Well actually Jim I think that's a brilliant idea - a national folk archive in England - (perhaps ones in Wales and Scotland as well). It deserves a thread of its own.

It could be a bit like the Royal Shakespeare Company is. A subsidised home of national traditional folksong, in the same way that the RSC is the home of classical theatre. Folkstars and promising newcomers working side by side - all working for Equity minimum. I don't think it would support a two and half thousand seater, plus a six hundred seater, plus a London theatre like Shakespeare does - but why not; something could be done?

Thanks to it - you don't get the RSC saying that everyone else is not real theatre.