Ruth Archer

don't forget this lot...

The Steadfast Trust

I had considered mentioning this bunch but didn't want to give them any publicity.

I'm sure there have been threads before on the infiltration of the right wing into folk music.

My own experience is of a chap who contacted me expressing an interest in English traditional music. I encouraged him and he eventually started coming along to the club and to sessions singing songs from the repertoire of Walter Pardon, Harry Cox, Henry Burstow and others. He also showed ability as an organiser and made moves to take folk music into local primary schools. We thought he was a valuable find. He had some eccentric ideas about a Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon England and claimed to worship the A-S pantheon but this seemed fairly harmless.

Then he astounded us all by circulating a press release for The Steadfast Trust announcing himself as the regional spokesman. The covering letter contained a load of tosh about the common genetic pool of the English, North-West Germans and Scandinavians and a rant against the dilution of English culture by immigration. I have been doing my best ever since to make sure that everyone that needs to know does know. He has vanished from the clubs and sessions but is showing signs of trying to get into the dance scene.

The Steadfast Trust might suit WAV quite well. He should be encouraged to join; it would make them look even more ridiculous.