At the end of the movie "A Touch of Evil" the character played by Marlene Dietrich says of the (deceased) character played by Orson Welles . "What does it matter what you say about people after they are dead? He was some kind of a man."

So was Jimmy Ewan MacColl Miller, and perhaps the time has come to let him rest in peace for a while. Yes, he was a human being, and like the rest of us he had his flaws and failings. And because he was a figure of some historical significance, it is right that these flaws and failings are properly documented. But why keep dwelling on them so obsessively?

We are only here on this earth for a very short time, and we have to spend a great deal of that time on the everyday necessities of bodily life. That leaves little enough room in our lives for things of the mind and the spirit. Why waste so many of those precious moments wrangling over MacColl's misdeeds when we could be engaging with his ideas or listening to his music?

You may disagree with some of his political positions. (I do.) You may criticise some of the artistic choices he made. (I do.) But how many of us have produced anything of comparable stature to the Radio Ballads? (I certainly haven't. Have any other posters to this thread done so? I think not.)

Wassail!