Hi folks,

In response to the suggestions posted above, I've just emailed the following to Mrs Harding's Kid.

>>Dear Mike,

I've been a regular listener to your show since you took over Jim Lloyd's chair, and always find it entertaining and stimulating. Sometimes I disagree with the balance you strike between different kinds of music and song. But then, you have masses of material to choose from, and a very diverse audience to please, so that's hardly surprising. Anyhow, there's plenty of stuff I do like - and often, stuff I didn't expect to like turns out to be enjoyable after all. So good for you Mike, keep it up!

My only real gripe - and it's probably down to the management, rather than to you personally - is this. You do play rather a lot of Celtic music. It's good stuff, and I enjoy it … but … Scotland and Ireland already have their own radio networks, where people like Archie Fisher do an excellent job in showcasing their own traditions. It would be nice if we had a radio programme that made as much effort to promote English traditional music. Until one comes along, I think you might consider giving just a little more time to English music, alongside all the excellent material you play from Scotland, Ireland, the USA, and other far-flung places. Especially now that English folk music is in danger of being legislated out of existence.

This is a desperately important matter, which I'd like you to discuss with Dr Kim Howells when you interview him next month. Like thousands of other singers, players and dancers, I've been enjoying informal music-making in (and outside) pubs for donkey's years. According to the letter of the law, most of these sessions have always been illegal. However, officials who once turned a blind eye are now coming down heavily on easy-going publicans. New legislation currently being drafted will make the situation worse. If it goes through, organised folk clubs, informal singarounds and music sessions, and even Morris dancing outside pubs, will be outlawed - unless landlords are willing to pay huge fees for the kind of entertainments license currently required for a large disco with a powerful sound system playing to thousands of people.

This is unjust, and unnecessary. Informal, unamplified music and song should not be subject to the same restrictions as heavily amplified commercial entertainment. A clamp-down like this would do serious damage to England's cultural life, as well as hitting its tourist industry. And yes, I do mean England! Because in canny Scotland, and in carefree Ireland, the law does not inhibit informal music making in and around pubs. Far from trying to suppress it, local authorities there give active encouragement to what they see as a valuable visitor attraction.

English traditional culture is already under-appreciated, and under-promoted. This new legislation will handicap it even further. The new law could be used to ban traditional institutions like the Padstow 'obby 'oss, the Saddleworth Rushcart, the Goathland Plough-Stotts, or the Headington Quarry Mummers - which any sane government would treasure as important national assets. Please, Mike, try to make Dr Howells see the point. And if he does, persuade him to do something sensible about it. You have a golden opportunity here. For all our sakes, make the most of it.

Yours, with all good wishes <<

Hope this does the trick.

Wassail!