His great cycle of songs based on Kipling poems is a forgotten masterpiece.

Hardly forgotten I'd say. Every time I've heard of a production of The Widows Unifirm it's been a sell-out so far as I have heard.

The Barrack Room Ballads are by no means straight up and down glorifying the Empire. In many ways they show it up as a racket, exploiting and wasting poor bloody soldiers. Kipling allowed his soldiers to speak through him, and they didn't necessarily share all his politics or see them as of any interest.

As for Maggie, Cllr, I think you'd find that Tony Blair isn't much better liked. At least Maggie came on as The Enemy, and she clearly believed in her policies. A lot of people thought of Tony Blair as a Friend, and a lot more are very sceptical about whether he really has any real political beliefs. (I'd say in both cases they are mortal enemies of most of the best qualities of their particular political tradition, but that is another point)

And it is worth noting that folkies are always welcome in the Conservative Club at Whitby Folk Week, which is one of the main venues, and noone ever tries to censor our songs. But when some of us tried to have a concert in the Labour Club in Harlow (for example) the committee got cold feet, and cancelled the booking.