I used the term 'informal 'cartel',' not 'conspiracy.' This is as much about the way all businesses operate in all fields; using market research to establish a realistic level of investment etc.

I'm not making any allegation of wrongdoing. I'm trying to explain how I've been told it works, and stimulate a proper discussion on the Folk Awards, which do suffer from a damaging lack of transparency, leaving them open to charges of wrongdoing which they may well not deserve.

I hope you can all see the difference.

The trouble is we don't really know how it all operates, and how or even if it's policed.

Meanwhile, as greg points out, we keep getting these strange anomalies - which are not easy to explain using the little information we are given:

For example:

The White Hare is somehow mis-attributed by a large number of informed folk broadcasters, jounalists, agents and promoters as trad - when anyone listening to it can tell at once it's a (good) folky pop song. The panel chose it, remember, not Smooth Operations - so a lot of people must have made this mistake, all together. Strange.

Acts who've only done a handful of gigs (and therefore whom only a handful of the panel can have actually seen perform - assuming we have a good geographic spread) are occasionally nominated for best live act, or best duo, or other awards. So do we have a good geographic spread across the UK? We don't know, and they don't say.

The same names keep copping up time and time again, when we all know there are lots of other good hard-working and very popular contenders who never get a look-in year after year. Why is that then?

Only tracks that have been played on the Mike Harding show (and not CD sent to the office) are included in the suggestions list - but this fact is not made public. If anything it seems to be kept secret and even denied. Why's that, and why can't the suggestions list be made public?

There is no attempt to find out, and include in the suggestions list, the most popular tracks played on the many local BBC folk shows (or the most prolific club or festival performers, for that matter). Local BBC shows account for far more air time than the MH show, and perhaps have more listeners in all (though we don't know). Why are these not taken into account in what is after all the BBC folk awards?

The full list of nominations is not published - denying the near-misses valuable publicity, and preventing anyone from seeing that these are indeed (as I'm sure that are) majority suggestions made by the panel. Why is the nominations list kept secret?

Agents are allowed to sit on the panel - when obviously they have a vested interest in promoting their own acts. We don't know if any record companies are permitted, but if so a similar conflict of interest would apply. Normally the BBC would object to this - but they seem not to. Why is that?

Even though, as a BBC contractor, Smooth Operations are subject to the same regulations as the BBC, we get no answers to letters written to the office, or questions posted here or on the BBC Folk and Acoustic board (which is run by Smooth Operations) about the all of above.

I'm sure there are good innocent answers to them all. It would be in Smooth Operations interests to supply them.