(Actually Bobby's Girl's husband)

The law is evolving and in the modern world several traditional activities do not neatly fall into place with it and the law has not granted an exemption to participants in these traditional activities.

Singing in pubs is one as we have already seen and Morris dancing in the street is another. When younger I regularly danced long-sword with Ebor Morris and we used to go to Millington in East Yorkshire two or three times a year and dance in the narrow village street, blocking it. Traffic stopped, the dance finished and on went the cars. No high-viz vests in sight, or street closures, or traffic control. All of these would now be required of persons working in the highway, and of course rightly so under Health and Safety law intended to protect workers.

However this safe situation does not always apply and I also recall an incident a few years ago on a Glory of the West/ Great Western tour in Devon when dancing was taking place outside a pub and a car drove up at high speed, didn't stop and the dancers had to jump for it - luckily no one was hurt but it was close.

My wife still dances and this season (on one of the evenings I went out to watch) the dancing was in the street on a country lane and then on the narrow forecourt of a pub on a very busy main A road; still no high viz jackets, protective barriers or advance warning signs etc. At least one of the dancers there would if working that close to the highway in his paid employment have instinctively got out his hi-viz jacket - but this is dancing so we don't.

There are issues here including dancers being hit, cars swerving/crashing, children watching running into the road etc and the questions to be asked in court or by your public liability insurers after such an incident would be "Where was your risk assessment?", "Were you keeping a lookout?", "Where there warning signs", etc etc. To just say "We have danced here every New Years Day for fifty years so it must be OK" would not be a suitable answer. Also dancers pay subs to a side so does Health and Safety Law apply with all the inbuilt penalties that could bring to a Squire or Bag as the official person in charge if a side were deemed to be negligent if a dancer were to be injured by a passing car?

Our hobby activities, whatever they are, increasingly fall within the bounds of modern legislation and also the changing world impacts upon them in a way that may mean they have to adapt and perhaps dancing in the road is one of those cases. This is not a don't do it statement but is certainly a think it through before you do it statement and make sure you are legal / not at risk rather than just doing the activity where we are because we always have done.

Laws do apply to traditional activities and we must bear this in mind or face the legal consequences.