The distinction between folk music and fox-hunting or handguns is that many people in England, I'd say a sizable majority of people, are in favour of clamping down on the latter activities. (And, please, if anyone wants to talk about that, start another thread rather than drifting this one). Blocking efforts to restrict them would definitely cost a lot of votes.

There are very few people who see folk music in that way - puzzled indifference is the general attitude rather than outright hostility. No votes in it - and if there were they'd be in our favour.

Beacause, as shouldn't need to be restated, this isn't particularly about folk music. The same laws that restrict our freedom restricts the freedom of people to play any kind of music - and not just in pubs, but in any place open to the public. (Apart from religious services - and I'm not even sure the exemption there isn't limited to buildings used for religious purposes, so that the Sally Army would be lawbreakers when they hold a street-corner service. Now those would be allies worth having...)