I asm most surprised that people who describe themselves as "folkies" should be so adamant in trying to change history, when they should be defending it against the less knowledgeable.
To try and black out, or whitewash, (Two words which are bound to give offence to someone or other!) part of Britain's history is the same as those who state that the Holocaust never happened!

You sit around and sing about a the lives of farmers, fishermen, miners, ag. labs. etc. and yet you know nothing about the ways in which they had to work. Most of you could not even cook yourselves a meal in the way in which your great-grandmother could, let alone show the resourcefulness and the abilities of your recent ancestors!
Be proud of what our ancestors did for us, their traditions and their way of life. There are too many bleeding-heart liberals (with a small "L") armed with a blue pencil to eradicate and censor that of which "they" do not approve.
I would have thought folkies were above that mentality!

When you can convince the rest of the world that you have spent your time campaigning against the lack of education of women in certain faiths, the circumcision of women, so-called "Honour killings" then others might believe that you have a real, rather than a fashionable, interest.

At the same time you would be expected to buy your food locally, from the nearest farmer rather than from the supermarket. Your meat should come from the butcher, not in a supermarket plastic wrapper. Remember that many supermarket animals are the product of deforestation of South American rainforests, to the detriment of the climate affecting each and every one of us!

I hope that you do not wear fashionable clothes, since most of them are made by child labour or by people having to work for pennies per day. Slave labour, in other words!
Do you buy your furniture from some do-it-yourself shed or flat-pack shop? Is their timber Forestry Stewardship Council registered, from sustainable resources? Why not buy it from your local cabinet-maker, as the antique of tomorrow?

Perhaps, when you can honestly answer that you do all of the above, and more, then you can preach to the rest of us as to what we should do and how we should do it.

Until then, please be quiet!

Colyn.