a very good post from Ann Lister.
it is important that we do not allow english folk music to be hijacked by the BNP.
In my opinion the answer is for folk club organisers to carry on with exactly the booking policies,that they feel is right for their club.
some folk clubs promote English traditional music,some folkclubs promote contemporary songwriters ,some clubs promote both,some clubs promote blues.,long may that continue.
English,Scottish , Welsh, Irish folk music needs to be promoted.,as does other national folk music.
if a promoter wishes to run a club that is exclusively folk or roots music from another country,that is good.
or if he /she wishes to start integrating folk music from other areas in to the musical programme,that is his/her choice.,the organiser is taking a gamble,and might be well advised to introduce,these changes gradually,or to seek the opinions of club regulars first,alternatively there might be a lot of new faces,who wish to hear a more international flavour of music.
If he/ she does not want to do this it does not make the organiser a racist.,any more than would be the case,if it was an Indian person running an exclusively Indian folk music club in England ,India or anywhere else.
But The reason for running a Folk/Roots club,should be,because the organiser enjoys the music and wishes to promote it.
imo ,it seems incorrect for organisers to suddenly change their booking policies because of a fear that English folk music is being hijacked by the BNP,or because they think it might be a useful way of countering the BNP.
the best way[imo] to counter the BNP is to defeat their arguments intellectually ,MBS GEORGE has not yet replied to the many posts,which might suggest that she knows that her points of view would be made to look exactly what they are,intellectually bankrupt.