unlikely in a multicultural society.

If that's the case then it can't die quick enough as far as I'm concerned, nor yet those who choose to cling to such fallacious racist nonsense.

Happily, however, it's not the case at all. Indeed, it has been suggested that the 2nd wave of the UK Folk Revival was moved by radical Baby Boomers encouraged to look at their own culture in the light of emerging multiculturalism - not as some reaction to cultural diversity, but so as to make a more positive contribution to it.

Sadly, it's not just the BNP who have hitched their rancid cause to the name of Folk over the years, and many otherwise sensible folkies I meet feel that they are making a stand for 'our own good culture' (or somesuch claptrap) in the face of 'threats' from immigrant communities who, naturally, aren't too impressed at the English scheme overall. God knows they are not alone in that! Thus does Folk take its place as part of the ongoing movement of alternative & radical action which embraces all music dedicated to human interest. We have a long & proud tradition of that in the West - and an awareness of World Music is its natural & glorious outcome.

But still I meet the odd grizzled old folky muttering in their pewter tankard that FRoots has somehow betrayed the cause. Thankfully, such people are few & far between; getting fewer and further by the day.

To call Folk 'Our Own Good Culture' is, frankly, bullshit. Folk is a modern fabrication of a tiny minority which, at its post creative and positive seeks to takes its place in a culturally diverse world. As Hamish Henderson said : before we can ever be national, we must first be international. In a multicultural society such as our own that internationalism is part of our cosmopolitan national consciousness. Folk evolved to be a part of that: it exists because of multiculturalism, not to spite it. In short, without Multiculturalism there would be no Folk.