the chickens are coming home to roost.

The phoney 'tradition' was always just a way of excluding people from folk music. This is middle class turf - plebs keep off it!

They can hand out as many MBEs, and Mercury prizes, and folk performer of the decade awards as they like; cordon off the folk music radio programmes as no go areas for ordinary singer/songwriters; give out Arts Council subsidies and commissions and send the unlistenable off on cultural exchanges to places where they still have a culture.

the vast generality of people just ain't buying it.

As Winston Smith said, if there is any hope - it is with the proles (on tour at a folk club near you!)