Here's the letter I've just emailed to letters@guardian.co.uk:

What a remarkably easy ride Stuart Jeffries gave Kim Howells in that profile in G2 on Friday.

A passing mention given to the fear that his Licensing Bill will do irreparable damage to music-making in England and Wales, with the implication that this is just a side issue brought up by killjoys who want to stop the pubs staying open later.

You'd never think that up and down the country tens of thousands of people have already signed a petition against the restrictions in the Bill, and are writing angry letters to MPs. Or that, even before the Bill had become an Act many prospective tourists from America and elsewhere who love music have indicated that they don't expect to be coming here too much in future.

Unless the law is amended it will technically be illegal to sing a song or play a tune in any public place unless there is a licence in place which covers this. Not just pubs, any public place. And the record shows that there are councils up and down the country who are happy too interpret the law in an arbitrary and repressive way.

It looks as though there may an amendment to allow some music in churches to escape the restriction may be permitted, in face of vigorous protests by the churches. But that's the limit so far as the government is concerned. It appears that there is no question of Dr Howells seeking to introduce the simple amendments that would remove the dangers inherent in the current drafting of the Bill. All Kim Howells appears to do does is shoot his mouth off at random, sneering at people, such as the Musicians Union, who have drawn attention to the flaws in the drafting of this legislation which promise to make it a nightmare.

He called Rid Liddle "a pillock" I note. If he goes on this way it can't be long before his own name becomes a synonym for pillock. "That man's making a right Howell of himself..."