Yes , I agree Steve, there have been a lot of reasoned, well-argued and interesting comments from both "camps". However, there have been an awful lot of uncalled-for insults, invective and unwarranted aspersions, and I think if people had read Trish's thesis, in which she discusses most of the extreme points made, there would bace been no need for the unproductive name-calling and attempts to associate the Border teams with reactionary movements: e.g.

"Probably the only [reason] - for 'Blackface' is music Hall where white people mocked black people by blacking up".

"The very act of deliberately blacking up is racist. Anything else is just an excuse"

'At election time, the young skinheads in the hostel flats on our street
prominently displayed B*P posters in their windows,
in direct view of the young black family opposite... i daresay these young skins would be amongst the first to volunteer to march in protest and support "for the traditional rights of morris teams to wear black faces".

"I give up. Business as usual. Keep on "niggering", lads. When you've finished, you can get a few beers from the "paki shop" and go for a "chinkie"

"The Jeremy Clarksons of the UK folk scene will still continue to stir up discontent just because they can".

I'm not a fan of Border morris, so I'm not really trying to defend all their practices. However, some of the attempted identification of tatter jackets with Jim Crow uniforms etc. just reduces the argument to a nonsensical level, and contributes "more heat than light" to the discussion!