A replacement blue clicky which works: mike.harding@bbc.co.uk.

Just sent:-

Dear Mr Harding,

As a regular listener to your programme, and a regular player at amateur folk clubs in my area, please could you ask Dr Howells the following questions when you interview him? Or combine them with any of the many questions you'll doubtless be getting from folk musicians about the Public Entertainment License! :-)

The proposed new licensing system (as explained in a letter to a friend by Ronnie Bridgett, a colleague of yours), of a flat fee for a license to sell alcohol and/or provide various forms of entertainment such as music, seems to make some sense. However, is there any reason why free entertainment, ie. entertainment for which there's no entry fee to the pub/venue, requires licensing at all? If this was made exempt, then amateurs performing on "open-stage nights" would not require any further approval, and nor would other free entertainment such as a string quartet playing in a restaurant for the benefit of diners, or a wide-screen TV set up for sports fans. And please confirm that pubs will be given a chance to change their existing licenses to cover whatever new permissions they need, without incurring an extra cost on top of the licensing fee which they've already paid?

Please can you also confirm that guidelines on the enforcement of the new licensing system will be provided both to council officers and to the general public, so that we all know what to expect? One of the bug-bears of the current system is the overly-harsh enforcement of the rules by council officers which is not consistent with how your Department says the rules should be implemented.

Best regards,

Graham Bartlett (Cambridge).