John, the reason for FAF (if you read what's on the Facebook site, or one of the leaflets) is to raise awareness of a couple of things that many people did not realise was going on. Firstly, that the BNP are trying to insinuate themselves into traditional events and encouraging members to revive old folk customs and create their own St George's Day and May Day events. What's more, folk musicians and dancers at all levels might be asked to take part in these events, and unwittingly becime part of the BNP's propaganda. This is far less likely to happen if lots of people know what's going on, and feel empowered to question who is backing/funding any events they are asked to participate in.

Now, if you feel that the best strategy for dealing with this is simply to "live with it, ignore it and move on", I guess that's your prerogative. But personally, I would want to know if I was being used/manipulated in the interests of far-right propaganda and/or fundraising. What's more, it's quite possible that, without an awareness of these strategies, some of our most beloved traditional events (which are often organised by a small handful of local people) could fall under the influence of far-right participants, who have no real interest in the tradition beyond trying to hijack it as part of a BNP propaganda campaign.

Thirdly, there are musicians who already find that their music is being used as propaganda by the BNP and other far-right groups, and to raise money for their coffers. They have tried to get the BNP to stop selling their music; the BNP has said that the more they object, the more they will do it. FAF has, once again, been created to raise awareness of what is happening, and to give the artists in question the opportunity to publicly distance themselves from the way in which their music is being subverted.

So there we go: very specific responses to a very specific set of circumstances which have emerged. I would agree that, if this movement were simply about sticking two fingers up at the BNP, it would be pretty pointless and serve only really to stroke the egos of the people involved. But in terms of what the group is for, I think it has already gone some way to achieving its aims.

The next thing is the week of events next year, in which we hope that lots and lots of people will participate - because the only way to get this message out beyond our relatively tiny world is for members to take it into their own communities, and raise the awareness beyond the folk world of this threat to traditional culture and music - because this heritage belongs to everyone, not just folkies. God knows it's hard enough to get the rest of the world to engage with their own folk heritage in any meaningful way - imagine how much harder that would be if it becomes tainted by association with the BNP because we all decided it was much easier to "live with it, ignore it, move on"...