Scrump, have you ever tried getting a noisy music or dance pub quietened down? Sooner or later the fact that it's you complaining gets out and then you start getting threats from every local yobbo. Been there, done that. The noise regulation does not work on the ground. Also, noise regulation is necessarily retrospective. Try getting a noise abatement officer out at 8 or 9 pm if you are not already on the special alert list. Can't be done. There's no-one answering the phone. The noise of electric music and dance needs pre-emptive control.

Roger, for the above reason, some music and dance does need burdensome regulation. So some music and dance should get it. The words of the petition necessarily mean that no music and dance should suffer burdensome regulation. That is why it is not right, it is why I told Hamish I could not support it, it is why I haven't signed it and it is why I won't sign it.

If one just says "Oh, it'll be all right, we know what we mean" then one is bad as the pillocks who drafted the Act.