WLD, I don't know where that bag of chips came from on your shoulder, but you really need to get a grip.

I'll say this for the millionth time, and slowly, so that maybe when I'm finished ytou'll actually understand where i'm coming from:

"The tradition", for want of a better phrase, is a body of work that has been handed down orally for generations. It is the spring from which much conntemporary folk music has emerged.

I have NO PROBLEM with accessible folk music, no matter how you wish to define "folk music": singer-songwriter, nu-folk, twisted folk, whatever. Go for your life.

I think that the tradition is a part of folk music. I think it deserves to be protected, to have libraries dedicated to it, to have funding thrown at it, because it is the heritage of every one in this country and they deserve the opportunity to find out about it. If they decide it's not for them, fine. But they can't make that decision - the tradition cannot become more accessible - if people are not given MORE ACCESS to it.

I'm all for young musicians coming along and interpreting the traditional canon in new and exzciting ways. It keeps the music alive and relevant, and may provide access points to new audiences.

But I believe in the preservation of that fundamental body of work that we call the tradition, in the same way that I think important buildings and works of art deserve to be conserved, celebrated and above all USED - by everyone. Once heritage is gone, it's gone.

"I would like to hear a folk music of my country that the people would respond to immediately - as they do in other countries with their folk music."

Why do you think that doesn't happen here? Because our traditional music isn't as good as that in other countries? Because it is less accessible? No - it's because the traditional music in this country is fundamentally undervalued. The reason people in some other countries "respond immediately" to their traditional music and culture is because they've been exposed to it from the cradle, so its peculiarities and singular features do not seem odd and foreign when they come to experience them.

Look at morris dancing: most people never experience it until they are grown up, so of course it looks odd and foreign, and because it is undervalued by our culture, it's something to sneer at for most people. But look at Breton or Basque dancing in contrast - no weirder than morris, but people grow up with a respect and an understanding of that tradition, so it doesn't feel strange or foreign - they accept it as part of their heritage.