Ruth Archer: a couple of points. firstly, I dont think that the traditional bits of the awards should be confined to "traditional" singers: who is going to define that? We all know what controversy that sort of thing arouses. No, I think people should vote for whoever they like, the mass vote can define the definitions. I was just disappointed we have the kind of panel that doesn't really vote for anything trad sounding.
    Secondly, you suggest the tradition is dead(with Fred Jordan). Well, even accepting what you say, the panel is perfectly capabale of voting a non-Brit qinner(Chris Thilefor example). There are plenty of traditional singers left in the world(including any amount of non-indigenous culture singers here in Englan, as I work recording them, so I know).
    And anyway, as others have pointed out, the indigenous traditions are by no means dead. I shall probably go to a Shepherds Meet/hunting song competition do in the lakes quite soon. These events chugged along happily before the Great Folk revival, and are still chugging along totally separate from it. Just because you don't see the performers at Cambridge and Celtic Connections, it doesn't mean they don't exist.
I play in a barndance band, as I have since I was a youth. I played with, and learnt from, the old guys, and now I pass it on. I play weddings, birthdays, christenings, funerals, just the same as those before me. Playing the same tunes. No the tradition is not dead. It may look so from Radio 2 perspective, but get out in the north, or the west(of England, that is) and you will find reports of the death of the tradition are greatly exaggerated. Granted, it interacts little with the folk scene(club or festival): but that is the collective choice of the folk scene. With which, obviously, I seriously disagree.