Brian: Looks to me as though some of their members have already taken on board some of the face-blacking questions addressed above.

Yup. And we still got the "oo-er, is this a bit racist?" brouhaha. Because it's a tradition, innit, and you know what they say about people who are into traditions...

As I said upthread, to me it all comes down to whether we accept that being a traddie is enough to call your good intentions into question, or challenge that assumption. When we look at folkies do we think "ooh, ye olde England - I bet they're 'kippers"? And, if other people looking at folkies do think that, how do we react?