"...the House do disagree..." - very Mummersett, bain't they?

The thing is, if the Commons sned it back for another go, there's no reason why the vote should go the other way next time. They haven't a dicile built-in majority in the Lords, and no signifcant payroll vote.

If they want this Bill to go through - which they do, because there are a lot of wealthy organisations who want to to have the pubs open longer hours - I thnk the Government is going to give on this. After all the music bit is only a tiny part of it. Cut down that figure of 200 a little bit, maybe stick in some provision limitting the level of noise. And if there's any press rumblings about u-turns and so forth, just brief the media saying that it's all down to Kim Howells for cocking it up, which is true enough.

And then the battle moves to getting those guidelines
written in a way that is permissive towards good music-making.

If the fax-your-MP site doesn't work, because an MP has changed his or her fax number for example, it should be possible to find a working fax number or email via Google, and use a free online fax number to send a fax. I think my unfortunate MP Bill Rammell is probably getting about three copies of my fax via different sources, to follow up all the ones I've sent him previously. And I might go around and stick a copy through his letter box as well.

Well, he is private secretary to culture secretary Tessa Jowell, so he deserves to get nailed on this. He should know better. In fact he does know better, but he's building his career. Still, for all I know, he might be beavering around trying to get them to see sense, and stop picking a needless quarrel with potential friends.