The fact that most of the new academic work came from the political left is no surprise. That was the mood of the time, and the right wing has never been known for its intellectual capacities. Simply by taking seriously the experiences of the common people and researching their lives branded you as left of centre anyway.


Harker successfully uses histories of the region and the mining industry and books on local dialect to explicate the song's meaning. But given the fact that it was not written by a collier or even by a working man its accuracy as a social document is unclear. It turns out that while historical sources can shed a great deal of light on the song and its contents it is much harder to argue that the song itself can be used as an unproblematic historical source.

One may disagree with Roud, but this does not appear to be 'facile', nor do other discussions he has of Harker's work, the value of which he acknowledges.

Jim: I did not intend to imply that I held your views as less important that those who disagree with you. I was just trying to 'contextualise'. I have no objection to using politically motivated songs: …. struggles for examples: I bought a download of Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. Does that count for anything? :)

But please have the last word on this...(ducks)