We thought the "Two in a Bar" rule was dead?

The Premises Licence can now be applied for (as from February 2005) but the current legislation does not die until November 2005.

You may have thought however that in this tranistion period, local authorities would have acted sensibly. But if they had ever acted sensibly - there would have been no need to change the law to try and make them.

In this case - if the music hall carried just on (and applied for entertainment permission with their new Premises Licence) - any prosecution would be very unlikely. And as there is no real safety issue - it is in nobody's interest to prevent this activity.

There may be a few of this regular audience thet may qualify for legal aid. They could make a case for their right of freedom of expression being prevented by the Council - when there were no grounds to do so.....