I was going to ask whether this thread - warts and all - might be conflated with other threads about Bert Lloyd, but then it occurs to me that doing so might cause more problems than might be solved.

I have posted in one of the other threads to the effect that, purely for me, I am not arsed whether a song which I might have sung (in the days when I could sing) has, or has not, been "doctored" ;

nor am I arsed to learn the identity of the person who might have "doctored" said song.

Incidentally, I loved that image of the "folk old gits, sucking their dentures . . . and setting themselves up as the fons et origo of all things folk". There is many the true word spoken in jest . . .

It is, I think, at least arguable that without the alleged "doings" of Ewan McColl and in particular Bert Lloyd, we might still be singing the Clancys' (Clancies ?) recorded canon.

It was the likes of Bert Lloyd who showed me that "folk music" wasn't just 'The Banks of the Ohio' and 'Bould O'Donoghue'.

Please, please do not construe the foregoing as criticism of those who are concerned whether a song has been "doctored", and if so, by whom. Speaking purely for myself, it makes no never mind to me,

if I like the song under consideration.