Really good post Brian - I totally agree.

Interesting point on Sportsmen Arouse - I enjoy that song to sing, but personally abhor bloodsports. The one time I've sang any of those songs in public (The Innocent Hare), I denounced the practice, and pledged a donation to the League Against Cruel Sports, ha ha. On the wider Copper repertoire, I certainly wouldn't sing Good Ale, for obvious reasons - when I've seen the Coppers do so, they've made a show of apologetically disapproving of the domestic violence lines, in mid-flow, but that still feels a bit far for me.

Dave - in terms of the slippery slope - I think content that could realistically pass the threshold to see people disciplined from work, or kicked out of a political party (eg racial curse words, antisemitic blood libel) that's not a bad place to draw the line?

Rigby - the difference with Sharp, Baring Gould and some peers - as I understand it! - is that their approach (lyrically and melodically, in Sharp's case) flew close to censoring/doctoring the historical record itself. I think there's a strong consensus above that the material shouldn't be doctored at source/in the archives. It's about making conscious, practical choices about what we perform today. And also, to repeat - going through the same evolutionary process of 'variation and selection' which the songs have always gone through.

Although as I keep noting, My Curly Headed Baby isn't a folk song - to take that example, Robeson himself appears to have sung it without racial slurs multiple times on record, later in his career.

To repeat a better example - perhaps you've seen my point about the universal omission these days of the antisemitic verse from 'Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day.'