Ron, perhaps I'm naive in thinking that there are two ways for folk music to evolve and expand: organically, in the Balkan/Home Counties analogy, but also as a very cynical and premeditated marketing tool. One I'm quite happy to accept, but the other is what makes me want to abandon the F word altogether.

Have a look at the link I provided up the page. Have you heard bands like Bat for Lashes? The Meeedja is telling us that we should now consider them folk music. Have a listen on Youtube. Tell me what you think. If that represents a "new meaning and an unexpected lease of life" for folk, how does the word have any meaning left at all? I'm not saying it isn't good music, but it's pop music. Why on earth cite it as the saviour of folk? Is folk really so desperate that it needs a salvation that has nothing at all to do with folk music?

By the way, the pejorative sense that you attributed to the word "folk" is more of an American phenomenon, I think. Every few months in the UK we seem to have some sort of new, trendy folk phenomenon.