Much though I'm tempted to join in, I want to side-step the ongoing argument about Thatcher, Blair and electoral reform, and try to answer DMcG's original question ("How political was the early- to mid- 'sixties UK folk scene?")

Unfortunately, there isn't a simple yes-no, or 40%/60% answer. The whole situation was very complicated, but at the risk of boring the socks of everybody else, I'll try to fill in at least some of the picture.

Let's start with some generally agreed facts.

A L Lloyd – leading scholar of the folk revival, and one of its most highly regarded singers - one-time Communist Party Member

Ewan MacColl – outstanding interpreter of traditional songs, and arguably his era's greatest composer of new songs in the traditional manner – Communist Party Member

Eric Winter – folk columnist for Melody Maker, Editor of Sing magazine, and tireless publicist for all thinks folky – one-time Communist Pary Member

Karl Dallas – also columnist for Melody Maker, Editor of Folk News, author of many good books and articles on folk, and very competent singer-guitarist-songwriter – one-time Communist Party Member

Bruce Dunnet – folk club organiser, folk concert promoter, manager of numerous folk performers - one-time Communist Party Member

And the list goes on …

But while this might seem to vindicate right-wing fears of a communist conspiracy behind the folk movement, the reality was a bit different.

Most of these people joined the party in the 1930s (think Wall Sreet crash, mass unemployment, rise of Fascism, and mainstream parties doing nothing about it) or in the 1940s (think World War 2, our gallant Soviet allies defending Stalingrad against the Panzers, Churchill and Rooseveldt cosying up to Stalin at Yalta, etc.)

But by the late 1950s and early '60s most of the older generation of left-wing folkies had either left the party, or were taking a dissident stand within it (think suppression of Budapest uprising, continuing Soviet nuclear tests, gradually emerging truth about the purges and the Gulag, etc.) And most of the younger left-wing folkies never joined the CP in the first place, for similar reasons.

So, there were a lot of people around the folk scene with strong radical convictions, some of whom had (for a time) been CP members. But by the mid '60s most of them were not following anybody's party line. The folk movement was 'political' only in the sense that many of its members were actively campaigning against US/Soviet plans for nuclear suicide (Dr Strangelove and all that), racial discrimination, third-world poverty, and similar worthy causes. But most of them (I should come clean and say, most of us) were highly sceptical about the sincerity, and the effectiveness, of all politicians and parties, right, left, or centre. And I, for one, remain similarly sceptical to this day … Which takes us back to the ongoing arguments about Thatcher, Blair and company ….

That's enough pedantry for today … class dismissed! Let's all go down the pub!

Wassail!