"We are the Secret People, we have not spoken yet" indeed.

The thing is, the two-in-a-bar exemption has informally been extended in practice - much of the time no one is going to count how many people are playing and so forth. We've lived in it's shelter, silly though it may be. But without it there'll be no need for head counting before we are in danger - and any publican who allows anything at all that isn't covered specifically by a licence is going to be taking a very significant risk.

Sending a messageto your MP via Fax Your MP is the simplest thing to do, only takes a couple of minutes, and it means it lands in their in-tray, much harder for them to ignore than an email.

And here is an email I have just sent to Liberty arising from that last post of mine:

I was looking through the Liberty site to see if I could find anything relating to the matter of restrictions on the right of people to sing or make music. However I could find nothing.

My understanding is that under current law it is an offence to permit anyone to sing, pay music or dance in a place open to the public, unless a Public Entertainment Licence is in existence; the sole exception to this being religious services, and an exemption allowing up to two people to perform in the course of a session in a public house - an exemption which is now likely to be abolished under pending legislation.

I am aware of a number of recent cases where informal music sessions involving people playing traditional music have had to be abandoned because of the existing law, and it appears likely that the proposed "reform" will result in many more such cases, since the two-in-a-bar exemption has often been extended in practice to allow informal sessions of these cases, so long as the law does not intervene.

If Liberty has any light to shed on this situation it would be helpful, and I will pass it on to other people who are lobbying and campaigning in this connection.