Folk is doing it for ourselves - entertainment is paying somebody else to do it for us.

Paid professionals provide us with a more polished performance - that's why we think they're worth paying. But actually doing the thing (even when it's not done brilliantly) gives us an entirely different - but equally valuable - experience.

A folk scene without professionals would be far less interesting than the one we now have. But an amateur-free folk scene wouldn't be a folk scene at all - just a specialist niche in the world of show business.

Some Mudcatters seem to regard the showbiz professionals and the amateur folkies as two rival football teams, whose supporters must inevitably be at war with each other. But I believe both groups have their own distinctive virtues, and both have a part to play in a healthy musical environment.

Wassail!