Thank you Steve. Any chance of you bringing our 'absurdities' to the attention of your (music) media?

The following quote from our Civil Servants does seem to highlight the absurdity of the position and contradiction, on which their proposed legislation is based

Accordingly, whenever a group of people in a bar break into spontaneous song, the licensee would have to
decide the point (noise level) at which he is at risk of being closed by the police because of "excessive noise" which might be disturbing the public. This is an important point for context and explains why it would not be necessary to bring spontaneous singing (music making) within the licensing regime as adequate public protection would already exist.

Why does this "adequate public protection" (for noise concerns) only exist for this mysterious and totally 'spontaneous' music making? It is the same noise concern paid, spontaneous or not (in the case of non amplified folk music - none).

Under the propsals, if the folk decided to break into this every week, it would not then be 'spontaneous' and so even unpaid, would then be considered a public entertainment and a criminal offence without advanced official permission.