The impression I'm getting, reading between the lines and putting out feelers, is that this petition is being organised by somebody with quite a high profile in the current folk world who is probably quite persuasive. No doubt she/he has various high profile friends who'd sign such a petition on trust, and then the ball's rolling. Oh look, so-and-so's signed it - must be true. George Papavgeris admitted above that he's one of those. Am I alone in being slightly nervous that the instigator of the petition, "Folk fan", has not done something this important under their real name? I'd personally want more information.

It may be that the EFDSS have chosen to keep a dignified silence, as has, it seems, Nick Hallam. Or it may be that the EFDSS are currently a headless chicken without their marketing head. The latter doesn't seem to be born out by the continuing flow of upbeat Facebook postings about autumn events in the past few days though. Do they already have somebody else in place?

The important thing to remember is that the EFDSS rennaissance has been going on for some years, not the past 11 months, which is why I think this is all a bit hysterical and am beginning to be concerned that the person behind this petition might have another agenda. I do hope the EFDSS isn't going to be thrust into 1980s style factionalism again, which did none of us any good.