'Occupy English Folk Music!'
A provocative title, encouraging an entirely spurious debate. There has never been a time,   when music in all its forms has been as accessible in a wide variety of formats as it is at the present.
I regularly attend folk clubs and often sing classics by Edith Piaf, great new songs by the likes of Steve Earl, The Decemberists, Tom Waites. They seem to go down as well as the traditional ballads which I greatly enjoy singing.
If I felt the clubs I attend frowned upon this sort of material I would go elsewhere; there are plenty of other venues for live music.
Where, how, and what people play develops organically and this is as it should be.
john