Hello Melissa

Yes I'm sorry this has been such a rough ride, especially for you. But the truth is there is actually very little one can do when someone here lets the emotions flood down to their fingertips. Long experience tells us that a short soft correction or objection is best, responding in kind only makes things worse. The mood is then more likely to improve and with luck fruitful debate is soon resumed. (I did offer you an admittedly rather British nod of support - and in fact did start to type something rather stronger, but you stuck up well for yourself so I moved back to my own agenda).

The reason I - and many other working musicians and various movers and shakers - are taking Parris to task on this is because he's an influential commentator (he writes for the Times and The Spectator and does a lot of broadcasting in the UK), and he made his comments on one of the most listened-to programmes on the UK's 'senior' station.

Apart from the fact that this means they could have been vastly more influential than any comment here, or on any other forum for that matter, the the way that the BBC does business offers us a chance to put our own case for the cultural and artistic merits of traditional music. Those of us who actively work to promote folk music in all its forms simply can't afford to let an opportunity like that go to waste.

Tom