The word is "cognisance".

Please let us not have another "Shambles-bashing" thread.

There are three issues in play.

The first, and I hope we will all give it the greatest weight, although in the grand scheme of the universe it is probably theoretically a matter of the most local and least general importance, is not to interfere with Andy's plans to have Miskin back for next year, and not to joggle his elbow.

In that, if Andy wants any of us to help, I am sure he will ask. Unless and until asked we should therefore not contact the local authority, hold them up to public ridicule, or cause permit or inspire others to do likewise.

The second is that the problem in particular that Andy faced, which might or might not have been why a TEN (Temporary Event Notice) could not have been given to have mandatory effect to permit the festival, could be a pitfall for others, so it would be useful at some stage to know what it was, so that that problem can in the future be avoided. This might be of general importance for all England (and, when Wastmonster extends the Licensing Act to the rest of the UK, the rest of the UK). But note, again, even when the problem is known, unless and until asked we should not contact the local authority, hold them up to public ridicule, or cause permit or inspire others to do likewise, in case we cause revenge attacks by the authority on Miskin and Andy.

The third is a large point in the scheme of one of the bulwarks of the legal order of any liberal democracy, namely the rule of law. The proposition here is that in a liberal democracy, the citizen ought not to be subject to arbitrary discretion by any authority, and the actions of the authority must be as susceptible to the courts as the action of the individual. Trade, for example, would be handicapped if, by imprimatur of Cardiff Council, local weights and measures, or currency, applied in Cardiff that did not apply in the rest of the UK (Bring Back the Groat!). This is a flaw in the scheme of the Licensing Act, and, some think, a flaw in the approach of the Bliar administration, and it is a truly great issue for, classic constitutional writers (Dicey, Montescieu, et al) have said (if I may clump some strands of thought together and use an expression that now is but then was not current) that there is no true liberal democracy. This can be revisited by legal theorists over decades and centuries, and may be part of the epitaph of the Bliar adminstration, but certainly does not require us to put our noses into Cardiff right now, although it might be assisted by knowing, on that timescale, why Cardiff seemingly thinks a TEN cannot be given automatically to permit Miskin under the Licensing Act, when the DTI (who speak, in general, with forked tongue) seem to imply that the giving of a TEN is a cheap administrative act that will automatically permit an event.