Dear Weelittledrummer,

At my local folk club, earlier this year, the guests were Shepheard, Spiers & Watson, 3 superb singers and musicians from Aberdeenshire. Their presentation contained many Scots songs which I recognised as having English counterparts. Before we get into any infantile arguments about 'us' (the English) nicking 'their' (the Scots) songs my interpretaion of this phenomenon is that there was, at one time, a lot of cross-fertilisation was going on between two English-speaking traditions - and both traditions benefited.
The point is that both traditions have lots of songs about 'Pretty Ploughboys' etc.! Every musical form has its common tropes and images - these are what makes that particular form distinctive! The Blues, for example, has lots of stuff about 'my baby done left me'etc. but no-one ever criticises the Blues on these grounds. Why is it only English Folk Song which comes in for this sort of stick?
Finally, Weelittledrummer, if you don't like English Folk Song, don't listen to it - it's as simple as that!