I'm not sure we've actually got a department of culture and anyway, in the case of English folk music the actual validity of any one group to call itself English folk music would be strongly challenged, if it were spoken too loud.

There are various august bodies like the world council (search me guv who they are) and they occasionally send The Yetties to the Himalayas, Martin Carthy to Patagonia and performance poets to Australia - these places being sorely in need of such attractions. However nobody I know has a handle on the whys and wherefores of how these things operate. I think they just happily coincided with Martin's desire to see every country in the world, and the general state of other artists not having a pot to piss in - so they might as well take the gig.

What exactly is it you were hoping to find out from the government?