My hopes were well placed, this time?

From The Guardian Saturday July 28th

Maev Kennedy Arts and Heritage Correspondent.

On a glorious summer's evening the law of the land was flagrantly being broken at Cove House Inn, on the edge of Chesil beach in Dorset.
The Royal Manor morris dancers had turned up, with several musicians, and were entertaining or tormenting the crowd of outdoor drinkers as they have for 20 years.
At this point landlord Brian Flynn should have ordered everyone inside his tiny bar, which can hold, provided everyone keeps their elbows by their sides, 95 people.
Instead he and his staff continued to ferry drinks outside, and break the law. "What am I to do? Everyone is having a lovely time--am I to break up the session, force them inside, and really risk a public order problem? Who are we disturbing? In front of us there's nobody except fishes. I won't do it, and I've told the council I won't," Mr Flynn said.

The cove is enmeshed in the anomalies of the public entertainment licence, loosely known as the "two in a bar rule", a law dating back to 1964 which says that the landlord must obtain a licence if more than two people perform on his premises. There are reports from all over the country of increasingly rigid enforcement by local authorities. The definition has been stretched to include members of the audience joining in the chorus of songs, or even clapping in time, or two performers with a taped backing track.

Licenses can cost up to £4,000, a severe overhead for small pubs particularly if the licensing authority insists on expensive building alterations as a condition. Potential penalties are loss of licence, up to six months prison, or fines up to £20,000.

The government has promised reform as part of a bill which would also have liberalised pub hours, but which fell with the last parliament and was not included in the Queen's speech for the current session. The system is being fought by a coalition including the Folk Society, the Musicians union, saxophone playing Tory Lord Colwyn, head of the parliamentary jazz committee, Liberal Democrat Lord Redesdale, and the Bishop of Oxford.

We are not the villains of the piece, we are just trying to enforce the law as it stands", Mike Brock, a licensing officer at Weymouth and Portland council, said. "Reform would certainly make our lives easier".

Back at the Cove there is another peculiarity of the law which would keep the Royal Manor morris perfectly legal: if they moved a few feet further away from the pub, they would then risk an eight foot drop over the sea wall onto the concrete and shingle below.