Ruth at work "Really? And are you proud of the place they occupy in contemporary British society right now? Proud of their status, the general level of public engagement with the national heritage in the form of traditional arts? I'm not. When people hold up Scottish and Irish tradition as a shining beacon and ask what they've got that the English tradition has, I've got one answer: money. Status comes from being acknowledged and supported at national government level, both in policy and financially. That ain't gonna happen if you keep your head in the sand and run away from government "handouts"."

Do you really think that the relative strength of the Scottish and Irish folk scene is down to public funding and Arts Management gurus? Admittedly, they've latterly become a feature but it's a pretty Johnny-come-lately thing.

The strength of those traditions is probably more to do with national pride and a distinct identity rather than a hand-out and a cynical consultant-led arts scene. We've seen for over twenty years that the Arts Council (in its various guises in England) has been more concerned with government targets for "inclusion", ticking charts on clipboards and the religion of homogeneity/multi-culti rather than anything recognisable as an English tradition. In its search for the New it actively funds activities which water-down Englishness and tradition.

For Grand Opera and other large-scale, technically complex, forms to survive, patronage is needed (though not necessarily from government). Folk traditions do not; they can be self reliant and deliciously at variance with the "Approved Art" sector. They come from the people, for the people. Professionalised Arts Management MBAs (who rarely commit to more than two years in any job) are as likely to be the enemy of authentic traditions as their saviour, regardless of what their own hype says to the interview panel.