'Al - the idea that BBC producers choose people of lesser talent deliberately, and get away with it because it's public funds is beneath you'

Er no! Its what i believe.

We live in an island with people who are musically sensitive and speak a very expressive language, which contains all sorts of variations and rhythms.

If they played the work of people who expressed themselves naturally then the game would be up. Lots of people would do it write and sing songs, quite unaffectedly. that's why Ewan was so down on Donovan - he thought every Tom, Dick and Harry would be horning in on his game.

A corollary of this is that people would realise that the word traditional come from the Latin - traditio - I hand over. Most traditional English music from Cecil Sharp's time to the present day has just been handed over from one gang of middle class twonks to another.

So what do they do.. they say we sing with a mid Atlantic accent. ignoring the fact that England isn't really very far into the North Atlantic. Its certainly not South - its somewhere round the middle.

If England were situated in the middle of the 19th century martin carthy would have the right accent. sadly not the case.

Anyway, I heard you sing at lambley - you don't sing in a weird voice - why are YOU sticking up for them?