Banned on the run

Following the decision of Welsh rugby to ditch Delilah from fans' songsheets, Nigel Williamson struggles with the thorny issue of song lyrics being censored

I've been thinking a lot recently about song lyrics and censorship prompted by Welsh rugby's decision to axe Tom Jones's Delilah from matches in this year's Six Nations, which reaches its climax just as this issue of HFC hits the streets. The song, of course, is about the murder of a woman and over the years has become the unofficial anthem of Welsh rugby fans, played before kick-off with the words shown on giant screens to aid the singalong.

For at least 20 years there has been a campaign to have it banned on the grounds that it: "glorifies violence against women". It began with the former chairwoman of Plaid Cymru and her objections were then taken up in the House of Commons and elsewhere, but the Welsh rugby authorities resisted, rather pompously claiming in 2016 that: "There is plenty of precedent in art and literature, prominently in Shakespearean tragedies for instance, for negative aspects of life to be portrayed".