Just to confirm I never mentioned fake Scottish accents and wasn't referring to that. I was simply saying that the songs are generally more accessible than the long poems for most people - even when the poems are performed by people who know them inside out - but it is kind of tiresome in the extreme if someone is stumbling through the poems. Regardless of whether the performer is Scottish or anything else. I don't see any problem with folk having a bit of fun with the material either. A lot of Burns is fun anyway - and some is bawdy in the extreme.

I'd distance myself from the Guest post. I don't see any problem with incomers to Scotland enthusiastically immersing themselves in a bit of local culture. In some ways I wonder why some Scots go along to Burns Suppers. I have one friend who criticised a local DJ because she speaks in her own Border Scots dialect on her TD1 Radio Show. My friend thought it unprofessional. Yet he goes along to celebrate Burns every year when Burns wrote a good portion of his work in Scots.