"Yes England, e.g, is (or was until about 50 years ago) an old old blend of mostly European cultures."...I'm not sure what context I was responding to there

You were responding to your ideas on immigration being questioned with regard to the historical nature of British Culture being made up of countless thousands of years of immigration.

but sensible people would understand that as a statement of fact, IB. It, and the following quote, is NOT criticising people from any particular part of Europe or anyware else. So it's not "If someone says, e.g., I don't mind people coming here from that part of the world, but I hate the ones from there, that IS racism -

Sensible people would rightly infer that the subtext here, just as the subtext of your Catalogues of English Dances & Musical Instruments that opened this thread, is one of racial & cultural exclusion in which you are as good as saying you hate non-white English cultures & question their right to be here.   

but it is NOT my stance" from me that is "bollocks" - it's your attempt at analysis; other attempts see you come up with conclusions like this: "Hurrah for New Labour, bunch of mushy-mouthed motherfuckers the lot of them. Who gives a fuck what they think? It's all just spin & hype anyway."..."the lot of them"?

My expressed opinion on New Labour is exactly that, WAV - an expressed opinion; as such it is personal, and entirely unpublished. Likewise, when you call me an extreme pro-immigrationist you are interpreting an expressed opinion, albeit a lack of one because I have not expressed my views on immigration one way or the other - rather, I have offered you a few salient truths on the situation in response to your published ideas on the subject. There is a subtle but important difference here; you choose to publish your ideas, therefore it is I, your public, who has the right of criticism.

And, on the "Cambridge Folk Festival" BBC "highlights" noted above, there was no clog or Morris dancing, and not one song was sung the unaccompanied, centuries-old, way of our forebears - and sort of thing does make me defensive in the way that RB just noted. And if you believe that to be the case, IB, aren't you also at least a tad disappointed with the BBC?

Like most folkies, I get my unaccompanied folk singing in context, WAV - I go to festivals, singarounds, folk clubs; I plunder the archives for field recordings of source singers, and I study books, manuscripts & collections. I do this because I love it - because I'm a boring old traddy. What happens at The Cambridge Folk Festival is of no concern to me - not my bag I'm afraid, so I don't go, and I don't watch it on TV either; TV isn't for folk music, unless there's something of archive interest on, like the BBC4 programme about Bob Copper I watched a while back, but that's pretty exceptional I'd say. The sort of folk you're on about isn't a spectator sport; it's a doing thang, as much about context as content; and that just doesn't translate to mass media, which is but one of the reasons I love it.

What you really need to do is study this stuff, WAV - if you love it, enjoy it for what it is, and enjoy it whilst you can because it's only there because people are doing it, for the love of it, the passion; as such it's entirely empirical, existing as it does in a state of constant & perilous flux, but that's in the nature of folk. My maternal grandfather was a champion clog dancer in the Durham Tadition; long dead before I was born, but none of his children bothered with it, and I dare say he didn't force them to either. Now there's more people doing it than ever, but that doesn't mean it belongs on fucking television. Shit, man - television is the reason people aren't singing any more - because they're stuck in watching TV when once upon a time they would have been out there doing it! So ditch the TV and get yourself out there, WAV - seek it out, join a morris side, buy some clogs, have some fun why don't you. Your Own Good Culture needs you, WAV - it needs your active input & your active involvement & participation; it needs your passion, and your faith, & your enthusiasm. One thing it does not need, however, is your cranky notions & misguided manifestos - so for God's sake, leave the Walkabouts at home. You want a bonny clog dancer by your side sipping mead whilst watching swans gliding on the willow licked waters of The Ouse Burn? Trust me, self-publishing contentious & entirely subjective polemic ne'er won fair lady.