And here's yet another letter I've sent to my MP, Bill Rammell, using FaxYourMP:

Dear Mr Bill Rammell,

Public Entertainment Licences (once again)

I have been learning more about the 'reform' proposals in the pipeline, and in common with quite a lot of people, I am getting alarmed that the effect may be to make the situation a great deal worse so far as informal music making is concerned.

I doubt this is what is intended by MPs, but it would not be the first time that this kind of thing has happened in relation to a policy matter that is seen as peripheral and of minority concern.

The situation at present is far from satisfactory. In my previous letters I have told you how two well established informal music sessions within a few miles of Harlow have had to close within the last year or so because the premises where they took place were not covered by Public Entertainment Licences, and more than two 'performers' were involved on any one occasion.

My assumption, and that of many people, had been that the 'reform' of the PEL system and of the two-in-a-bar rule would mean that this kind of thing would cease to happen, and that the freedom for friends to meet and make music together in public houses or in other premises open to the public would be restored, subject of course to the proviso that no public nuisance or public danger was involved - a proviso which applies to everyone in all circumstances.

However it now appears that the intention is not to do anything to achieve this. The system that restricts such music making generally will be left intact, so that music in coffee bars, bookshops or parks etc will continue to be illegal, except where a licence has been obtained. However the minimal two-in-a-bar exemption will be completely abolished, and at the same time it is stated that the application process for a licence that will cover specified types of musical performances will in some ways be simplified.

The vast majority of public houses do not at present have PELs - including most where music has taken place, under the cover of the two-in-a-bar exemption. It seems highly unlikely that most of these will be covered for the new equivalent licences to include musical performances.

While the two-in-a-bar rule is absurd in itself, it has in practice been informally extended, so that in many places more than two performers have been able to play together without police harassment of the publican, so long as they keep quiet about it. After all, much of the time nobody has been counting, and there has been no occasion for any complaint. However with a firm rule that without a licence covering it, no music which is not purely spontaneous is allowed (thus ruling out any where a musician has brought an instrument from home for the occasion), there will be no room for this kind of leeway.

In the same way there are to the best of my knowledge no exemptions which will make it legal to organise and permit such activities as Carol Singing (leaving aside Church Services etc), Morris Dancing, or to allow music on marches parades or processions, where no specific licence has been obtained. The only exemption which is envisaged, it appears, is one which will allow publicans to install large TV screens so that, for example, sizeable crowds of football supporters can crowd into pubs to watch matches. This apparently is seen as not entailing any public safety or public nuisance comparable to that which would be likely to arise if a few friends with fiddles and guitars were to wish to play and sing in the corner of a room in a pub, or in a coffee bar.

As said above, I am sure this is not what you and other MPs want to happen. But it is what is going to happen unless something is done to take control of this 'reform' in time.

Here's a quote from a monologue Stanley Holloway used to recite that is quite popular in folk settings today - and unnervingly topical:

'And it's on account of this here Magna Carta
Which was signed by the barons of old,
That in England today you can do what you like -
So long as you do what you're told.'

Yours sincerely,