The recent turmoil in government reschuffle has given us an opportunity...the Lords do not like the loss of their speaker, Lord Irvine via the lord Chancellorship and have said they may make life difficult for the government with its legislative programme!

DCMS gave in on another issue today - no youngesters in pubs unaccmpanied, despite being determined to hang on to this until recently.

Now that Howells has gone, the bull headedness may have also gone. If you have a labour MP make contact - by e-mail if possible. I have contacted John Whittingdale, Malcolm Moss (who is on the standing committee) and my local MP but all are tories.

See this from Hobgoblin. Copy it to your MP. On the new tonight was another article about the death of country villages. Don't let them add music to this.

4. Arts Council on Folk Festivals

The Arts Council have funded a project by the Association of Festival
Organisers which looked into the Impact of Folk Festivals on Cultural
Tourism. They have produced a report which shows that the folk festival
industry in Britain is much bigger than anyone thought and has a positive
impact on cultural tourism. Among their most interesting findings were:

76 % of festival goers are repeat attenders, with 44% of those attending
every year.

52% of folk festival attendees are women

6% of festival goers are new each year, and most of these come back for
more, so festival attendance is growing every year.

Overall the report shows that the folk industry is valuable to the
socio-economic and cultural life of our communities, and that it deserves
more positive attention from the government and media than it currently
gets.