I apologise for having listed my comments on last night's broadcast in the other thread.... However, there was one question raised my good wife last night, which I find echoes here today:

If there is no Folk Police/Establishment, why is it a bad thing just to sing a song, without having paid some kind of apprenticeship?

I see above complaints about having to listen to some original before singing a song, about instant gratification culture, about heaven help students should they meet a real folk singer.....

As for the last point - come on! Sandra Kerr, Alistair Anderson and Karen Tweed teach these students. Not real folk singers/musicians? Must be a funny definition of "real".