Brian May, I too am a military veteran, but I can’t hold his desertion against Ewan MacColl. His politics, his personal situation, the way the UK government managed the manpower crisis by imposing conscription on Day One — all that puts his relationship to the armed forces, the war effort and the nation so far beyond my ken that I could never understand, let alone judge. Especially now, literally generations after the fact.

Let’s let the songs speak for the man.