I don't think it's necessary to ascribe malevolent motives to the Government over all this, or any particular antagonism towards folk music.

Incompetence and an arrogant reluctance to admit mistakes are an adequate explanation. As with most things.

One of the unintended consequences of all this could be to give folk dance a much more central role in what goes on. I'm sure that the "Morris or similar" but is practice to extend to all types of folk dance, and I can envisage a situation where there are going to be a lot more step dancers around, as a way of giving us a legal fig leaf.

Quirks in the drafting of laws have that kind of effect - the "club members" loophole gave us the folk clubs, the "two in a bar" exemption gave us, for example, "Show of Hands". I anticipate that this is going to give us Social Morris and so forth.