The problem is that WAV has a very clear idea what he wants us to do, but is inconsistent in his own approach:

1) WAV wants all us English musicians to play and sing only "English" songs and tunes, and has a very narrow view of what is "English". Unfortunately, his research into the songs he performs himself is not sufficiently rigourous, and we have pointed out a number of examples in his repertoire which may be of non-English origin.

For example, it seems possible that "Barbara Allen" may be Scottish. If this is the case, it is fortunate that earlier generations of singers did not share WAV's approach, since we would not now have English versions of this, including the one that WAV sings

2) He is critical of a Newcastle degree student performing his own compositions, but is happy to perform composed songs from earlier times himself

3) He is critical of those who chose to play guitar rather than an "authentic" English instrument such as cittern, but he himself plays recorder. The recorder was once popular in England, although probably for playing composed art music, but it fell out of fashion by the 18th century. So far as I am aware, it does not feature to any great extent in the English folk tradition, particularly in more recent times; however, as a recorder player myself, I would be interested to be proved wrong, if anyone can give examples of traditional recorder players.

4) He is critical of English performers who do non-English material as it is a wasted opportunity to perform "good English traditional folk songs". However a substantial portion of his repertoire is hymns from "Hymns Ancient and Modern" most of which are relatively recent compositions - surely this is a wasted opportunity to perform good English traditional folk hymns?

Of course, I disagree with his basic premise, on which all this is founded, that "Folk music IS meant to be local/regional/national" Here he is guilty of imposing his own preconceptions and prejudices. Folk music isn't "meant" to be anything - it exists, it still survives, and it is up to us to do what we can with it. For WAV, that means pursuing his own narrow, and in my opinion ultimately sterile path, which would be fine if he wasn't so convinced that the rest of us should do the same. Most of us approach it with more open minds and take it at its face value.

Many folk songs and tunes transcend national boundaries and are found throughout Britain, and beyond. They are adapted and made local, but in many cases you cannot say that this is English or Irish or Scottish.

A good song or tune is a good song or tune. If it means something to you, then perform it. If it's English, fine, if not it doesn't diminish your Englishness and nor does it damage English culture. There is plenty of English music being played.