The thing about the Mudcat so far as I am concerned is that it is a collection of people drawn together by a love of folk music of one sort or another. That's the "us" and the "we" that defines it, and defines us, I hope.

Of course we disagree about lots of things - both above and below the line. That's the fun of it, you can have an argument with someone here in the knowledge that you've got a lot in common about something that matters to all of us.

I get a bit irritated sometimes about Mudcatters who just seem to be here for the non-music styiff, and don't give any indication of havong any interest in music or song or folklore. But when it comes to disagreeing with people, that's a big part of what other people are for. If we only got along with the people whose political views we share I suspect that most of us wouldn't get along with too many people.

It seems there may be a significant difference here on the two sides of the Atlantic atv present. Over here we generally don't have the real battle-line between adheets or quasi-adhewrents of the main parties (more inside them, actually, most of the time). That's aside from the British Nazi Party on the fringe, which is something else, and serves to unite the rest of us in contempt.

Maybe the problem is that something akin to the extremisam and basic nastiness that characterises the BNP seems to have infiltrated one of your main parties in the States, and this has managed to sour the tone for the arguments.