As
<hushed tones> Martin Carthy </hushed tones>
says

You can do anything to Folk and it will survive, except ignore it.

OK, I would not dare to disagree with the MBE, though I have to add there are a lot of things you can do to Folk and it won't stick in my mind - which is a way of defining "surviving" for one individual (me).

And there are people who will do it to Folk and I can happily ignore them, and their endeavours.

Money is an agenda and too much of it distorts the product. Which is probably why Martin asked for smaller fees than his comtemporaries, and was criticised for it. But then Paul Simon charged too much for his appearances (according to those at the time) and where is he now? In "Folk" or "Entertainment"? And Folk survived.

So is the "Observer" hiding their agenda?