I really am driven to despair at the number of people who now seem to see folk music as entertainment to be consumed, and in respect of which they have consumers' rights.

How nice that there are a few people like Sedayne and the Snail who will champion the right of the ordinary to make music. Most of us are ordinary or worse.

It is delightful that there are dedicated experts who are prepared to be underpaid because the muse moves them. No-one would begrudge them a better living.

But the most important thing is the passion, not the need for remuneration.

It seems very sad that some who know much are so set on excluding the mass of us who are not up to their standards. The real heroes of folk music (I think especially of Martin Carthy) as far as I know always encourage, and never dismiss.