My impression of Sharp was that he had an agenda to avoid songs of political content. I found the remark that he had an agenda of racial purity interesting but in my opinion incorrect, I believe Sharp wanted to popularise the songs he collected and so went for songs from rural areas that either avoided direct political comment or gave a romantic picture of rural work, he collected little from industrial areas in the UK, Although Sharp was a Fabian, he wanted the songs he collected to be accepted by the establishment, there are very few anti establishment songs in Sharps collections.
In my opinion, the fact that Sharp introduced songs into the national school curriculum and into primary schools was a very good thing. However Sharp was undoubtedly aware that songs which criticised the political system would not be acceptable in the national school curriculum in the uk, he also relised that songs that were overtly sexually explicit would not be acceptable either, he could get away with "the nightingale" and The Keeper, with the versions that he presented in his collection.