Richard Bridge

I told him that the general reaction to an Engishman saying such a thing was to label him a racist or BNP member and he seemed not fully in agreement.

Eh? Where are you getting this from? You introduced the racist/BNP link and the chap didn't agree. I have been involved in Morris and traditional English music for an awfully longtime and nobody has ever called me a racist.

It is true that the far right keep trying to get their filthy hands on it. We had a chap nosing in around here a couple of years ago. He was told (by me) that his views would not be welcome in the folk scene and, despite his apparently genuine enthusiasm for traditional song, he has hardly been seen since.

The only way to keep them out is to claim it for yourself for its intrinsic worth as art and culture rather than as a symbol of English nationalism and to stop telling anyone who shows an interest that it carries a racist tag.