It did not take the "Roots" video long to reach YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5h4PFBuzvw

Worth a look if you haven't seen it. I like it as a song and as a performance. As a statement about the "state of the England" it however takes rather too much of a "glass half empty" view for me, and I still prefer the poetry of the Don McLean's sing that gets a swipe.

On the question of Estuary English spreading like wildfire through the nation's young, I am happy to report that from observing about 1,000 "young people" (well almost everyone looked younger than me) at the Manchester Opera House on Monday, only Russell Brand, Tevor Lock and I were speaking anything approaching "Estuary". Even Russell was not all the time, as he kept mimicking his audience. Listening to the Folk Awards from the same night, regional accents also appeared to be alive and well, with IIRC only Sir David Attenborough and John Spiers using "BBC English"...