r Borinson and the 21st Century

The Future of Folk is a strange and mysterious thing to contemplate but that won't stop Dr Borinson making his predictions:

2005 Folk music is banned worldwide by the United Nations Of America (sorry, slip of the fingers there) on the grounds it is politically incorrect.

2007 Martin Carthy is canonised and joins Ry Cooder, Loudon Wainwright III and Bill Hicks as the first 21st century saints.

2010 Madonna releases her new album which includes versions of "How Can A Poor Girl Stand Such Times And Live" and "When This Old Tiara was New".

2011 Genetic engineers create a human being from sperm garnered from Tony Blair, Oswald Mosley and Margaret Thatcher. The child produced is named William Hague. No reason is given, but no one seems to think it odd. Genes from Bill Clinton were not employed because there weren't any left over to use after he'd finished, and Ronald Reagan's were found to be incompatible with human life as we know it, Jim.

2014 Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson are ordered to pay back 13 billion dollars in royalties on traditional music that has been paid to them over the past 15 years when someone finally realises what's been going on.

2035 The ban on folk music is lifted after a lobby of musicians argue that it's the only way anyone is going to find out how to play any of the musical instruments stored in the world's museums, since all music has been electronically generated for the past twenty tears.