The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 6 plus 6 letter word THE COMMON PEOPLE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
H
E
C
O
M
M
O
N
P
E
O
P
L
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "folk in general" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case folk in general = the common people.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.