Jim,
There are many many volunteers, semi-pros and pros of all ages working hard in the UK on passing on all of the folk music to another generation. This includes a wide umbrella of folk music. If we stood there insisting on the 54 definition it would be dead and buried in a couple of decades.

I'm in the middle of a local maritime folk festival which has so far been wonderful. I've just come from performing at a concert that had a whole load of singers of all ages ranging from the wonderful Jim Radford who writes songs about his own wartime experiences in the MN (He must be at least 86) to a young 20 year old singing local trad material accompanying himself very expertly on the anglo. In another part of town theree's a marquee with folk rock bands and yesterday as I waited for some of our historic ships to come into harbour I listened to their sounds floating across the harbour, a bit like Oyster Band material, and I was entranced. What you say about the UK folk scene is simply not true!!!!