[Philip Quinlan]

Wagner knocks out a good tune, but I wouldn't fancy a drink with him.

Never goes his round for one thing...

John Milton wrote the odd good line but I wouldn't go out clubbing with him.

[Gregory Dowling]

We seem to have wandered far from the topic. The overall point that some great poetry/art/music has come from unsavoury sources has been generally accepted. And, as Roger says, nobody on this thread has talked of rejecting Eliot's poetry because of his politics or racism or whatever: indeed, everyone seems to have bent over backwards to state the reverse.

A general comment on the term PC. I don't remember ever seeing this term used other than satirically, by people opposed to it. But most of the time when people refer to PC, they seem to be talking about what used to be known very simply as courtesy: not causing unwarranted offence.

Greg, I respectfully disagree. To me the term "political correctness" strongly foregrounds, by its very terminology, the notion of political. It seems impossible to disentangle and expunge the notion of politics from it, and the strong primary meaning of conforming to someone's political agenda.

Now you might argue that "courtesy" could be said to have similar resonances, since it's derived from the original idea of behaviour acceptable at a royal court, but I'd disagree with that argument. As Shakespeare knew, a politician is an ignoble self-seeker very different from a Prince, and "courtesy" evokes a spirit of chivalry, nobility and generosity which I just don't pick up from "political correctness". I think that to many people "political correctness" suggests a kind of humorless pedantic spiritless coercion which can sometimes be more anti-democratic and anti-life than that which it claims to combat.

When I think of Courtesy I think of chivalry, merriment and Amour Cortois. When I think of political correctness I think of the cartoon mentioned in James Booth's excellent article, where one reader says to another "I find I simply can't touch a poet who isn't a vegetarian."