There are several factors which may be relevant.

Burning a guy I suspect has simply fallen foul of the PC brigade, burning the effigy of a catholic on a bonfire may seem inappropriate to some, however harmless the rest of us may think it.

There has never been the same sense of Englishness as there has Welshness, Irishness or Scotsness (if there is such a word). I come from what was the ancient kingdom of Wessex, there is still a sense in that part of the world of Wessexness as opposed to Englishness (largely because of the influence of Hardy). Many Cornish don't consider themselves English at all. Most Devonians consider their allegiance is to Devon first, England second. This is presumably echoed all over the country.

The Celts have all had to struggle for centuries to keep alive their music, language, culture etc. The Irish in particular had to contend with the occupying English trying to supress their culture. The fight to keep it alive has resulted in a far stronger tradition than the English, who never had an equivalent struggle, became complacent and didn't notice much of what they had slipping away.

Much English music is based in theme and origin around the sea, navy, sailing, fishing, all things nautical. We are less and less an island of sailors, and the musical tradition that goes with it is slipping away. How many shanties so frequently mentioned on this forum were English originally. In the Clancy Brothers reunion concert they pay tribute to the English seafaring songs to which they owed so much in their introduction to "Leaving of Liverpool", one of those songs practically everybody can join in the chorus of.

Many old English traditions are alive and well, but because they exist out of the mainstream you don't hear about them. Someone has already mentioned the barrel burning that is going on this weekend. Visit Padstow on Mayday , or many villages where children still dance round maypoles. Visit the village of Great Wishford in Wiltshire on Oak Apple day, where the villagers are still entitled to gather firewood from the Earl of Pembroke's forest. From the view in front of your TV set English tradition may be dying, stray from the beaten track and you will find much of it alive and well. Of course in some places if you stray too far, and after dark......