarising question. The first post, which is their to be checked, seems reasonable and it raises an interesting point, though not quite as innocently as it reads (to me).

When I first went to Folk Clubs some people told anti- Irish, anti- jewish, anti black........jokes, as did lots of other people in lots of other situations. Now they don't and that's better.

I am not asking for a whole scale re-interpretation of the history of humanity or a change in human nature.

I don't like the sentiments expressed in those songs and I don't understand why anybody would want to sing them at the end of a series of concerts of world class music.

It is a confusing line between wanting to enjoy old English songs and music and seeming to appear just a tiny bit jingoistic. I guess we all get it just a bit wrong now and again.

I find the Brittania Coconut Dancers unique, thrilling and more than a bit magical and I cannot say that about much morris. A Jewish friend of ours is uneasy about white men painting their faces black and as a result cannot connect with the sense of drama that I involunterily do.

I think it says a great deal about the sensitivity and sense of justice that abounds in the 'folk community' that we enjoy English and other traditions without becoming jingoistic.

And as for those deadful songs in the fantasia, how many more moving sea songs can you name that those?