it's precisely this kind of spineless political shuffling around anything 'English' that plays right into the hands of hard right-wing nationalists..

Englishness will always be the reserve of Hard Right-Wing Nationalists, which is why the majority of English people (whatever their cultural or ethnic background) don't even give the matter a second thought. They're too busy getting on with it to be bothered about the defining of it, much less the funding of it, or even an All-Party Folk Committee who seek to put folk traditions more at the heart of England's cultural life and identity.